Columbia AM is a low power AM (LPAM) station broadcasting from Aalst in the Netherlands. There are a few towns with the name Aalst, but this is the one at 51.78N 5.12E, along the river “Afgedamde Maas”. Beautiful area for cycling, my other big hobby! Aalst is only 37 kilometers SE from here, but particularly at night there is sometimes interference from Radio Seabreeze, another LPAM. I received an e-QSL from Columbia AM for my report to studio@columbia-am.nl. Columbia AM has a long history as radio pirate. You can read more about that on their website.
During the UNESCO World Radio Day event of February 13th, 2023 a special HAM station was in the air. I received it in CW on the 14 MHz band. It was a long time ago that I decoded CW, but with record/play back I was able to collect sufficient details for a QSL of 7S6WRD Grimeton, Sweden. My guess is that the station normally operates as SK6SAQ (with SAQ identical to the Grimeton callsign) but was under a special 7S6WRD callsign for this event (with WRD obviously referring to World Radio Day). Click the link to learn more about the Grimeton World Heritage Station. No doubt there will be future opportunities to receive this station and associated HAM radio.
Special HAM QSL for 7S6WRD Grimeton on World Radio Day
With my return to the bands I also picked up my passion for NDB hunting. Today I got an email QSL NDB PN Palanga. NDBs – or Non Directional Beacons – are used for navigation purposes. In the past you had them in both maritime and aeronautical service. The maritime ones have all gone in Europe as far as I know, but aeronautical beacons are still present. I never received a beacon from Lithuania, so this is proof of the fact that my new combo of ICOM-R8600 and Bonito Megaloop FX can actually “do it”. That said, my participation in the NDB CLE two weeks ago was a disaster, finishing last ☹️. For NDBs I always used “PPCs”. Forgot what the acronym is all about (Prepared Post Cards?), but the idea was that the station only had to “sign, stamp and post”. In the email era I felt that you still need to spice it up, and below you can see my approach on how to do that. Please note the letterhead with the Lithuanian and Ukranian flag, holding hands in solidarity. And that makes this QSL special when I will look back on it years down the road. I’ve a couple of such “landmark” QSLs in my collection which I will post about in due time. Happy NDB hunting!
email QSL NDB PN Palanga – my first Lithuanian NDB!
When I’m travelling I like to bring my small Grundig G6 Aviator with me to do a quick check of the bands. During a stay in the province of Drenthe I was able to listen to Antenne Niedersachsen, Germany, just across the border. Fortunately they still use traditional QSL cards to confirm reception reports. Antenna Niedersachsen started in 1990 and is, after Radio FFN, the 2nd oldest private station in Niedersachsen. They changed their name a couple of times to avoid confusion with other stations, but since 2013 they are back to Antenna Niedersachsen.
QSL Antenne NiedersachsenNice detail: the “Antenna Niedersachsen” post stamp!
I was surprised to receive Radio Oltenia Craiova in pretty good quality here in the Netherlands, despite their low power (15 kW) on 1314 kHz. My report was answered with a very polite email from the English Service of Radio Romania International. Not sure if this will deliver a QSL Radio Oltenia Craiova though…. Maybe the station will respond directly. Craiova by the way is the capital of the Oltenia region in south west Romania. The region has a great history. It was part of Walachia with Vlad Dracula as its most famous prince.
QSL Radio Oltenia Craiova, reply English service of Radio Romania Internationl
The Voice of Turkey is one of the few governmental broadcasters left offering an international service in a variety of languages. And they still send out beautiful QSL cards. Last week I received this one for my reception report of their English program on 12035 kHz.
Kilrock is a low power medium wave station (LPAM) operating from the village of ‘s Gravendeel, southwest of the city of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. The village is located on the banks of the tidal river “Dordtsche Kil”. So now you know where the station name comes from. But Kilrock also sounds like Kilroy. “Kilroy was here” was graffiti drawn by American troops in World War II. The text was often accompanied by a man looking over a wall… as in the Kilrock QSL, which is one of my favourites.
Radio Lenta, Lithuania can be heard on 1557 kHz. With frequent IDs as “Nasha Lenta” (Our Band) it is broadcasting information in Russian. The Lithuanian RTV centre was so kind to send a confirmation within a day, but they are not the content owner. A Dutch foundation “Next Level Initiatives” is operating here with permission from the Dutch “Commissariaat voor de Media”. According to radiovisie.eu : “There is no political motive or government involvement. The sole purpose of the station is to provide uncensored, verified information to Russia and Belarus.”
Radio Free Asia issued a new QSL card to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. I received this QSL for my reception of their Tibetan program on 12125 kHz in January this year. Also got a leaflet explaining their mission “Bringing free press to closed societies”. The transmitter is located on the tiny island of Tinian, which is part of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Radio Free Asia “Year of the Rabbit” QSLQSL Radio Free Asia Tinian
I got a kind email reply from Kelsey at “Global” via Customer.Support@global.com confirming today’s reception of Smooth Radio 1359 kHz from Baker’s Wood, United Kingdom. I’m really grateful for the reply, many of todays modern network stations don’t seem to bother. Older radio enthusiasts know that this station started back in 1981 as Essex Radio when Independent Local Radio was introduced. I have a 1983 QSL from them. In 1989 they were forced to split AM and FM operation and they continued as Breeze AM and Essex FM (later Heart). In 1996 I received the Breeze QSL. Fast forward 30 years and now it is called “Smooth Radio” which is part of “Global”. “Global” is also operating iconic stations like Capital Radio and LBC…
BDXC : SWL 2262 PRe VERON : NL 14228 If you want to get in touch, just leave a message on one of my posts. Please note that I don't publish email addresses of verifiers which are not part of the public domain. So if you don't see the QSL address, just leave a message and I'll get back to you.
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