The return on my Spanish Sporadic E reception reports is quite poor. Especially when you compare it to the response rate of the Italian stations (over 50%). But at least my report to Pop Lasser FM from Valencia, Spain, was answered with a kind reply from the technical department. I sent my report to popradiofmvalencia@gmail.com .
Pop Lasser (the RDS display shows Laser by the way) broadcasts from Valencia with only 2 kW. I heard them with pop music and local commercials from Valencia, which – in addition to the PI code/RDS – helped the identification.
is different here. i write to the local offices of Cope, Ser, Onda Cero etc and sometimes get a short reply or a brief wording of thanks. it is a door opener to state sth about the Euro world cup, I experienced. then you will raisen your chances to get a reply from Spain.
from Italy where there are only big networks left and almost none local radio, I did not get any reply in recent years. tried RadioDelta Uno, Radio Club 91 and Play Capital this summer.
nothing.
same regarding france. wrote to Caroline, Decibel, RCF – not even a short asnwer.
(of course I am always writing in their national language)
Hi Don Roberto,
Yep I do use the local language as well. Google Translate does miracles for correct spelling/grammar and I have no problem reading French, Italian or Spanish… so I can check the translations a bit. You have to be a bit lucky I guess… I received three replies now, and got some tips from a friend that I’m now following up on.
What helps is spelling out the confirmation sentence you would like to receive back. I learned from several bigger Dutch networks that they have no clue what our hobby is all about. The public relations people receiving your email are so remote from the technical aspect of radio broadcasting. For them it is all about audience, commercials, and radio is just one vehicle they use to get the commercials to the audience. For that reason I sometime ask them to forward my report to the transmitter engineers… there is a pretty high percentage of them that are HAM radio operators, and they appreciate our hobby.
Finally: I wished the team of Romanian Digi Radio success in the Eurocup… but after the 3-0 loss they suffered against the Dutch I have to see if they still QSL 😉!
I seem to remember that Radio Caroline once wrote explicitly on their website that while they were “fascinated” by reading signal reports, they’d only confirm reports from really far away.
(Sounded a bit like an invite for fake reports, but I suppose that’s not what they meant!)