The wonderful world of listening to the radio

Category: NDB (Page 5 of 7)

QSL NDB MN-344 Menorca

Another NDB on the Baleares, Spain. A QSL for NDB MN-344 Menorca, via Enaire. This radio beacon is located in Sant Lluis on the island of Menorca. It supports arrival and approach procedures at Menorca Airport. Like NDB IZA-394 the transmitter is a 200W Marconi SS2000A, connected to a T-antenna.

Technical Info: MDN MN-344 kHz Mahon, Menorca

QSL NDB IZA-394 Ibiza

Via Enaire, the air navigation and aeronautical information service provider in Spain, I got a QSL for NDB IZA-394 Ibiza. This radio beacon is located in Santa Eulalia del Rio on the island of Ibiza. It serves as approach beacon for the airport of Ibiza, and take off beacon for the airports of Menorca and Palma de Mallorca. The transmitter is a Marconi SS 2000A with 200W output power. The Antenna is a “T” as you can see on the picture they so kindly provided:

Technical Info NDB IZA-394 kHz Santa Eulalia, Ibiza

QSL NDB BJO-316 Bjørnøya

Forty years ago I received a QSL for the non-directional beacon LJS on Bjørnøya or Bear Island. Administratively Bjørnøya is part of Svalbard or Spitsbergen, a territory of Norway. Given its remote location Spitsbergen (including Bear Island) is a separate radio country according to the EDXC list. I somehow assumed that there was no NDB active anymore on the island. But last week I received a beacon BJO on 316 kHz and learned that its location is Bjørnøya.

The maritime radio station Bjørnøya Radio closed in 1996 when – like so many other stations – the station was converted to remote operation from the Kystradio Nord center. But the Bjørnøya Meteorological Station is still staffed, one of the reasons being that a couple of times per day weather balloons have to be launched.

Bjørnøya Meteorological Station (photo: https://bjornoya.org/)

I decided to give it a try, and emailed the Meteo station to find out if they knew about the beacon and could confirm my reception report. Within hours I got a reply from Lisanne… in Dutch! Lisanne is one of two Dutch people in a team of 9 persons that run the Meteo station. They are on duty from June to December when they will be relieved by the next team. Lisanne is trained as meteorologist and it is her 2nd stint on the island.

The team of 9 people on Bjørnøya Meteorological Station. Lisanne in the center, wearing a light blue jacket.

Lisanne wrote that although Bjørnøya Radio is closed, they still transmit a weather bulletin twice a day (10:05 h UTC and 22:05 h UTC) on 1757 kHz. It is preceded by an announcement on 2182 kHz. Lisanne shared this nice Facebook movie about it. But she told me also that they did not send a signal with call sign BJO. There is an amateur radio at the station for visiting amateurs, but that one hadn’t been used either in the past year.

Bjørnøya Meteorological Station (blue H marks their Heliport) and the location of NDB BJO (green dot)

I thanked Lisanne for the nice picture and the reply. And explained to her that the transmitter/antenna I was looking for was probably close to the station and the nearby heliport. A day later another email came in. Over coffee she had raised my question again and with the help of the airports.com site learned that a few kilometers to the east, on the so-called Nordpunktet (North Point) there was an antenna and a little cabin which housed the NDB transmitter. I got a couple of nice photo’s as well.

The fuse cabinet of the Thales NDB transmitter is located in the Meteo Station itself
The little cabin housing NDB transmitter BJO and the antenna

There is a story connected with the little cabin. In 1971 an operator of the Meteo Station named Bjørn Tessem was attacked by a polar bear. He was found near the door of the cabin, with the bear over him. Most likely he attempted to enter the cabin to save himself but the door was locked. There is a small memorial plaque about this event on the wall of the cabin.

Memomarial Plaque for operator Bjørn Tessem who died following a polar bear attack

So you can see how the reception of just three letters BJO in morse code, received over 2500 kms, lead to a surprising conversation, a few nice pictures and a tragic story.

My sincere thanks to Lisanne and the team members at Bjørnøya Meteorological Station, who also gave me permission to publish their photo’s. They have their own website at https://bjornoya.org/ .

QSL NDB BBA-401 Benbecula Airport

There is always something special about receiving a station from an island. I was a huge fan of Dutch writer Boudewijn Buch who had a TV program in which he visited islands, met the people living there, and told stories about these islands. You might compare him with the likes of Paul Theroux. Unfortunately Boudewijn died much too young.

As posted earlier I received a QSL for the Kirkwall NDB on the Orkney Islands. I learned that Kirkwall is one of 11 airports operated by HIAL, Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd. So I asked the kind lady at info@hial.co.uk if she would also consider forwarding my reception report of BBA (Benbecula) and SBH (Sumburgh) to the responsible operators.

David from Benbecula Airport was the first to reply. Thank you David! Another island I can add to my list… but also an island that I want to visit now I have reached the happy age of retirement. It’s high on my bucket list. David also added an overview of the radio navigation aids at Benbecula Airport (see below). Benbecula Airport started in 1936. It was a Royal Airforce Airport during WWII. From here it was home to aircraft carrying out patrols to protect shipping convoys on the Atlantic from German U-boats. After the war it became a civilian airport again, and today their are scheduled flights to Inverness, Glasgow and Stornoway.

QSL NDB BL-421 Borlänge Airport

From 23rd – 25th September I participated in another Coordinated Listening Event. This time the challenge was to try to log a beacon on each frequency between 275 and 425 kHz. So maximum 151 NDBs. In total I logged close to 380 beacons on 127 different frequencies.
Of course I try to get a couple of QSLs in return for this effort and like last time I decided to focus on Sweden (there is no way that I’m going to send out 380 reception reports!). The first QSL came in today from Borlänge Airport. NDB BL-421 is located 1132 km from my home QTH.

QSL NDB BL-421 Borlange Airport, Sweden
QSL NDB BL-421 Borlange Airport, Sweden

QSL NDB KW-395 Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

Last weekend I participated in another Coordinated Listening Event organized by the NDB list community. I will report more about this in a future post. But the first QSL is already in: Mikko Kinnunen from the Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd. (HIAL) was so kind to send an email to QSL NDB KW-395 Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland (United Kingdom). I sent my report to info@hial.co.uk .

Mikko was quite surprised by the distance covered (906 km). But as you can read in the email they have their own DX as well! On their VHF frequency they regularly receive Birmingham and Dusseldorf control tower. I guess this occurs during favourable tropospheric conditions.

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) is responsible for the management and operation of 11 regional airports serving some of the nation’s remotest communities: at Barra, Benbecula, Campbeltown, Dundee, Inverness, Islay, Kirkwall, Stornoway, Sumburgh, Tiree and Wick John O’Groats

QSL NDB KW-395 Kirkwall Airport, Orkney Islands, Scotland
email to QSL NDB KW-395 Kirkwall Airport, Orkney Islands, Scotland

QSL NDB PIS-424 Pisarovina / Zagreb

Still a little bit of catch-up to do. Mr Boris Mrkonja at Croatia Control, Zagreb, was so kind to QSL NDB PIS-424 located near Pisarovina for Zagreb Airport.

This NDB (Non Directional Beacon) was among one of the first beacons that I received after installing my NTi Megaloop FX antenna a few months ago. As I had never received a beacon from Croatia I was really happy with this result: apparently with my new receiver and antenna it was still possible to do some NDB DX. This beacon is located 1078 km from my QTH. I made my reception “by ear”, so without the use of the wonderful Pskov software I recently installed. So give it a try, this beacon is often really strong and easy to receive!

Email to QSL NDB PIS-424 Pisarovina, Croatia
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