Author: Peter Reuderink (Page 9 of 57)

Curacao DX adventure 2025

April 10, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

This year I had again the privilege of spending some time on Curacao. Like last year I brought a radio with me: the Tecsun PL-368 I won in the SWL 2024 contest. I focused a little bit more on the upper side of the MW band this time. Below a list of the stations I received. Quite a few from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, more than a year ago. The most distant stations I heard were ZSN1 Nassau and Radio Monumental from Quito (both 1700 km), WFED with a WTOP program from Washington (3100 km) and LS6 Radio Buenos Aires (5300 km). I was pleased to receive ZBVI from the British Virgin Islands as well as the Voice of St. Maarten, two new DX countries for me. I am still waiting for a reply from the latter station.

540	Radio ABC, Santo Domingo	DOM
550	YVKE Mundial, Caracas	VEN
570	HIMS Radio Cristal, Santo Domingo	DOM
580	WKAQ 580, San Juan	PTR
780	ZBVI, Tortola	VRG
1070	HJCG Radio Santa Fe, Bogotá	CLM
1090	Union Radio, Caracas	VEN
1100	BBN Radio, Bogotá	CLM
1110	HJJP RCN Radio, Villavicencio	CLM
1130	Fuego AM, Bogotá	CLM
1140	Radio Panamericana, Girardot	CLM
1160	Carribean R. Lighthouse, St. Mary	ATG
1160	Su Presencia Radio, Bogotá	CLM
1200	Radio VEN AM, Santo Domingo	DOM
1210	HJE65 RCN, Cúcuta	CLM
1230	Radio Calidad, Cali	CLM
1250	HJCA Toca en La Capital, Bogotá	CLM
1260	BBN, Caracas	VEN
1270	HJAR RCN, Cartagena	CLM
1280	HJKN Aviva2, Bogotá	CLM
1290	La Voz de las Estrellas, Medellin	CLM
1300	Voice of St. Maarten, Philipsburg	SXM
1310	Voz de la Patria Celestial, Barranquilla	CLM
1320	Radio Apolo, Turmero	VEN
1330	Radio Vision Cristiana, Santo Domingo	DOM
1340	YVNE Radio Uno, Caracas	VEN
1350	LS6 Radio Buenos Aires, Malvinas	ARG
1370	Radio Mundial, Bogotá	CLM
1380	Radio Nacional, Santiago	DOM
1420	Radio Sintonia, Caracas	VEN
1440	HIAK Radio Impactante, Santo Domingo	DOM
1450	Radio Maria Venezuela, Catia La Mar	VEN
1460	WLRP Radio Raices, San Sebastian	PTR
1470	WKUM Cumbre 1470 AM, Orocovis	PTR
1490	Radio Dinámica, Caracas	VEN
1500	WFED WTOP, Washington	USA
1500	Radio Maria Colombia, Manizales	CLM
1510	Radio Monumental, Quito	EQA
1520	TIVA Radio 1520, San Juan	PTR
1530	HJDN La Voz de Nostalgia, Medellín	CLM
1540	National Voice, Nassau	BAH
1560	Pura Palabra R., Bayamon	PTR
1560	Voces Rovirenses, Málaga	CLM
1570	Radio Felicidad, Penuelas	PTR
1580	Uniminuto Radio, Bogotá	CLM
1590	WXRF WAPA Radio, Guayama	PTR
1620	Radio Rebelde	CUB
1660	WGIT Faro de Santidad, Canovanas	PTR
1680	Radio Senda, S. Pedro de Macoris	DOM

QSL KBC Huissen 891 kHz

April 9, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

From December 1st, 2024, KBC is active on 891 kHz as a LPAM broadcaster from Huissen, The Netherlands. They succeeded Rivierenland Radio.

I heard them with a program with music from the offshore radio era. It was called “Het Zoute Uur” (The Salty Hour). Reception quality was pretty good (SIO 454) despite their 100 Watt and a distance of 72 kms to my QTH. My report was sent via the webform on their site.

KBC also broadcasts on shortwave to Europe, North America and Australia. Details can be found here.

QSL Comodoro Rivadavia Radio 12577 kHz

April 7, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

I received Comodoro Rivadavia Radio with a DSC test acknowledgement to a vessel with MMSI 311000867 (SYLVIA EARLE, Bahamas). It’s the second time I sent them a report. I heard them earlier in December 2024. They confirmed they were sending a message at the time but my decode of the MMSI of the ship they contacted was incorrect. Despite the ERR check being OK. These things can happen sometimes. This time there was one other DX-er that picked up the same message using YADD decoder, so I was confident I really heard them!

The distance between my QTH and Comodoro Rivadavia is 12890 kilometers… and this is definitely not a DSC station that I hear as often as the ones from Brazil. My other confirmation from Argentina was Buenos Aires Radio.

QSL ZBVI Tortola, British Virgin Islands 780 kHz

April 5, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

During my holiday on Curacao I was able to receive ZBVI from Tortola, the largest island of the British Virgin Islands. A distance of about 840 km. Sandra Potter, Operations Manager at ZBVI was so kind to confirm my reception report. This QSL ZBVI Tortola, British Virgin Islands on 780 kHz is my 198th country confirmed!

