"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on" - Marilyn Monroe
A QSL for NDB BRZ Breza, the “sister” beacon of NDB RI Rijeka. This approach and landing beacon is situated on the opposite end of the Rijeka Airport runway in Croatia. As with the other beacons in Istria such as NDB PLA and KAZ for Pula Airport, Mr. Birkić, head of Istria/Kvarner ATC was so kind to confirm my report.
This beacon shows up nicely on Googlemaps, and the funny thing is that is actually situated close to the city of Rijeka, while NDB Rijeka is only close to the airport.
Rijeka Airport in Croatia has two approach and landing NDBs: NDB BRZ Breza to the north west and NDB RI Rijeka to the south east, as can been seen on the excellent Skyvector website.
As with the NDB PLA and KAZ for Pula Airport, Mr. Birkić, head of Istria/Kvarner ATC was so kind to confirm my report.
While the city of Rijeka is situated on the mainland of Croatia, the airport and NDB RI are located on the island Krk.
Quite a few people will know Pula as a favorite holiday destination. A 2500 year old city on the tip of the the Istria peninsula, Croatia. And as a holiday destination attracts traffic, Pula has it own airport. And as airports still have NDBs I was able to receive NDB PLA Pula on 351.5 kHz. Mr. Mario Birkić, head of Istria/Kvarner ATC was so kind to confirm my report.
The PLA NDB is not located on the Istria Peninsula though, but on the largest of the Brioni Islands in the Adriatic.
A QSL for NDB VRS Vrsar 369 kHz, Croatia. Unfortunately this beacon has been decommissioned.
In 2023 I sent a reception report to Mr. Mario Birkić, head of Istria/Kvarner ATC for the reception of NDB CRE and NDB KO. In recent years I received 6 additional signals from beacons in the Istria region. One of the beacons I received in 2024 was VRS on 369 kHz:
Mr. Mario Birkić was so kind to confirm my reception of these six beacons. He also mentioned that NDB VRS is decommissioned:
So this is another one that bites the dust. NDB KO on 438 kHz from my QSL request in 2023 isn’t active anymore as well.
The purpose of NDB VRS is not entirely clear to me. Some sources like Our Airports link it to Vrsar Crljenka Airfield (LDPV) a small airport on the Istria Peninsula.
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!
A classic paper postcard QSL from 9AS Split Radio from Croatia on 518 kHz!
Spllt Radio is 1312 kms away from my home location and pretty much a “regular” every night. Plovput is the private company responsible for maintenance and operation of this service. You can see the NAVTEX messages on the Plovput website.
Kudoos to Plovput for offering the QSL service, and yes, I have said it before, I do think hobbies like ours might help to gain interest with young people to undertake technical studies that are so needed to keep our society running! Well done people working at Plovput!
There are a couple of NDBs listed for Rijeka Airport in Croatia. I got a kind email from Mr. Mario Birkic from Croatia Control to QSL NDB CRE-433 on the island Cres and KO-438 near Kovala.
Still a little bit of catch-up to do. Mr Boris Mrkonja at Croatia Control, Zagreb, was so kind to QSL NDB PIS-424 located near Pisarovina for Zagreb Airport.
This NDB (Non Directional Beacon) was among one of the first beacons that I received after installing my NTi Megaloop FX antenna a few months ago. As I had never received a beacon from Croatia I was really happy with this result: apparently with my new receiver and antenna it was still possible to do some NDB DX. This beacon is located 1078 km from my QTH. I made my reception “by ear”, so without the use of the wonderful Pskov software I recently installed. So give it a try, this beacon is often really strong and easy to receive!
The island of Drevnik is located in the Adriatic Sea, west of Split Airport, Croatia. Denis Kosor, Head of the ATC unit for the Split region was zo kind to confirm my reception report of NDB DVN on 418 kHz.
Croatian Airspace is divided over 6 Regional ATC centres, part of Croatia Control. I have had some success in getting QSLs from the Regional Centres. Mr. Gadzic from the Osijek Regional centre was so kind to return a QSL for NDB CE-372 (Osijek/Cepin) and NDB OSJ-422 (Osijek Airport).
For who is interested, attached find some details about the Navaids at Osijek Airport.
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