The wonderful world of listening to the radio
August 31st, 2024 it was 50 years ago that Radio Noordzee en Radio Veronica closed down. There were quite a few broadcasts that day to commemorate. I heard Radio Northsea Nijmegen with a program via Channel 292, Germany on 6070 kHz.
Earlier I received a QSL by email, today this nice physical QSL card dropped in the mail box! Thank you so much Michel Boon at the Radio Northsea Nijmegen team!
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.
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 .
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!
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.
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.
A very friendly but also a bit of an odd email to QSL my reception of SWR DasDing on 98.9 MHz. DasDing (“The Thing”) is the youth radio station of the Südwest Rundfunk, the commercial free radio for the Bundesländer (“States”) Rheinland-Pfalz (Rheinland Palatinate) and Baden-Württemberg in Germany. I heard the station during an overnight stay in Altenstadt, 28 kilometers away from the location of the 1 kW transmitter near Ulm.
Tina from DasDing wrote:
“Actually we are only broadcasting in Baden-Württemberg und Rheinland-Pfalz. But it could be that you have received the 98.9 transmitter from Ulm”.
My reception location was about a kilometer across the border in neighbouring Bavaria. Oh oh these naughty radio waves: propagating to where they are not supposed to go… 😂 . Thank you Tina for the confirmation!
Cruisin’ the Decades is a program created by Brad Savage. On a weekly basis the 60 minute program brings one songs per decade, from 1920 to 2020. A very nice concept. Cruisin’ the Decades is broadcast via many stations. On shortwave I’ve heard the Cruisin’ the Decades show via Channel 292 Germany and WRMI Miami. Apparently there is also a slot with WBCQ Monticello.
The email QSL below is for the reception of this program via Channel 292, Rohrbach in Germany (6070 and 9670 kHz).
This weekend, August 31, it was exactly 50 years ago that Radio Noordzee went off the air. The Dutch authorities signed the Straatsburg Treaty against piracy forcing Radio Noordzee off air. Radio Veronica, another Dutch offshore station, stopped on the same day.
There were quite a few shows on various relay stations like Channel 292 and a couple of pirate stations to commemorate all of this. Radio Northsea Nijmegen rented three hours of time on Channel 292 in which the last hours of Radio Noordzee were replayed. Michel Boon was so kind to confirm my reception report with a nice eQSL.
This morning I listened to Radio City via Channel 292 on 9670 and 6070 kHz. A nice mix of lesser known oldies, including some French songs that always give you that “summer feeling”. Within an hour I received the above QSL which gives some information about the format. The 2nd page of the QSL (not shown here) gave information about the music that was played.
The “Tower of Power!” logo on the QSL confirmed what I already suspected. The station is named after the offshore radio station. The original Radio City was active between 1964 and 1967 from the Shivering Sands Army fort in the Thames Estuary. These were the wild days of offshore radio in the UK, culminating in Radio City’s manager Reginald Calvert being killed by Oliver Smedley, former manager of offshore Radio Atlanta, in a violent row about a transmitter sale.
I did not count on it as I didn’t had the time to listen to their full 1 hour programme. Just dropped them a quick comparison of the 6070 and 9670 reception quality. But probably out of courtesy towards a regular listener I received the August ’24 QSL for their broadcast via Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany.
You can always listen back to their programs via the website: http://radioatlantic2000.free.fr/
I am a fan of Channel 292. It is a nice platform for enthusiastic producers to share their view on music across international borders. This weekend I listened to Alt Universe Top 40. A nice show that provides context on a Top 40 chart in a selected year.
John McMullan is the man behind Alt Universe Top 40. He was so kind to confirm my reception report with a very nice email. Please check out John on his next show, and send him a report!
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