The official call sign of the station in the FCC data base is ZBV, but the station identifies as ZBVI after the Virgin Islands. It is also not clear why this station has a FCC license in the USA and seems to have to adhere to US law (no tobacco commercials allowed). Anyone?

QSL HJCL Radio Panamericana, Girardot, 1140 kHz

April 3, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

For my report to HJCL Radio Panamericana on 1140 kHz I received a polite thank you email via radiopanamericana1140@gmail.com .

Radio Panamericana broadcasts from Girardot in Colombia with 10 kW. I heard them on Curacao, which wasn’t easy as Radio Paisa and most likely Radio Esperanza from Colombia are also active on this frequency.

Following a lecture on the relation between food and digestive problems I clearly heard an ID: “Esta es Radio Panamericana HJCL”. Radio Panamericana is an affiliate of the bigger Blu Radio network from Bogota and as such broadcasts Blu Radio programs as well.

QSL HJLK Radio Calidad de Cali 1230 kHz

April 2, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL from HJLK Radio Calidad, broadcasting from Cali, Colombia on 1230 kHz. I heard this station during my holiday on Curacao.

Email QSL for Radio Calidad de Cali on 1230 kHz

Radio Calidad is a RCN (Radio Cadena Nacional) station. RCN operates a few networks or brands as I explained in an earlier post. La Cariñosa is the program with focus on popular music. It is being broadcast on mediumwave from 15 cities, but according to Wikipedia three of them also have their own local station ID and programs: Radio Calidad from Cali, Radio Santander from Bucaramanga and Radio Paisa from Medellin. And indeed I heard an ID like “Radio Calidad la Cariñosa… y con la vocacion de servicio”.

QSL Radio Maria Colombia 1500 kHz

April 1, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL email from Radio Maria Colombia, broadcasting from Manizales on 1500 kHz. I sent my report to info.col@radiomaria.org . The reply came from programas.radiomaria@gmail.com which looks like a more generic email address, but it carried the Radio Maria Colombia logo.

QSL BBN Radio Caracas 1260 kHz

March 31, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

When staying on Curacao last year (2024) I received BBN – Bible Broadcasting Network – from both Venezuela and Colombia. But I only sent a report to the BBN Colombia which was confirmed with a QSL. So during my holiday this year I took the opportunity to write to BBN Venezuela as well. After all, it appears to be very difficult to get a QSL from a Venezuelan radio station these days. But in the case of BBN the report was sent to, and the reply came from their head office in the USA: red@bbnmedia.org .

QSL email for my reception of BBN from Venezuela

Like last time I got a nice detailed letter from BBN. BBN is most likely not as well known in the DX community as for example TWR and AWR. That is most likely because they do not operate on Shortwave. The organisation runs quite a few FM stations in the United States, in addition to 4 low power AM stations. But they are also active in 14 countries in South America, with medium wave presence in Chile, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. Rather than excited preaching heard so often on other stations the BBN programs that I listened to were always about explaining the Bible in a more modest fashion.

The end of Radio Free Asia?

March 28, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 7 Comments

Is this the end of Radio Free Asia?
Following the announcement of the Trump administration to cut funding of the USAGM department VoA, Radio Marti, RFE/RL, RFA and possibly other USAGM sponsored stations will discontinue broadcasting.

Last week I received this email from RFA:

Dear friends,

Last weekend Radio Free Asia lost its grant and funding.
Unfortunately, we are unable to confirm any more reception reports.

If this situation changes, we will let you know.

As our relay sites stop transmitting our broadcasts, currently, we’re still airing evergreen programming on limited frequencies but it’s unclear how long this will continue.

Thank you for listening and also for your years of support and friendship.

RFA’s QSL Team

Personally I have mixed views on all of this. I saw an interview with Cubans on the closure of Radio Marti. An eldery man was truly disappointed. But a younger man said “I’ve heard of it, my granddad listens to it, but I never do”. I don’t know how many people still use short wave radio for their news. The younger generation typically relies on the internet. So with that in mind maintaining a shortwave radiostation is expensive and outdated.

That said: internet can be filtered or even blocked. Which is much more difficult for radio waves. Nevertheless the demolition of LW, MW and SW transmitters and antenna facilities continues in Europe. At the same time the Israel army resumed MW broadcasts of Galei Zahal, their army radio,ahead of their operations is Gaza and Lebanon. It might be that we will regret that we didn’t use some of the 800 billion to “rearm Europe” to maintain some of the legacy radio facilities. Time will tell.

QSL WKUM “Radio Cumbre” Puerto Rico 1470 kHz

March 27, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL from WKUM “Radio Cumbre”, Orocovis, Puerto Rico on 1470 kHz. I heard this station during my stay at Curacao.

They advertise as “Cumbre 14-70, la estacion de regio central y Puerto Rico”. Which is correct if you see their location on the map below. The spanish word “Cumbre” translates as “Summit”, and indeed this station is located on the central mountain range in Puerto Rico, the Cordillera Central .