The wonderful world of listening to the radio
The fifth and last on my recent QSL email for NDBs in the North of Spain: NDB B-395 Bilbao. The beacon is situated on Punta Galea, left of the Bilbao harbour entrance, next to the golf club.
Below the ENAIRE datasheet submitted with my QSL, and a slightly better picture taken from Google Maps. Similar to San Sebastian NDB HIG it is a dipole suspende between two towers at 12 m height.
Another NDB from the north of Spain on my recent QSL from Enaire: HIG-328 San Sebastian. The call sign refers to Cabo Higuer, which is where the beacon is located. The frequency is 328 kHz.
Enaire always sends nice data sheets with their emails. Unfortunately the resolution is a bit on the low side. But NDB HIG can be “approached” in Google Maps, which gives a good impression of the set-up. The antenna is a dipole suspended by two towers (orange arrow) at 12 mtrs height. The dipole is fed (green arrow) from the little building (red arrow). Nice detail is the ENAIRE sign post.
Earlier I posted about my QSL for NDBs C-410 and C-401 from A CoruƱa. These beacons were confirmed as part of a set of 5 NDBs I received from the north of Spain. The other beacons are SA, B and HIG. NDB SA on 416 kHz is located near Seve Ballasteros – Santander Airport.
Seve Ballasteros was a well know golfprofessional who at the age of 54 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. In 2015, four years after his death, the Santander Airport was named after him.
The position of the beacon in relation to the airport can easily be seen on the ourairports website. It sits nicely in line with the runway.
And as always the information desk at Enaire included a datasheet for this beacon:
Enaire is a reliable verifier of my receptions of NDBs. That’s nice as there are still quite a few NDBs active in Spain. I received NDB C on 410 kHz, and NDB COA on 401 kHz, both close to Coruna Airport. For this weblog I googled a Coruna Airport picture and I was surprised to see an Estrella Galicia beer commercial on their tower š.
Enaire always includes datasheet pictures in their reply. Can someone comment on the antenna lay out, it almost looks like a dipole?
Radio Maria operates 95 radio stations in many countries around the world. I have received Radio Maria stations from Austria, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela. A few years ago they were even active on the former Dutch national radio frequency of 675 kHz before this transmitter was closed. But unlike similar world wide religious broadcasters like AWR or TWR they have no presence on shortwave.
Mr. Lopez from Radio Maria EspaƱa was so kind to confirm the report of my reception made during a Sporadic E opening on June 24th. I sent my report to radiomaria@radiomaria.es . Unfortunately their are 4 stations present on this frequency, all low power. Given reception conditions that day my guess is that Toledo (2kW) was the transmitter I received, Marbella being less likely.
A QSL from CADENA 100. I heard them during the June 24th opening to Spain. The 8 kW transmitter is located in Murcia. I sent my report to cadena100@cadena100.es.
CADENA 100 is a nationwide network owned by COPE. It broadcasts adult contemporary music. I heard a quiz and the “Black Eyed Peas”. In 2023 it was the 2nd most listened to music radio station in Spain.
The return on my Spanish Sporadic E reception reports is quite poor. Especially when you compare it to the response rate of the Italian stations (over 50%). But at least my report to Pop Lasser FM from Valencia, Spain, was answered with a kind reply from the technical department. I sent my report to popradiofmvalencia@gmail.com .
Pop Lasser (the RDS display shows Laser by the way) broadcasts from Valencia with only 2 kW. I heard them with pop music and local commercials from Valencia, which – in addition to the PI code/RDS – helped the identification.
A QSL for NDB MIA-292 in Melilla. As Melilla is a Spanish enclave on the North African coast it counts as a separate radio country, a new one for me. I chased for a week on this one. Made SDR recordings from sunset until sunrise of the 290-310 kHz band, in 1 hour segments. Next processed the recordings with Pskov.
This resulted in 3 loggings of MIA, of which one was clearly identifiable and thus reportable. Unfortunately I did not obtain an good copy of NDB CEU-300 from Ceuta, which is also high on my wish list.
I sent my report to informacion@enaire.es, and as with earlier reception reports the confirmation email contained a datasheet but also a high quality photo of the antenna.
A nice fully detailed email confirmation of my reception of MRCC Bilbao, Spain, on 2187.5 kHz. I sent them both an email (2nd attempt to bilbao@sasemar.es ) and a letter. From the answer I guess that it was the letter that made it to the control room.
Whereas Valencia, Coruna and Las Palmas Radio are frequently heard with DSC messages, the MRCCs seem less active on MF. There are quite a few of them though, but the ITU list indicates a presence on VHF/UHF only. Classaxe however shows five stations that were logged on 2187.5 kHz in recent years: Finisterre, Tarifa, Gijon, Valencia and Bilbao. The first two are most frequently heard apparently.
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.
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