Yep, not the shortest title for a post, probably the longest. Last week I received a DSC transmission identifying as MMSI 002573550 with a test to MMSI 002570000 “Norwegian Public Correspondence”. MMSI 002573550 is listed as Vardo VTS (Vessel Traffic Service).
Norway Vessel Traffic Service (Kystverket) has a nice website but to be honest the structure of VTS is not immediately clear. From this link I conclude that there are 5 VTS centres of which Vardo is one. They are responsible for safe maritime traffic, which includes things like navigational and weather warnings. But they seem to be active on VHF only. Nevertheless I decided to send a report to post@kystverket.no . Within a day I received this answer:
Good afternoon.
NOR VTS/Vardo VTS/Navarea 19 and The National Coordinator for Navigational Warnings is placed i Vardø in North Norway.
We broadcast navigational message to the seafarers. This we do in collaboration with
Norwegian Kystradio. Some types of messages they send out and some we send out but the responsibility lies in Vardø. Norwegian Kystradio is located in Bodø.
We are under Norwegian Coastal Administration.
Best regards
VTS operator
NOR VTS
NORWEGIAN COASTAL ADMINISTRATION
Not really a QSL. I followed up asking if they could confirm it was their station I heard, but that email has not been answered yet.
In parallel I sent a report to Kystradio Nord in Bodø. This resulted in this answer:
So where does that leave me? Well… in the old days (40 years ago) things were easy. You had an office, your own transmitter, your own antenna. Today you have a service. The service could be “monitoring emergencies” like what Kystradio Nord does, or “ensuring safe maritime traffic” like what VTS Norway is doing. But the employees often don’t have an idea on the technical infrastructure needed to perform these tasks. That is a given, with transmitters and antennas operated and maintained by contractors – such as Telenor.
I saw a post on the internet that said that we should regard MMSI 002573550 as a convenient telephone number. If that call is made and received by the antennas in Vardo (or any other antenna) the operators know that this call has to be routed to Vardo VTS (if there is even an operator involved to route such a call). That makes perfect sense.
I assume that it doesn’t make sense for Kystradio Nord to run a test with MMSI 002573550 for Vardo VTS via one of their other MW transmitters like in Bodø. So… this is a QSL for MMSI Vardo VTS via the Kystradio Nord transmitter in Vardo. Any thoughts? Let me know in via the comments on this post.
Hi Peter!
today I received a QSL from Kystradio Nord for a report on Vardoe Radio MMSI 002570800 heard on DSC HF 8 MHz on dec 1st. It’s quite rare to hear Kystradio on HF so I asked them why HF was used and if that was a special winter watch. The reply wasn’t satisfactory as they didn’t answer at all but just congratulating with me for the good reception. We will never know why Vardoe rarely goes HF (especially in winter).
Hi Rob!
I have no ID why that is. I do know that I received Rogaland (August ’24) and Bodoe (Oct ’24) as well on 8 MHz. So the local MMSI’s are still in use.