As I drive down the freeway to work in the morning (only 8 more working days in the city!), I like to listen to Dr. Michael Youssef, a preacher on the radio (http://www.leadingtheway.com.au). I really enjoy listening to him because his words are clear, biblical, and he doesn’t shy away from presenting the Gospel in some pretty stark ways sometimes.

There are two stations I can listen to—they are both Rhema FM, but one broadcasts from Gosford (local), while the other broadcasts from Newcastle (north). The Newcastle station pretty obviously has a more powerful transmitter, as I can get clarity on that station almost as far south as the Gosford station. The thing is that both of these stations broadcast on a frequency that is occupied by other stations in Sydney. So on the journey south, there are areas where there is nothing but static; and areas where the Sydney stations override the signal that I’m listening to.

I think that there are a couple of points to make here. The first is that the further away I am from the source of the signal, the more easily it can be distorted or blocked by obstacles. In my case, the obstacles are some pretty hefty chunks of landscape.

The second point is that the further away I am from the source of the signal, the less power is required from a station contending for dominance of a particular frequency to interfere with or completely override the signal.

There have been occasions when the competing Sydney station has had someone talking (rather than singing or playing music), and for a little while, I’ve thought that I’m listening to Rhema. In fact, if I wasn’t concentrating on the words, I probably wouldn’t notice that I’m hearing something that’s unimportant, or at worst, a lie.