After an extended period of building maintenance, World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station has scheduled SAQ to be on air on UN-Day, Tuesday October 24th 2023 at 17:00 CET (15:00 UTC), to send out a peace message to the whole world, using the 200kW Alexanderson alternator from 1924, on 17.2 kHz CW.
Transmission & YouTube Live stream 16:25 CET (14:25 UTC): Live stream on YouTube begins. 16:30 CET (14:30 UTC): Startup and tuning of the Alexanderson Alternator SAQ. 17:00 CET (15:00 UTC): Transmission of a message from SAQ.
The Woofferton shortwave station will celebrate its 80th birthday on October 17, 2023. The Mayor of Leominster and the Deputy Mayor of Ludlow will join other dignitaries at a special event in Woofferton to mark the occasion. The transmitter facility was built by the BBC during the Second World War to accommodate additional shortwave transmitters. When the station officially began broadcasting on October 17, 1943, it had six 50 kW RCA transmitters, acquired through a loan-lease agreement. The station has been modernized several times over the years and is now DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) capable and offers daily digital radio programs. There will be a special program on shortwave (and other platforms) for the birthday on October 17, 2023: 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. UTC:
Transmitter 95 Marconi BD272 from 1963: 15245 kHz (250 kW, 294°) towards North America
Transmitter 96 RIZ: 17785 kHz (250 kW kW, 114°) towards Europe
Transmitter 92 RIZ: 11725 kHz-DRM (110 kW DRM, 114°) towards Europe
The program details the history of the broadcasting facility, which was used not only for the BBC and then the Voice of America, but for numerous other foreign services. Station employees will have their say about the history and present of the broadcasting system. QSL hunters can apply for an E-QSL by submitting meaningful reception reports to radio @ encompass.tv. There is even a raffle. (Dave Porter via Alan Pennington/Wolfgang Büschel)
I was not very active blogging I have to admit. Following the developments in Israel my mind is elsewhere, and I still find it difficult to focus my mind on pulling “difficult to read” radio signals out of my SDR IQ recordings…
I’m still monitoring the waves, and the computer picked up some signals from two countries under attack…
On October 7th I picked up this NAVTEX signal on 518 kHz from Haifa Radio, Israel, mentioning the blockade of the Gaza strip. As the message states “as of 03 January” I do believe that this is not related to the current war, but to a blockade that has been established earlier.
On October 10th I picked up another message. This one contains an Israeli Navy annoucnement about a safety zone around the Karish platform.
Another station that I didn’t receive for a while is Odesa Radio, Ukraine. I see a couple of warnings about drifting buoys in the Black Sea… probably nothing out of the ordinary, while buoys are there for safety they often break loose and appear in messages like this.
I received an email from the English desk of Radio Romania International announcing their new winter schedule. In the same email they announced that they are working ways to send out digital or eQSLs in 2023. As we are already in the 4th quarter I’m not sure if this is a typo, although I’m still waiting on a 2023 QSL. Anyway it is a pity as I loved the old school QSL they sent, and they were reliable verifiers. Recent budget cuts forced them to close two out of five transmitters. So I guess the move to eQSLs is probably another cost reduction measure.
A QSL for my reception of two NDB (Non Directional Beacons) servicing Ängelholm Airport in South Sweden: LB-370.5 and AH-417. The numbers indicate the frequency in kHz. These beacons are located at 698 and 696 kilometers from my home QTH.
Email QSL for NDBs LB and AH at Ängelholm Helsingborg Airport
Last weekend I participated in the “SQUEEZE 100” NDB event, organized by the NDBlist group. Aim was to log 100 NDBs (Non Directional Beacons) in an as small frequency range possible. Hence the name “SQUEEZE 100”.
I had participated in two earlier events this year in which I logged only 4 and 13 stations respectively. So I decided that I needed a bit of help and installed Pskov NDB software. The result was impressive. Not knowing what to expect I started monitoring between 300 and 500 kHz. After I had 100 NDBs logged I could start to zoom in a bit, trying to squeeze the frequency range.
