This QSL is for another of the three beacons I received from the Canary Islands: NDB BX-389 La Palma.
La Palma Airport is just one runway, but unlike tiny El Hierro it does offer flights to Europe.
Category: NDB (Page 4 of 7)
During the CLE299 all of a sudden I received three beacons from the Canary Islands. I’ve said it before, reception from a station based on an island is somehow always a bit special. So I am very pleased with this QSL for NDB HIE-376, located on the island of El Hierro.
El Hierro is the tiniest inhabited island of the Canaries. But it has an airstrip, and on the picture below you can actually see the radio beacon, to the left of the terminal building. It’s a tiny airport, and traffic is limited to flights from Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
As was the case with the QSL for the NDBs on the Baleares, the email confirming my reception came with a fully detailed datasheet:
There are 9 active NDBs in Bulgaria. During the CLE299 event I was able to receive 7 of them. Mr. Kostadinov, Deputy Director Operational Systems was so kind to sent me an email confirming my reception of:
GNA-284 Gorna
BOZ-312 Bozhurishte
DWN-350 Devnya for Varna
KMN-399 Burgas/Kamenar
PDV-450 Plovdiv
WAK-490 Vakarel
PD-537 Plovdiv
Despite the distance, which is between 1719 and 1958 km from my home QTH, I receive these beacons on an almost daily basis. But on the other hand I did not yet receive the remaining two: BD-297 and BU-321…
Via ONDA (Office Nationale des Airports) in Morocco I received an email to QSL my reception of NDB CDS-345 Daouarat. This beacon is located south of Casablanca. Mr. Fouad Naji, Chef de Division NAV, encouraged the passion of a DX-er, which is nice. I sent my report to communication@onda.ma .
I’m looking for a neat way to document my NDB QSLs other than just printing the emails. The example above is what I’m currently thinking about. The relevant info, email, company logo and the signature recorded by Pskov.
What do you think? Comments are more than welcome!
From Christmas to New Year I participated in the Coordinated Listening Event CLE299 organized by the NDB list group. I like CLE’s as they give you a bit of insight in the performance of your equipment. The goal for this event was to:
- Choose a bearing (antenna direction); both forward and back bearing counts.
- In any country crossed by your bearing log up to maximum 10 NDBs.
There is obviously a bit of strategy involved in this one. Initially I thought I should go for the former Yugoslavian republics, as Croatia in particular brought me many stations in the past. But that would have given me only Scotland and England on the back bearing.
So in the end I went for 117/297 degrees as this added Ireland and North Ireland to the list. Targets in the direction South East were Germany, Austria and Czechia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In addition to The Netherlands I was allowed to count the North Sea as a “country” as well.
Most of the 94 beacons I logged are shown in the picture above. With 2284 kilometers Izmir/Cigli (CIG) was the most distant beacon heading SE. It is the first NDB I received from Turkey ever!!! Benbecula (BBA) on the Outer Hebrides towards the NW is 985 kilometers from my QTH.
NDBs per country: IRL (7), NIR (2), SCT (10), ENG (10), XOE (2), HOL (1), DEU (10), AUT (10), CZE (9), HNG (5), SRB (10), ROU (10), BUL(7), TUR (1)
A QSL for NDB PEP on 297 kHz from Prilep, North Macedonia. My 2nd QSL from this country. The beacon is located 1733 kms from my QTH. The Cyrillic text on the email translates as “keep up the good work”!
NDB MAK-360.5 Mackel is an en-route beacon for Brussel Airport. Koen Vanooteghem told me in his QSL for the Oostende NDBs OO, DD and ONO, that historically this beacon is maintained be Skeyes as well. So I sent him a report which was immediately confirmed.
I shared with Koen what I learned about the situation in The Netherlands with NDB NW for Maastricht Airport being the “last man standing” as some satellite navigation details had to be worked out with Belgium. Koen told me that as of January 1st, 2024 all Belgian Airports should have RNAV (satellite navigation) operational. EBAW (Antwerp) has been ready for a while, EBOS (Ostend) is ready since November this year. So the expectation is that Belgian NDBs will be taken off line by end 2024.
The radiobeacons DD, OO and ONO for Oostende Brugge Airport are maintained by Skeyes. Koen Vanooteghem of Skeyes, a HAM operator himself (ON6BVK) was so kind to confirm my reception report. Thanks to Arvid Husdal for the tip.
There is only one NDB (nondirectional beacon) left in The Netherlands, and that is NW at Beek, or Maastricht/Aachen Airport. This airport is also “home” of Dutch Air Traffic Control (LVNL), so I sent them an email (info@lvnl.nl) to ask what makes NW so special. I got a friendly reply (thank you!):
LVNL has phased out all NDBs and Locators in recent years, with the exception of the NW beacon. The reason for this is that we now use satellite navigation and these beacons are no longer needed. The navigation procedures have been adjusted accordingly. This was possible in most of the airspace above the Netherlands. Only part of the airspace and route structure in the south of the Netherlands is currently too complex to use satellite navigation. As a result, more time is needed to safely introduce the satellite navigation-based procedures in the border area with Belgium. It is expected that this will be possible sometime in the coming years. After that we can also phase out the NW beacon.
Belgium still has 11 active NDBs, with SLV-386.5 in Spa and ONL-290 in Liège close to Maastricht.
Today I received another email from BHANSA, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Air Navigation Services Agency. This one confirmed all three radio beacons I sent a report for to info@bhansa.gov.ba . So this adds a QSL for NDB DNC-425 Mostar to my collection. A big thank you to Mr. Vlado Juric for this confirmation.
Apparently Mostar Airport is struggling a bit compared to Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Tuzla Airports. In 2012 it was still the 2nd airport after Sarajevo, mainly because of pilgrimage to Medjugorje. Over a million people per year visited this town where Our Lady of Medjugorje appeared to six teens in 1981. I really recommend reading this Wiki about the complexity of religion in an already complex political environment.
During COVID Mostar Ariport lost the two companies carrying out scheduled flights from Mostar Airport, so it is used by seasonal charters only these days. You can find the other QSLs and stories about Bosnia by clicking on these links: BLK-340 and TU-445 .
VERON : NL 14228
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