Talk:List of Australian AM radio stations

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Wavelength vs Frequency

The Washington Conference 1927 adopted the use of frequency rather than wavelength to designate radio emissions. But Australia was a little slow to implement. Only for the first full list of broadcast stations included in the PMGD Annual report for 1930 were stations identified in terms of wavelength. Subsequent annual reports all used frequency. It seems confusing to me to refer to wavelengths after 1930, when the licences were all stated in frequency and the wavelength would be at best an approximation.--Samuel.dellit (talk) 09:45, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I understand that before the advent of frequency counters, wavelength (which can be measured directly) was considered the fundamental property of a radio wave, and frequency inferred if the need arose (much as the similar property of light continues to be specified in nanometres). The need for precision arose with higher power transmitters and the cluttered broadcast band, and was supplied by crystal-controlled oscillators, rather than nicely calibrated VFOs. But public acceptance of the new-fangled "kilocycles per second" from the comfortable "metres" would have been even slower than its renaming to "kilohertz" which happened in our lifetimes and even that was met with a great deal of resistance, not to say hostility. And I believe amateur radio enthusiasts and radar technicians still talk in terms of wavelength on occasion, for good reason. But I digress. 1935, as the time of the great reallocation of frequencies, is a good time for first and last mention of the wretched wavelength and having those numbers pinked out should avoid confusion but serve as a reminder that such was once the norm. Doug butler (talk) 04:14, 22 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Abbreviations for Type

This list presently uses the following abbreviations for "Type":

A = Government funded (including SBS radio).
B = self funded (now called "commercial" but historic term retained here)

I suggest that a more comprehensive set of abbreviations be utilised and that "Type" be renamed "Category" in line with current practice:

S = Sealed Set
A = A Class
B = B Class
C = Commercial
NA = National (ABC)
NS = National (SBS)
NP = National (Parliamentary)
PC = Public / Community
T = TCBL
R = Retransmission
NC = Narrowcast
NB = Narrowband

All thoughts welcome.--Samuel.dellit (talk) 06:38, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

References for station frequencies

It's probably useful to list principal sources for data on AM radio frequency allocations, in case any further Wikipedians get involved in this project:

Trove digitised newspapers (vast number of articles already tagged and text corrected, just search on "PublicTag:{Callsign}"
Annual reports of PMGD, ABCB, P&TD, DoC1, DoTaC, ABT, ABA, ACMA (available most larger libraries, many online at Australian Policy Online)
National Archives of Australia
Wireless Weekly (Aus), all issues digitised by Mitchell library and placed online in Trove
Various wireless/radio magazines of the period, many of which are digitised and published online at AmericanRadioHistory.com

Enjoy.--Samuel.dellit (talk) 23:12, 22 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikibooks

G'day Guys

From feedback that I see here and privately, the substantial changes that I am proposing would not be well received. Accordingly, I have arranged to import this page into my Wikibook:

History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia

The imported list has been properly imported thanks to @Leaderboard and reflects all contributions up to the date of import. The imported list is here:

AM Radio Frequencies

In support of future work which will strip all references to wavelengths, I am now well advanced on a table of the various frequency rasters which have been used in Australia:

The "1m" one metre raster used from the start of broadcasting in Australia in November 1923 until about the end of 1930.
The "5kHz" five kilohertz raster which was utilised from about the start of 1931 until 31 August 1935.
The "10kHz" ten kilohertz raster which was utilised from 1 September 1935 until 22 November 1978.
The "9kHz" nine kilohertz raster which has been utilised from 23 November 1978 to the present.

The table can be found here:

AM Radio Rasters

As usual, all comments welcome. --Samuel.dellit (talk) 00:02, 7 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]