The spectacular sporadic E opening on June 2nd resulted in quite a few QSLs. One of the first stations I heard was Radio Radicale on 88.6 MHz. Most likely from Rocca di Papa, some 20 kilometers southeast of Rome (1291 kms from my QTH). With 251 kW (listed) the transmitter is probably one of the strongest in Italy. As I couldn’t find an email address I filled in the webform their on their site. Within a day I received a simple reply attached to my message:
Yes,it’s Radio Radicale
Thank you very much
Radio Radicale was founded in 1975-76 as the radio station of the Italian Radical Party. When I saw their logo I thought this would be a socialist party (as the rose is symbol of socialism). But apparently the ideology was liberal. “Was” because the party was dissolved in 1989.
Radio Radicale continues however, but as you can read on Wikipedia, not without controversy. The station has no commercial advertisements. It relies for funding on the party and support from the Italian government as part of an agreement that Radio Radicale broadcasts parliamentary sessions. Which is exactly the sort of programme that I received, as you can hear on my YouTube clip.
UPDATE: fully detailed QSL email received!
