The wonderful world of listening to the radio
Where would I be with a little help from my friends? I heard Blue Radio Chella on 90.2 MHz, but my report remained unanswered. Artur Fernández Llorella was so kind to help me to get in touch with Alex Selfa, director of the station. Within a day I got a nice email confirmation:
Blue Radio is a local station broadcasting on 90.2 MHz with 2.5 kW power from Chella. Headquarters are in Xátiva, 50 km south of Valencia.
Thank you Artur!!!
My 2nd QSL in the series of 10 NDBs from Serbia was for NDB VTN-468. It serves as navigation aid for Morava Airport near Kraljevo. Verie signer was Mr. Savic from SMATSA, the air traffic services provider for Serbia and Montenegro.
Morava Airport is the third largest airport in Serbia, after Beograd and Nis. The military part of the airport is known as Lađevci Airport . The civilian part was opened in 2006. Apparently it is struggling bit to really grow to its full potential. Currently there are flights to Tivat in Montenegro, Thessaloniki and Istanbul only.
JST on 405 kHz was one of the first more remote NDBs I heard when I resumed DX-in over a year ago. The beacon is located NW of the Niš Airport in Serbia. I was very interested in verifying this beacon, as so far I was not able to verify a radio station from Serbia. All my “Serbian” QSLs date from the Yugoslavia era.
Via Patrick Robic (thank you!) I received the email address of Slavisa Savic, assessor at SMATSA llc, the company responsible for Air Traffic Services in Serbia and Montenegro. He also confirmed my reception of the TVA beacon on 345 kHz from Montenegro and was so kind to do this for the 10 beacons I received from Serbia as well. With the QSL of JST-405 Niš/Justic I have my 196th radio country confirmed!
Nis Airport is located in the South East of Serbia. It is the 2nd largest airport in Serbia. The full name is Nis Constantine the Great Airport, name after Roman Emperor Constantine the Great who was born in Niš (named Naissus at the time). Constantine the Great – as you might have learned at school – was the first Roman emperor who converted to Christianity in 312 AD.
I received a nice and personal QSL email from Mrs. Fadela Yahiaoui Boudjelal at Radio Laghouat from Algeria. I heard them on 87.6 MHz, my first reception of an Algerian radio station on FM.
Mrs. Boudjelal writes that Laghouat is a beautiful oasis in the south of Algeria and invites everyone to visit. The funny thing is that, if you look on the map, Laghouat is pretty much in the north of Algeria. That said there is basically nothing south of it other than Sahara desert. It reminded me of my time in Edmonton, which was also referred to as “Northern Alberta”, basically because there was pretty much nothing north of it (while geographically it was located in the south).
With thanks to Patrick Robic and Artur Fernández Llorella for helping me to find the correct address.
A reader of this blog, Abdelilah (thank you for commenting) suggested that I did not know a lot about Algeria, and he is right. But, you learn through this hobby. In 1849 Laghouat was conquered by the French. The French ordered the slaughter of the entire population and the destruction of the town. Two thirds of the population were butchered before the order was withdrawn and the town was spared. No surprise maybe that the armed revolt against the French in 1955 started in Laghouat.
I’ve always two receivers covering the 8 and 12 MHz DSC channels. And sometimes you catch something new… last night Bandar-e-Anzali radio from Iran was received on 12 MHz (12577 kHz).
Funny detail: Anzali is a port on the Caspian Sea, but the message was to acknowledge a DSC test from CHEMROAD QUEEN, a Panamese flagged tanker anchored near the port of Al Jubail in the Persian Gulf. There is no waterway to connect the two.
Free Radio Service announced their Summer Splash:
It’s almost time…. On Sunday, July 21st, we kick off our annual ‘Summer Splash’. For the 4th time, you can listen to us on shortwave for three summery Sunday evenings from 19:00-21:00 UTC / 21:00-23:00 CEST. Frequencies will be (subject to change) 5940 and 9300 (alt. 9335). We are sorry for the lack of our 7700 outlet.
Read more on their website: https://frsholland.nl/2024-summer-splash/
Between October and December 2023 I received 11 NDBs from the Czech Republic. I received a QSL for 4 of them via ANS , but the other 7 were the responsibility of the Czech military, for which I didn’t have an email address.
A big thanks to Patrick Robic who made me aware that NARFA CZE confirmed his reports in the past. I sent my report to narfa@army.cz . And indeed, 1st Lieutenant Lucie Mertová was so kind to QSL my reception of the following NDBs:
CF-345.5 and C-715 for Caslav Airbase
PK-432 and P-888 for Pardubice Airport (shared mil/civil)
K-438 for Praha-Kbely Airbase
LA-514.5 and XU-563 for Namest nad Oslavou Airbase.
NARFA is the National Frequency Agency of the Czech Republic. They are part of the Czech Army. A good overview of their activities can be found on the NARFA website.
OOps… I checked my Spam inbox and had a nice surprise: a few weeks ago I received a QSL from Radio Tour, a smaller regional station from the Potenza area. I heard them on 101.8 MHz, a transmitter from Potenza with 500 Watts. I sent my report with MP3 to scrivi@radiotour.fm and received a reply within a day!
Radio Tour operates 13 fairly low power transmitters from the Potenza area. And that’s what I like about this catch! The strongest station is 4 kW on 100.3 MHz, also from Potenza. There is an 800 Watt transmitter in Balvano, and their third strongest transmitter is the one I received… The slogan of Radio Tour is “Radio Tour Viaggo in 1a classe nel passato” – “Radio Tour, I travel 1st class journey into the past”… which I found a bit surprising as I heard songs from the 90-ies… but that’s probably because of my own age…
Channel 292 brings a number of interesting programs. Often I just make an SDR recording during the weekend so I can listen to selected shows during the week.
CM Obrecht is one of the programs that stands out due to the music selection. While shortwave might not be the best medium to appreciate music, you can discover new artists to add to your on-line play lists.
Obrecht is a musician himself, composing and producing electronic music. Learn more about him on his website where you can listen to his music, but also find out about the next broadcast times of his program..
I received the above e QSL within a day, having sent my report to c.obrecht@swissonline.ch .
The fifth and last on my recent QSL email for NDBs in the North of Spain: NDB B-395 Bilbao. The beacon is situated on Punta Galea, left of the Bilbao harbour entrance, next to the golf club.
Below the ENAIRE datasheet submitted with my QSL, and a slightly better picture taken from Google Maps. Similar to San Sebastian NDB HIG it is a dipole suspende between two towers at 12 m height.
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