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.
The original Radio City station was operating from Shivering Sands Army fort.
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.
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!
I received a nice email to QSL my reception of Jazz AM via Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany, on 9670 kHz. Jazz AM is brought by gbradio.uk. They can be regularly heard on Channel 292, but on occasion use a U-turn construction to broadcast via Woofferton 3955 kHz, as explained in the email from John at Jazz AM:
A bit of background about Jazz A M. gbradio.uk is a very small scale programme producer located in Hampshire UK. I have had a long history of enjoying Jazz dating back to VOA Jazz Hour and the whole evenings of Jazz and events such as Montereux on Europe 1 and France Entire in the 1960’s during the period Jazz really took off in FRANCE.
The German Government licences Short Wave Broadcaster who can sell airtime at a reasonable rate. Encompas operate the only shortwave broadcast site in the UK. the BBC ,VOA,and overseas Broadcasters buy time but UK citizens can not as you cannot get UK Broadcast Licence for Shortwave. HOWEVER C292 is licenced by the German authorities and has a relay agreement with ENCOMPASS. So I do occasion broadcasts on 3955 kHz at 125 kW.
Best Regards John
For those interested: this is the schedule for the coming days:
Relay via Woofferton UK
3955 kHz Sunday 18th August 2100 to 2200 UTC 125 kW
10Kw via Germany Channel 292: (10db gain with beam)
9670 kHz Sunday 11th August 1000 to 1100 UTC Beam R 9670 kHz Sunday 11th August 2100 to 2200 UTC Beam R 9670 kHz Sunday 18th August 2100 to 2200 UTC Beam R 9670 kHz Saturday 24th August 2100 to 2200 UTC
Atlantic 2000 will be on the air this Saturday, 10th of August, from 0800 to 0900 UTC (1000 to 1100 CEST) on 6070 and 9670 kHz via Channel 292. Streams will be available at the same time here: http://radioatlantic2000.free.fr
Channel 292 brings a number of interesting programs. Often I just make an SDR recording during the weekend so I can listen to selected shows during the week.
CM Obrecht is one of the programs that stands out due to the music selection. While shortwave might not be the best medium to appreciate music, you can discover new artists to add to your on-line play lists.
Obrecht is a musician himself, composing and producing electronic music. Learn more about him on his website where you can listen to his music, but also find out about the next broadcast times of his program..
I received the above e QSL within a day, having sent my report to c.obrecht@swissonline.ch .
A nice QSL for Atlantic 2000 International celebrating their 42nd anniversary. I received this program via Channel 292, Germany, on 9670 kHz. As always I sent my report to atlantic2000international@gmail.com .
Atlantic 2000 international was for the first time on shortwave the 6th of June 1982. This month, we are forty-two years old!
For this event, we will broadcast our special anniversary show this Saturday, June 8th, from 08:00 to 09:00 UTC,
on 6070 and 9670 kHz via Channel 292, and online on our website. If you want to receive our special eQSL, send a really detailed reception report to: atlantic2000international[at]gmail.com
On June 8, 2024, we will feature music from the winning albums in the Fusión Alternativa (“No me formes crisis by Toques del Río) and Nueva Trova plus Notas Discográficas (“Universos” by Tony Ávila y Su Grupo) categories of Cubadisco 2024
Times & Frequencies are:
1700-1800 UTC 9670 kHz with beam E-F towards South Asia
1900-2000 UTC 3955 & 6070 kHz (omnidirectional for Europe and beyond)
2300-2400 UTC 3955 kHz (omnidirectional for Europe and beyond)
All transmissions from Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany
We will honor reception reports with an eQSL using websdrs IF 1. The entire hour is reported 2.. Which websdr is clearly specified. This will be strictly enforced beginning this month; reports for just a few minutes of the show will be acknowledged with a short note of thanks instead.
At the start of this post I want to make clear that I don’t intend to make jokes about the very kind people of WDR5. Read my explanation at the end of this post.
Last year I was testing my FM antenna… more about that later. I came across WDR5 Langenberg, Germany on 88.8 MHz. As I read somewhere that they were still issuing dedicated WDR5 QSLs I decided to send a report to wdr5@wdr.de. Two days later I received a polite email:
Vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse am Programm von WDR 5. Bitte haben Sie Verständnis dafür, dass die Bearbeitung Ihrer E-Mail ggf. etwas Zeit in Anspruch nehmen kann.
If you don’t speak German: “Thanks for your interest, asking for your understanding that it might take a while”.
Two weeks ago I realized myself that I never got answer. So I sent a kind reminder. Within a day I received this reply:
Da Ihr Anliegen etwas sehr komplex ist, geben wir dieses Intern weiter und werden uns nochmal bei Ihnen melden!
This translates as “your question is quite complicated… we will forward and let you know”.
And last week I received a nice fully detailed letter from the Technical Information Department to QSL WDR5 Langenberg:
QSL Letter for my reception of WDR5 Langenberg on 88.8 MHz
As promised at the start of this post, my take away: I am very grateful that WDR5 is still sending out physical letters to QSL reception reports from listeners. There are very few stations that still do so, and I applaud them for this. But the correspondence does show how unfamiliar the front office public relation desk is with anything related to “technical questions”. Steve Canney, former engineer and QSL Manager of CFRB/CFRX Toronto made me aware of this. And you can see that the reply is from the Technical Department. This is why, when sending QSL requests to bigger stations, I always try to direct them to Engineering or Transmitter Engineering departments.
To finish this post, the beautiful QSL card I received in 1980 for my reception WDR Langenberg on 1593 kHz medium wave… those were the days!
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.
Feel free to copy anything on this weblog. I try to provide accurate information, but if I'm wrong: don't blame me! A link back to my site is appreciated when you copy info.
