The wonderful world of listening to the radio
December 1st, 1924, was the day on which the VLF transmitter in Grimeton with call sign “SAQ” was taken into service. The station connected with telegraphy transmission across the Atlantic to Riverhead and Rocky Point on Long Island, New York.
The quality of the Centennial Transmission was exceptionally good… better than any of my SAQ receptions so far.
An e-QSL card for Radio Vanuatu on 9960 kHz. In 2023 Radio Vanuatu started to issue e-QSLs. I tried to catch them on 7260 kHz but wasn’t successful. As Vanuatu would be a new EDXC country I decided to make an exception and tune in via a Kiwi SDR in Brisbane to get a QSL in July 2023.
This week Helmut Matt let me know that Radio Vanuatu could be received in decent quality on their new frequency of 9960 kHz around 0630 – 0700 h UTC. So I gave it a try and this time I was able to hear them with news, weather and a Lionel Richie song. Given local noise not easy, but definitely doable: SINPO 24222. Within a day I got the eQSL from Warren Robert, Manager of Technical Services.
It feels good to have this station QSL-ed for a reception from my home QTH!
This year Trans World Radio (TWR) celebrates that it was 50 years ago that they started broadcasting from a location near Manzini, Swaziland. I had the pleasure of visiting the country, which is now called Eswatini, and the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary 12 years ago.
Transmitter power has been upgraded from 25 kW to 100 kW which results in a very good reception of their program on 9500 kHz here in The Netherlands. Unfortunately, as far as I know there is only 1 hour of English programming left on their schedule, Sundays only. And when I tuned in they went already off air after 30 minutes. So I’m afraid that TWR is also moving more and more to FM and the internet to get their message heard.
Mrs. Lorraine Stavropoulos confirmed my reception within a day. I sent my report to lstavrop@twr.org (please note the first letter is an “L”). Funny detail is that the QSL features a Bible text in Dutch, so apparently custom made!
Below the well known QSL card which I received in 1980.
What’s in a name? Well it does matter. I heard what I called Rijeka Radio on 2187.5 kHz in October. As I didn’t receive a reply on my reception report I tried again today. Within a few hours the duty officer MRCC Rijeka M. Butkovic was so kind to send me this confirmation:
And yes it was that MMSI I received:
TIME: 2024-10-21 04:37:48 FREQ: 2187.5 DIST: 1027 Km
SYMB: 120 120 024 089 098 000 000 108 000 023 087 001 000 118 126 126 126 126 126 126 126 122 004 122 122
FMT: SEL
CAT: SAF
TO: SHIP,248998000 Ro-Ro Lismore
FROM: COAST,002387010,HRV,Rijeka Radio
TC1: TEST
TC2: NOINF
FREQ: —
POS: —
EOS: ACK
cECC: 4 OK
So Rijeka Radio is no more, it is MRCC Rijeka now. Which effectively means it is a new station for me as well😉.
Below you can see my Radio Rijeka QSL from 1993: 6 kW in CW on 8700 kHz. When I pulled it out of my collection I noticed that is was stamped by Plovput. The same company that confirmed my NAVTEX reception of Split Radio a year ago, with Rijeka Radio still on the QSL. QSL collections are documenting history!
In The Netherlands the 1485 kHz is reserved for 1 Watt LPAM’s. That should make it an interesting frequency, but despite their low power, Radio 182 from Waddinxveen at 15 kilometers from my QTH is so dominant that it blocks other stations. Their signal probably benefits from a good antenna location and only green fields in between them and me.
So when I visited family in Akersloot I decided to test my new Tecsun PL-368 radio, the one I won during the SWL-2024 contest, on 1485 kHz. I was able to pick up Radio Elvira from Heerhugowaard over a distance of 15 kilometers. Just above noise level at a 2dB SNR (it’s a nice feature that the Tecsun displays this info). They replied with a kind email explaining that for some reason their coverage is only 4-5 kilometres north, but significantly better to the south (where I was receiving them).
Radio Elvira has a nice website where they also post some local news. They advertise as “Radio Elvira 1485 Dijk en Waard”. Dijk the dutch word for dike, and Waard the dutch word for polder.
Samsun is the largest port in Turkey situated at the Black Sea. The QSL for Samsun Türk Radio on 2187.5 kHz is my third QSl from a Turkish coast radio station, having received Izmir and Istanbul earlier. This leaves Antalya on the “to-do” list.
I received my QSL email via turkradyo(at)kiyiemniyeti.gov.tr
Apologies for not posting for a while but I was busy with a) some admin stuff for the Benelux DX Club, and more importantly: b) the finalization of the documents to be sent to the potential builders of our new house… From a DX perspective I see it as an investment in a low QRM future!
But I still owed you this one: an e-QSL for NDB KF Keflavik on 392 kHz. My first QSL for an NDB on Iceland. An e-QSL but it is scanned. And as everything I post on this site has to be scanned anyway… you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference!
Keflavik is the largest airpot in Iceland. And the government tries to promote it as a transfer hub with the option to explore a bit of Iceland on your journey.
Always nice if you can contribute a bit to one of the leading blogs on Medium Wave radio DX: Ydun’s Medium Wave Info.
I was so fortunate to catch a test transmission from Radio Rossii on 1215 kHz and get it confirmed: https://petersdxcorner.nl/kaliningrad/qsl-radio-rossii-1215-khz/
Yesterday I received a Radio Rossii program on 1215 kHz. This frequency is not listed in the WRTH or MWLIST but it used to be in use by Radio Transmitting Centre 5 in Kaliningrad.
Mr. Andrey Molokov confirmed my report in a day with a f/d eQSL which indeed suggests it was the Kaliningrad RTC5 that was active with 150 kW. Mr. Molokov acts as QSL manager and can be reached via andrey_hamradio[at]mail.ru .
The first QSL of the 2024/25 Transatlantic season. I heard CJMR from Oakville, Ontaria, Canada with nice Indian music. Again the Shazam app was a great aid in identifying the songs. I sent my report via their web form. Mrs. Paige Dent, Director of Engineering, was so kind to confirm my reception:
I already noticed that CJMR has the same postal address as CJYE 1250 “Joy Radio”, and it was Mrs. Dent who signed my PPC last time. So I did sent a PPC to CJMR as well, and do hope that she will sign again. And do note they apparently have plans to acquire CKTB 610 AM as well!
CJMR brands itself as “The Voice of the City” and as a multicultural station they are broadcasting in 15 different languages.
And yes I do know there are perfectly good opportunities for Transatlantic DX in summer, most of all towards South America, but I like the seasonal notion for North American reception.
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