Peter's DX Corner

"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on" - Marilyn Monroe

QSL SRC FM Tiel 105.1 MHz

Another local FM station close to my QTH is SRC FM. Another local FM station close to my QTH is SRC FM. But rather than local radio it is a good example of the new regional strategy in The Netherlands. Local radio was legalized in the late 80’s in The Netherlands, and soon every town had their own local FM station. In those days internet wasn’t common and it was seen as a good vehicle to distribute local news.

Today the situation is different. Many of the local radio stations merge, and this is not only driven by the fact that municipalities merge into bigger entities as well. I learned that there is actually a government plan that forces local radio stations to merge and from 2028 onward there should be no more than 80 regional stations (currently there are 200). More info about this plan can be found on this web page of the NLPO.

Do I like it? Well, as many local radio stations are depending on tax payers money to make things work I can understand that this saves money and improves quality at the same time. At the same time the stations are at risk to lose their local identity which is why they came to be in the first place.

The SRC FM coverage area… big than a province (FMLIST)

Let’s look at SRC FM. This is the regional radio formed by SPO-BRCV, SPO-Tiel (from Tiel) and Nova Media (from Neder Betuwe). As far as I know BRCV stands for the merger of RTV Betuwe from Buren and Stads Radio Culemborg (SRC) and Vianen. All in all SRC now targets an area between the rivers Lek and Waal, 50 kilometers west to east with. An area in two provinces Utrecht and Gelderland, with as far as I know quite a bit different identity and orientation on major cities… we’ll see how it will work out.

Thanks to the pretty powerful 2 kW transmitter from Vianen on 95.6 their coverage area is substantially bigger, covering areas in the provinces of Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant and even Noord-Holland.

To cover the region SRC FM is active on 6 frequencies. I sent a report for my reception of SRC FM on 105.1 MHz, as with 40 kms the transmitter in Tiel is a bit more “DX” than the transmitter in Vianen (only 17 kms). Mr. Kans was so kind to confirm my report with a brief reply on my email to info@src.fm .

QSL Rick FM Uithoorn 106.3 MHz

Back to my exploration of the local radio scene around Woerden. Today I listened to Rick FM, the local radio station for Uithoorn and De Kwakel. Marco from Rick FM was so kind to reply to my reception report.

Rick FM is owned by Stichting Radio RIK. I couldn’t find where the acronym RIK stands for. What I do know is that Rick FM started some 40 years ago as pirate radio station Radio Cyclus in De Kwakel. Which is not uncommon.

Like many other stations Rick FM is professionalizing and at the same time has to safe costs. So it is cooperating with 4 other stations in the area:

BBC Radio nan Gàidheal 104.2 MHz

Yesterday there were quite good tropospheric conditions toward the UK. On 104.2 MHz I heard a program in a language that I didn’t immediately recognize. It turned out to be BBC Radio nan Gàidheal broadcasting in Gaelic language.

By clicking on above picture or this link you can hear my YouTube clip with their station ID.

On 104.2 MHz BBC Radio nan Gàidheal is broadcasting from the Meldrum transmitting station, built in 1950 near the village of Oldmeldrum. 752 kilometers from my QTH. In lesser quality I also heard this station on 103.7 MHz from Forfar, a little bit more to the south.

The Meldrum Transmitting Station in Scotland

QSL Radio Eule München 1500 kHz

I really wanted to get a QSL from Radio Eule München as this station ticks so many boxes. It is low power (only 10 Watt), from abroad and with 648 kms at quite a bit of distance given its power. But more importantly, it is an initiative of enthusiastic people at the Deutsches Museum in Munich who want to promote technology to get young people interested.
It wasn’t easy though to receive this one as 1500 kHz is a frequency on which I always experience heavy pulsating noise as if it was digitial communication (source unknown). And this winter, when conditions were favourable, WFED from Washington was often stronger. I even heard Radio Santa Rosa from Peru before I caught Radio Eule. So maybe this is one of these stations that are easier to catch in summer?

eQSL Radio Eule 1500 kHz

Luise Allendorf-Hoefer, Dipl.-Ing., Kuratorin Nachrichtentechnik und Elektronik (Curator News Technology and Electronics) at the Deutsches Museum was so kind to confirm my report. Luise is also HAM radio amateur under DL4LA. The Deutsches Museum website has a nice page dedicated to this station including a clip on how to build your own AM receiver! Munich is a city worth visiting I can tell you, and while you are there, spend some time at this museum as Germany has a technology tradition more than any other European country.

QSL Radio Buenos Aires 1350 kHz

One of the stations I heard during my stay on Curacao earlier this year was LS6 Radio Buenos Aires on 1350 kHz. Yes, with 50 kW this is one of the stronger stations in South America, but I was still very pleased to hear this one over 5300 km on my small Tecsun PL368 with standard antenna. Radio Buenos Aires has been received in the Netherlands as well, so that’s my next goal. So far Radio Z100 Milano has prevented me from doing so.

email to QSL my reception of LS6 Radio Buenos Aires

As my emails to the address advertised on the Radio Buenos Aires website bounced I asked my radio friend Néstor Damián Fischetto if he knew a contact. Which is how I learned that mr. González might confirm my report. Thank you so much Néstor, and of course thank you mr. González.

