North Queensland stations Hot FM and 4RFM both had their transmitters stolen last weekend.
Southern Cross Austereo had its 91.3 HOTFM transmitter stolen from Carborough Range. It is a repeater (pictured) of the network’s Emerald HOTFM service that covers the Moranbah township and nearby mines.
The local community station 4RFM also had its transmitter stolen at the same time from a nearby site.
The SCA transmitter taken consisted of a Crown Broadcast FM30 Exciter, PA1000 Power Amplifier, and PS1000 Power Supply.
The thieves hack-sawed through the feeder rather than unscrewing it (pictured below). They used a crow bar to get through the door of the site and an angle grinder through the door of the community radio site.
SCA Engineer Matt Paton has asked radioinfo readers to keep a look out for the stolen equipment.
“As the market for broadcast transmitters isn’t massive in Australia, if anybody gets offered a ‘black market’ deal, could they please let me know via email, or call the Moranbah Police on 07 4941 6200.”
Community station 4RFM’s transmitter was also stolen, while 2 way radio equipment was untouched at our site, so the thieves seemed to know exactly what they were after.
The SCA service remains off air awaiting repairs to the building.