The wonderful world of listening to the radio
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:
Browsing through my SSTV recordings on 14230 kHz I found this interesting call sign: EH3ARRL. The station was on air September 23rd, 11.41 h UTC. Checking the QRZ.com website I learned that the call sign EH3ARRL is owned by a group of amateur radio operators from Catalunya. EH3ARRL is advocating that Catalunya should be a separate DXCC country.
For those unfamiliar with the radio amateur jargon: ARRL is the American Radio Relay League, the national association for radio amateurs in the USA. DXCC stands for DX Century Club, an award for those operators who can confirm having worked stations from 100 countries. And of course the ARRL defines what counts as a country, and doesn’t. All over the world radio amateurs use the ARRL DXCC definition to determine how many countries they worked. By the way, as a DX-er I always used the EDXC country list, which is a bit different.
The EH3ARRL group argues that Catalunya, while being part of Spain, has its own government, own police and own telecommunications. And they have their own EA3 radio prefix. They quote examples like Scotland, England, Wales and various other territories and enclaves that are counted as a separate DXCC radio country, while they are also not an official state. If you agree with them you can sign their petition on the change.org website.
Later that afternoon I received the SSTV picture from EA3BIL, who happens to be one of the operators behind EH3ARRL.
In less than one hour after sending my report I received a QSL COPE Valencia on 1296 kHz. My reception was confirmed with a QSL by Carlos Corral from the local technical department who also confirmed my report for COPE Murcia. Thank you Carlos!
COPE is an acronym for Cadena de Ondas Populares Españolas. This nation wide network is established by the Spanish Episcopal Conference – the catholic bishops in Spain – with the intent to bring religious programs. Since 1980 the network evolved to a more generalist radio. They still bring religious programs though, and the church has a prominent spot on the COPE website.
Earlier this year I received a short email for my reception of SER Radio Manresa. Manresa is a city in Catalunya, Spain. The nation wide morning news program of the SER network is called “Hoy por Hoy”. If features slots for regional news allowing you to identify a specific station.
My report was sent to informatius@els40.com.
In November last year I received an email QSL for my reception of SER Radio Leon, Spain on 1341 kHz. I sent my report to radioleon@radioleon.com.
Nice detail in the email: using medium wave I was one of the few people abroad able to listen to Radio Leon. Access to the Radio Leon internet stream was blocked outside Spain for the duration of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar (in relation to broadcasting rights and royalties)!
On Wednesday evening 21:28 UTC I received a local program from COPE Murcia on 711 kHz. Murcia is the name of a city and corresponding region in Spain. Carlos Corral from the Technical Department was so kind to confirm my reception with a nice email. Thank you Carlos!
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