I don’t have a lot of information about the history of Radio Buenos Aires. LS6 is their call sign and according to Wikipedia the station was active under various names before it was acquired by Radiodifusora Esmeralda S.A in 1999. As a significant portion of this company is owned by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (a Brazilian entity), there is some controversy as Argentinian law apparently prohibits foreign religious organizations to own media licenses… The program I listened to was neutral, with popular music and news.

QSL Radio Aalsmeer 105.9 MHz

Radio Aalsmeer, a local FM radiostation, is only 23 kilometers away from my QTH. But on 105.9 MHz it sits exactly between Radio Ronde Venen on 106.MHz (8 kms away) and RTW FM on 105.8 MHz (18 kms away). Both are quite a bit stronger here. Fortunately SDR console allows to limit the bandwidth to 0.1 MHz and while it did compromise quality a bit it wasn’t difficult to receive Radio Aalsmeer.

I sent my report to info info@radioaalsmeer.nl . Elbert who is secretary of the station and also works at the news desk was so kind to confirm my reception.

The Studio’s Aalsmeer building

Radio Aalsmeer is broadcasting from the studios of Joop van den Ende, the famous Dutch media producer who founded Endemol and Stage Entertainment. He bought the former flower auction site and transformed it to Studio’s Aalsmeer. And that’s where it all started.

QSL Auckland HFDL 10084 kHz

Since I resumed the hobby I spent quite a bit of time on maritime DX (DSC mode) and NDBs. But I didn’t do as much on HF Aero. So time to see what’s going on the aero-bands. I did already a couple of SelCal decodes (so nice that we have programs like MultiPSK that allow us to do so) when I discovered HFDL.

I first heard Shannon. On audio the pattern is a brief tone, and then a data burst, as in this audio clip. Using the Klingenfuss guide I started to look for other frequencies, decoded with MutliPSK, and got some Auckland decodes.

Receiving something from New Zealand is always nice, but what about a QSL? I decided to contact Airways New Zealand. Todd, who is operations team lead at Airways told me that they were truly interested in my reception, it wasn’t Auckland Radio that I heard (as they are responsible for voice), but he could confirm I received the HF data link from Auckland.

Meanwhile I’ve learned a little bit more about HFDL. Apparently it is a service called ACARS (Aircraft Communications and Reporting System) initially developed by ARINC (Aeronautical Radio Incorporated). ARINC is now part of Collins Aerospace. UDXF offers a nice information sheet about this service that allows aircraft to exchange date via a ground station with their operators.

Apparently there are 16 ground stations that provide HFDL. I’ve heard Hat Yai, Telde (Canarias), Shannon and Auckland by now. The beauty is that via this digital technique aircraft can for example broadcast their position in 2 seconds, something which would take 1 minute by voice. And during high solar activity periods the digital mode of communication proved to be much more reliable for aircraft flying over polar regions in particular.

San Francisco, CA, USA
Molokai, HWA, USA
Reykjavik, Iceland
Riverhead, New York, USA
Auckland, New Zealand
Hat Yai, Thailand
Shannon, Ireland
Johannesburg, South Africa
Barrow, Alaska, USA
Muan, South Korea
Albrook, Panama
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Al Muharraq, Bahrain
Agana, Guam
Canarias, Spain

Now I fully understand that I’m just a beginner in this field. So if you have additions, corrections, just let me know by leaving a reply in the comments. Thank you!

Radio Onda Cero, Lima, 1160 kHz: a new personal MW DX record

I think I beat my Mediumwave DX record… Radio Onda Cero from Lima is 10537 kms from my QTH… which is 12 kms further than Radio Santa Rosa.

I don’t have a proper QSL (e)mail address, so if you have one, please let me know in the comments!

The quality of the reception was even a bit better than for Santa Rosa as I could identify at least two songs that were played. Onda Cero plays modern songs from Latin America. Below two clips of my reception… yeah I know it is bad.. but the ID is there and it is my 86th Transatlantic station. And again… 2 years ago I wouldn’t have thought I would be able to log stations like this:

QSL Moonair Radio 5880 kHz

An e-QSL with lots of details from Moonair Radio, a Free Radio station from Central Europe. DJ Mike is from Holland, and the show I listened to was mainly in Dutch, but from the announcements made it was clear the the location is not in The Netherlands, but somewhere in “Central Europe”. I will not disclose the location, but given the distance I am surprised about the signal strength given an output power of only 250 W. Must be a decent antenna! And I understand why there was a bit of fading.

Mike also shared a nice video of the studio and transmitter equipment. Apparently he is also the operator of Radio Magdalena, a station that broadcasts in AM-stereo.

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