A very nice, fully detailed eQSL from Mike Radio. Mike Radio is a Free Radio station operating from the province of Gelderland, The Netherlands. For the Gen Z folks: the station is powered by solar energy!
I sent my report to mikeradio(at)live.nl . UKdxer told me than Mike is one of the younger free radio stations in the Netherlands.
My personal opinion is that rules on hobby broadcasting via MW/SW should be relaxed as apparently nobody seems to care about the interference of PV installations on these frequencies…
I received a couple of beacons from the Toulouse area in France. NDBs TW, MUT, TOE and TLF were received in such a good quality that I thought I could share them and ask for a QSL. I sent my report to the responsible person* at Toulouse Blagnac Airport Mr. Jean-Marc Caner.
Jean-Marc confirmed my reception of the beacons TW, MUT and TOE. But TLF is the responsibility of the smaller Francazal Airport in Toulouse which hasn’t replied to my QSL request yet.
NDBs and airports in the Toulouse area
There are two other NBDs I received, TLB and TS, which seem to belong to Blagnac Airport as well. So I will give them a try for another QSL. CVU clearly belongs to the local airport of Castres-Mazamet.
Toulouse Blagnac is the 5th largest airport in France. It is also hosts the head office of aircraft manufacturer Airbus, and test flights are conducted from this airport.
* The email address of Mr. J.M. Caner is not public, I can share it on request. Just drop a comment.
The Bouri Oil & Gas field north of the Lybian Coast is considered to be the largest oil producing field in the Mediterranean Sea. And ENI Oil platform DP4 is the biggest platform in the Mediterranean. I was pleased to receive the NDB on this platform, with DP4 as identifier, last weekend.
Having worked in the refining and petrochemical industry for over 30 years, reception of a navigational beacon like this is special. Which also holds for the distance: 1915 kilometers, and the fact their signal was exceptionally strong (see below). I sent an email to ENI hoping they will confirm…
I don’t think that there are many examples of regional stations which target an audience in two countries? But feel free to drop a comment if you know one. Anyway, Radio Seefunk, or better Das Neue Radio Seefunk is tuned into by some 147000 German and 35000 Swiss listeners.
Email from Radio Seefunk to confirm my reception
The station started as a local radio for the city of Konstanz under the name Seefunk Radio Bodensee. Today they have 13 transmitters across the south of Baden Württemberg in Germany. Rebranded to Das Neue Radio Seefunk in 2019 they bring music from “Vier Jahrzehnten” (4 decades) targeting an 30+ audience.
I received them while staying near Ulm. Mr. Grunewald was so kind to confirm my report sent to redaktion(at)radio-seefunk.de .
QSL card from Welle 370 “Das Funkerberg Radio” via Nauen
A QSL card from Welle 370 “Das Funkerberg Radio”, from Königs Wusterhausen, Germany. I’m not only very pleased to receive an old school QSL card, but this is also a broadcaster that represents a lot of radio history.
As early as 1911 the “Telegrafentruppe” of the “Deutsches Heeres” (German Army) started radio activities from the Funkerberg, just southeast of Berlin. Initially the antennas were raised using balloons, but between 1913 and 1916 impressive antennas and transmitter facilities were built on this location. Soon the facilities were in use for the distribution of telegrams and weather messages. On 22 December 1920 a “Weihnachtskonzert” was broadcast from this location: the start of the “Rundfunk” in Germany. In 1925 there were already 20 transmitters operating from this location.
After WW2 the transmitters were removed from the Funkerberg, but new equipment was also added, including a new 100 kW LW transmitter. It seems that most of the operations ended in the 90-ies with concern for “electro-smog” being quoted as a reason with only an 800 Watt FM station “Sender KW” remaining.
Today Funkerberg is a Museum, a must do for radio enthusiasts. And Welle 370 is still broadcasting from Funkerberg on 810 kHz (370 meter), albeit with only 8 Watts. Given the presence of Radio Scotland on the same frequency that makes it a bit challenging to receive them in the Netherlands. But fortunately they also broadcast their programs from Nauen (as was my reception) and other relay stations.
Welle 370 has very nice programs made by radio enthusiasts with topics on German radio history. I listened to a student who made a program on the competition between radio and record companies. Please follow them on their website and tune in to their programs!
Another station from Südtirol that I heard during my holiday in the beautiful Ahrntal. Like Radio Holiday the station covers the valleys of Südtirol with multiple low power transmitters. Radio 2000 has 20 of them. Where the valleys are wider as is the case near the capital of Südtirol Bozen (Bolzano) power is a few kilowatts. But the transmitter I received in Luttach has only 200 Watt. If you know the area it is no surprise that Luttach is chosen as location because it is where the river Ahr makes a 90o turn. From Luttach it possible to cover entrance and “Talschluss” of the Tauferer Ahrntal.
Coverage area of the 200W Radio 2000 transmitter in Luttach
I sent my report to info(at)radio2000.it and got a direct reply from Mr. Lukas Thaler.
Not to be confused with Antenne Vorarlberg, Radio Vorarlberg is the regional station of the ORF, the national public broadcaster of Austria. I heard Radio Vorarlberg while staying in Altenstadt near Ulm (Germany). 98.2 MHz is the main transmitter with 50 kW from Bregenz. Other frequencies (with the exception of the 4 kW transmitter at Bludenz) are mostly relays with less than 100 Watts of power.
There is a webform on the site to contact the Vorarlberg station as well as other regional stations. But as I wanted to include a picture I sent my report to kundendienst(at)orf.at which got forwarded to the Vorarlberg team. From them I learned you could als use this address: publikum.vorarlberg(at)orf.at
For the reception of Radio Frieloo on 6290 kHz I received a friendly QSL email from the operator. I sent my report to frieloo(at)outlook.com .
Radio Frieloo is a pirate station operating from the province Gelderland in The Netherlands. The operator told me that he is not often in the air. When it is the case it is mostly to test antenna designs. The transmitter is a R&S with 100 Watt as shown in the picture.
Another souvenir from my favourite holiday destination Südtirol: email to QSL my reception of Radio Holiday on 99.6 MHz (Luttach, Italy). They cover South Tirol with 14 transmitters ranging in power between 20 and 1000 Watt only. I guess that in these mountainous regions line of sight requirements result in more antennes rather than high transmitter power.
I heard them in Steinhaus in the beautiful Ahrntal, only 6 kilometers away. So not really DX, but as a said: a nice holiday souvenir for a station that is very difficult to receive, if at all, in The Netherlands. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Email QSL for Radio Holiday from Südtirol
Coverage map op Radio Holiday Südtirol (source: FM Scan)
At a distance of around 600 kilometers from my home QTH FM stations in the southern part of Germany are difficult if not impossible to catch. They are too close for Sporadic E. But also out of range for Tropospheric DX, particularly when transmitter power is relatively low, as is the case for Hitradio RT1. So I took the opportunity to listen to them while I was visiting the area.
Email QSL for Hitradio RT1 Memmingen
Hitradio RT1 has 10 FM transmitters in the Schwaben region in Germany, west of Munich. Power varies between 0.1 and 0.3 kW, with one station at 1 kW. They carry separate local programs for the city of Augsburg, Neuburg, Nordschwaben and Südschwaben. I received the latter one while in Altenstadt, 28 km away. I sent my report to the local station: info@rt1-suedschwaben.de . Markus Sampl replied within a day.
BDXC : SWL 2262 PRe VERON : NL 14228 If you want to get in touch, just leave a message on one of my posts. Please note that I don't publish email addresses of verifiers which are not part of the public domain. So if you don't see the QSL address, just leave a message and I'll get back to you.
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