The wonderful world of listening to the radio
For my reception report of Tokyo Coast Guard from Japan on 12577 kHz I received this nice QSL letter. I heard Tokyo Coast Guard with a DSC message as you might already have guessed.
I added two dollars to cover return postage. They were donated to the Blue Feather Donation as you can read in the letter. Two blue feathers accompanied the QSL: pretty cool!
Thanks to Hugo Matten who confirmed to use the address below:
Japan Coast Guard, 2-1-3, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8976, Japan
As far as I know – and correct me if I’m wrong, comments are more than welcome – KYODO from Japan is the only service that still broadcasts newspapers in FAX on HF / Shortwave. According to their website they are radio-transmitted twice a day to about 800 ocean-going ships and fishing boats, and hotels in resorts abroad. The first newspaper was published in 1964.
I received them with my RSPdx and MLA30+ antenna on June 26th, around 17:30 h UTC on 16971 kHz. Interesting detail: apparently because of the complexity of the Japanese characters they transmit in 60 rather than the more common 120 lines per minute.
A good overview of the few FAX transmission still available can be found on this website. KYODO has transmissions from Singapore as well.
They still exist… physical QSL cards, sent by mail, full of details. A big thank you to the folks at Japan Meteorological Agency for keeping up the tradition! I got my QSL JMH Japan Meterological Agency on 13988.5 kHz for my reception of weather charts via fax, which is almost a tradition in itself!
I have to thank Hugo Matten as he reported good reception conditions late June for the reception of various stations from the Far East around 14 MHz. The QSL was accompanied with a kind letter with additional details:
Currently their are good conditions to receive some of the Weather Fax Stations from the Far East in the late afternoon, say between 17:00 and 21:00 UTC . The Japan Meteorological Agency is one of them on 13988.5 kHz, The callsign JMH is easily spotted top left:
They broadcast a satellit image at 19:10 h UTC:
Another station is Guangzhou Radio on 16826.25 kHz. Very clear image and ID, unfortunatly I didn’t sync them very well. I received them on 12629.25 kHz as well, but in lesser quality.
And on 13570 kHz there is HLL Seoul. Not every picture has their name attached, but the HLL callsign was obvious on this one:
Check this link for the best info on the few Weather Fax stations that are still in operation!
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