The wonderful world of listening to the radio

Category: Venezuela

Curaçao DX adventure (3)

For an island with a population slightly over 190.000 people Curaçao has quite a few FM radio stations! I heard 17 different ones during my stay on the island. Ok this is not DX, but I’m just fond of radio. And it was nice to see the variety of radio stations in either Dutch, Papiamento (or a mix) or even in Spanish (like Radio Rumbera). Quite a few religious stations (New Song, Messianic Waves, Deltha), and a wide variety in music styles.

That said I didn’t get the impression that the situation is sustainable from a financial point of view. The economy of the island was severely impacted by the closure of the Isla refinery in 2019. Covid hit tourism, the only other main source of income, badly. And this impacts revenue streams from commercials.
Yes there are stations with sound programming, disc jockeys, up to date news bulletins, a healthy volume of commercials and presence on social media. But there are also a few that seem to be a “skeleton” operation with non-stop music mainly. The owners of the only medium wave station Z86 and Mi95 on FM went bankrupt earlier this year…

88.3Rockórsou
91.5Hitradio 915
92.1Direct Life
92.7Radio Deltha 92.7
93.3Telecuraçao FM
96.5Radio New Song
97.3Dolfijn FM
97.9Easy FM
98.5Radio Semiya
99.7Radio Mas
100.3Messianic Waves
101.9Radio Hoyer 1
103.1Paradise FM
104.5Radio Active
105.1Radio Hoyer 2
107.1Direct 107
107.9Rumbera FM

Messianic Waves seems to have replaced Hit 100.3 FM/Super Jumbo on that frequency. I did not receive anything on the frequencies for Laser 101 (101.1 MHz), Radio One (103.9 MHz) and Fiesta FM (106.3 FM). Not sure whether they are still online as their websites are also silent. And I might have missed logging Clazz FM on 95.1 MHz. The FM-Scan site does list a few other stations that I didn’t hear.

I did not actively search for stations outside Curaçao other than Aruba (which I tried from Westpunt) and Bonaire. But no results for these two islands. I did hear two stations from Venezuela though, both from Punto Fijo (145 kms away):

PDVSA on 105.7 FM, a station from the Venezuelean State Oil Company, also identifying as La Voz Petrolina.

Radio La Voz Internacional on 101.3 FM. I had this station listed on 106.9 FM, with Festivo FM listed on 101.3 FM, so maybe something changed overthere.

Curaçao DX adventure (2)

I had the privilege of being able to spend 2 weeks on Curaçao in the Caribbean. And I decided to bring my small Grundig G6 Aviator portable with me. In the past I often took my portable with me while travelling for work. But confined to a hotel environment my experience was not always positive. I found that noise levels were often so high that reception was often very poor or non-existent.

On this trip I had the opportunity to move away from our apartment. Around 7.30 PM it was dark, and most evenings I enjoyed one or two hours listening to Latin American stations on medium wave under a tropical night sky . In total I logged 53 stations. Not all of them qualify as “DX” but it was fun nevertheless!

540Radio ABC, Santo DomingoDOM
550Radio Munidal, CaracasVEN
590Radio Santa Maria, La VegaDOM
610La Cariñosa, BogotáCLM
650Antena 2, BogotáCLM
670Radio Rumbos, CaracasVEN
680Radio Nacional Colombia, BogotáCLM
680WBQN Borinquen Radio, San JuanPTR
710Cristal Radio Red, MedellínCLM
770RCN Bogotá, BogotáCLM
780La Voz de Dios, CaliCLM
780ZBVI, TortolaVRG
800TWR Bonaire, KralendijkBES
810Radio Caracol, BogotáCLM
810Radio Paz, San JuanPTR
830Radio Sensación, San AntonioVEN
840Radio HJ Doble K, NeivaCLM
840Nacional FM, HowardPNR
850Candela 850, BogotáCLM
860La Voz del Caneguate, ValleduparCLM
860Radio Mundial 860, San CristóbalVEN
880Caracol, BucaramangaCLM
910La Voz del Rio Grande, MedellinCLM
930La Voz de Bogotá, BogotáCLM
940WINZ Fox Sports, MiamiUSA
970Radio Red, BogotáCLM
980RCN Radio, CaliCLM
990RCN Radio, MedellínCLM
1000RCN Radio, CartagenaCLM
1020Emisora Claridad, MedellínCLM
1070Radio Santa Fe, BogotáCLM
1080La Voz de Antioquia, MedellínCLM
1090Unión Radio Cultural, CaracasVEN
1090Caracal Radio, CúcutaCLM
1100BBN – Red de Radiodifusión BiblicaCLM
1100Caracol Radio, BarranquillaCLM
1130Radio ideal, MaiquetiaVEN
1140Radio Paisa, MedellínCLM
1160Su Presencia Radio, BogotáCLM
1160Caribbean Radio LighthouseATG
1200Radio Tiempo, CaracasVEN
1210La Cariñosa, CúcutaCLM
1220Santa Maria Colombia, BogotáCLM
1260BBN – Red de Radiodiffusión BiblicaVEN
1270La Cariñosa. CartagenaCLM
1340Amor Años Maravillosos, BogotáCLM
1400Harbour Light of the Windwards GRD
1420Radio Sintonia, CaracasVEN
1450Radio Maria Venezuela, Catia La MarVEN
1470Esperanza Adventura, MedellínCLM
1490Emisora Punto Cinco, BogotáCLM
1510La Voz de la Unión, La UniónCLM
1540ZNS1 National Voice, NassauBAH

The most distant distation was WINZ Fox Sports, Miami with 1913 km. I also heard ZNS1 Nassau/Bahamas at 1679 km, Cali/Colombia at 1275 km, and Howard/Panama at 1212 km. I tried to log the American Virgin Islands, but no trace of any of the 4 stations, most likely because they switch to low night power? The Voice of Nevis, another target, was blocked by a very strong LV de Caneguata.

No doubt I could have heard many more stations, as the band was crowded. Fading was a significant problem though, hampering station identification. Sometimes a Colombian station was audible for only 10 minutes or so, dropping in signal strength only to be replaced by another Colombian. And on some frequencies, close to 800 kHz in particular, I had the feeling my little radio was overloading with a strange oscillator howl. Maybe due to the presence of the strong TWR transmitter? Funny detail: pressing the back light button or changing the frequency by 1 kHz seemed to suppress it for a few seconds. I seriously consider bringing my little RSPdx SDR receiver next time I visit.

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