In total I logged over 183 NDBs. Between 350 and 403 kHz I had exactly 100 NDBs, close to 2 per kHz! The picture above shows the most distant ones I heard. With 3033 km OZN from Prins Christian Sund in Greenland was on top of my list. I was also very happy to catch three beacons from Iceland (KF-392; VM-375 and HN-330) and two from Algeria (ON-415; BJA-423).
Below the Pskov screenshot of my OZN-372 log:
Signal from NDB OZN, Prins Christiansund, Greenland on 372 kHz
Don’t know why but I always liked NDB (Non Directional Beacon) DX-ing. Maybe because it because it is all about low power stations in CW. Maybe it is because they brought me a QSL that everyone was looking for in the 80-ies: Jan Mayen Island and Bjornoya (Bear Island) in addition to Andoya. In the EDXC country list Jan Mayen and Bjornoya, the latter being part of Spitsbergen/Svalbard, count as separate radio countries!
One of my most treasured QSLs: Jan Mayen and Svalbard (Bjornoya)
Actually i was quite surprised that NDBs are still in the air as navigation aids these days. I understand that the beacons that were mainly serving maritime traffic (like the ones above) are gone, but their are still plenty of airports that have an NDB up and running.
40 years ago I had this Murphy B41 tube receiver working for me on my NDB hunts. Designed shortly after WWII it was standard British Admiralty issue. It was rock solid and had a superb S/N performance, but it also weighed over 45 kgs! I vividly remember how much effort it took to carry it to the attic in my parents house. It was even equipped with a manual that described how you could effectively destruct the receiver should it risk falling in enemy hands.
Back to today: I opened this post with “Daddy’s got a brand new tool!”. It is called Pskov NDB. Of course many of you will probably know it already, but hey, I’m just 8 months back in business. NDBs have a periodic signal. With this knowledge a Fourier analysis technique is used to pull the CW signals out of the noise… So just record 10 to 30 minutes of long wave bandwith with your SDR, and let Pskov have a go at it. I’ve been playing with it for a day – and I love it already!
This is my new tool: Pskov NDB…
You can downloaded Pskov from the NDBlist site. The good news is “it is for free, and with your RSPdx receiver and laptop, you have to carry significantly less than 45 kgs!”. The bad news for me personally is that I do realize that I have programmed and done many Fourier analyses in the past working to get my PhD in Physics. But I really forgot how to do it….
I received a QSL from Sublime FM 90.7 MHz, broadcasting from IJsselstein, The Netherlands. From September Sublime will no longer be received on FM.
After the allocation of FM frequencies to national and regional public radio there are 9 “packages” of frequencies left for commercial parties. These are sold via an auction mechanism. In the auction of last July “Mediahuis”, the company behind Sublime, gave up the Sublime frequencies. They were taken by newcomer Financial News Radio which acquired the rights until September 2035.
The fact that Sublime will disappear from FM (they will continue on DAB+ and internet streaming) made me send a QSL request to info@sublime.nl . Nowadays nobody at these networks knows what a QSL is, so I had to explain it a bit, after which I received a kind email from Audiohuis.
Email QSL Sublime FM 90.7 MHz (IJsselstein)
Frequencies of Sublime. From September onwards: Financial News Radio
It is summer time and as a pensionado I really enjoy spending time at the campsite. But I’m still DX-ing. With my son’s old laptop, an SDRPlay RSPdx receiver, a Boni Whip Antenna and an MLA30+ loop I’m still “in business” on the campsite.
And not without success. I received Valparaiso Playa Ancha Radio, Wiluna and Charleville Radio, a few Italian local radio stations… and all with an old laptop, a less than 200 Euro receiver, and a 60 Euro antenna…. DX-ing has never been so affordable.
Below a picture of my antenna setup. We are camping here since April. Initially I had the PVC pipes without support. But now it got warmer the PVC piping flexed a bit more and required a little rigging.
My mobile antenna set-up: Bony Whip, MLA30+ and a lot of PVC piping
Of course I’m just an amateur… a little over 5 kilometers from here there is the real stuff… The Celinex Tower in Hoogersmilde. It is 303 meters high.
Antenna tower in Hoogersmilde Drenthe
In 2011 it caught fire, and FM and TV reception in the north east part of the Netherlands was severely compromised as a result. Today analogue TV has gone…. not sure they would rebuild the antenna today?
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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