"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on" - Marilyn Monroe
Last night I made my first reception of a SSTV station from Brazil. I picked up pictures from PY4XC, Rio Doce, Minas Gerais, about 200 kms north of Rio de Janeiro.
When I checked QRZ.com it was obvious that the picture received was that of the shack:
Shortwave Radio from Winsen is an easy catch here. For a little compensation they will confirm your report with a traditional QSL card. You can read the details on their website.
The station is located in Winsen “on the river Aller”. So that is the Winsen located 20 km north of Hannover, Germany (there is another Winsen south of Hamburg). They broadcast on 6160 and 3975 kHz. Next to their own program Shortwave Gold there are various other program producers that use the Shortwave Radio facilities.
I received a SSTV station with call sign UT1KWA from the Ukraine on 14230 kHz. It turned out to be the Rivne DX club, from Rivne, a city in the northwest of the Ukraine.
Pavlo (UT1KY) is running the station. He is a teacher by profession, but also teaches kids to how to run radio. A very nice initiative as I welcome anything that interests kids in technology! QSL manager for the station is Antonello IK2DUW.
Pavlo also shared some nice pictures of him and kids working at the club, showing some nice awards they got. Given privacy considerations I prefer to share a picture they posted on their website. I think this is Pavlo some years ago. His beard is a bit more grey today (as is my own hair).
Thank you Pavlo for your kind reply, all the best with your initiative and the Rivne DX club. It’s these sort of connects that make our hobby so nice.
Since I resumed the hobby I spent quite a bit of time on maritime DX (DSC mode) and NDBs. But I didn’t do as much on HF Aero. So time to see what’s going on the aero-bands. I did already a couple of SelCal decodes (so nice that we have programs like MultiPSK that allow us to do so) when I discovered HFDL.
I first heard Shannon. On audio the pattern is a brief tone, and then a data burst, as in this audio clip. Using the Klingenfuss guide I started to look for other frequencies, decoded with MutliPSK, and got some Auckland decodes.
Receiving something from New Zealand is always nice, but what about a QSL? I decided to contact Airways New Zealand. Todd, who is operations team lead at Airways told me that they were truly interested in my reception, it wasn’t Auckland Radio that I heard (as they are responsible for voice), but he could confirm I received the HF data link from Auckland.
Meanwhile I’ve learned a little bit more about HFDL. Apparently it is a service called ACARS (Aircraft Communications and Reporting System) initially developed by ARINC (Aeronautical Radio Incorporated). ARINC is now part of Collins Aerospace. UDXF offers a nice information sheet about this service that allows aircraft to exchange date via a ground station with their operators.
Apparently there are 16 ground stations that provide HFDL. I’ve heard Hat Yai, Telde (Canarias), Shannon and Auckland by now. The beauty is that via this digital technique aircraft can for example broadcast their position in 2 seconds, something which would take 1 minute by voice. And during high solar activity periods the digital mode of communication proved to be much more reliable for aircraft flying over polar regions in particular.
San Francisco, CA, USA
Molokai, HWA, USA
Reykjavik, Iceland
Riverhead, New York, USA
Auckland, New Zealand
Hat Yai, Thailand
Shannon, Ireland
Johannesburg, South Africa
Barrow, Alaska, USA
Muan, South Korea
Albrook, Panama
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Al Muharraq, Bahrain
Agana, Guam
Canarias, Spain
Now I fully understand that I’m just a beginner in this field. So if you have additions, corrections, just let me know by leaving a reply in the comments. Thank you!
An e-QSL with lots of details from Moonair Radio, a Free Radio station from Central Europe. DJ Mike is from Holland, and the show I listened to was mainly in Dutch, but from the announcements made it was clear the the location is not in The Netherlands, but somewhere in “Central Europe”. I will not disclose the location, but given the distance I am surprised about the signal strength given an output power of only 250 W. Must be a decent antenna! And I understand why there was a bit of fading.
Mike also shared a nice video of the studio and transmitter equipment. Apparently he is also the operator of Radio Magdalena, a station that broadcasts in AM-stereo.
My reception of Mustang Radio on 6280 kHz, a Free Radio station from the east part of the Netherlands was confirmed with a kind email reply by station owner Herman.
About a week after the email bij Herman he sent me the beautiful QSL card!
An e-QSL from Radio WDR. No not the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, but Radio WDR on 5800 kHz, a Free Radio station from the Netherlands. One of their slogans is “Radio from the Bottom of the Sea”, which might imply that their QTH is what used to be the former Zuiderzee.
A program I hadn’t heard before on Channel 292, Germany is SoundBox Radio. On Friday night they broadcast a nice mix of Disco music on 6070 kHz. My reception report was awarded with an e-QSL and a friendly email in a day.
Last weekend Key Channel Radio, broadcasting from Emilia Romagna, Italy, was on air on 6270 kHz. Massimo, who operates the station was so kind to give me a heads up warning. Reception wasn’t easy as propagation conditions were poor and there was quite a bit of noise/interference which required them to change frequency a few times.
Massimo sent me the beautiful e QSL, a friendly email and some photo’s of the stunning scenery in Emilia Romagna:
Dear Peter, thanks for your valuable listening report. In the end you listened to us too. Tough evening, stanag, CW all active. Yes we changed the frequency 4 times.
KCR has been broadcasting since January 2016 from a location on the hills of the Emilian Apennines.
We use a commercial transmitter with a maximum power of 400 W (in use 250 W) and a self-built Morgain 48/88 Antenna.
There are three of us who manage it, I take care of the technical part, programs.
My girlfriend takes care of important statistics on listeners and small studies on propagation. A dear friend of ours takes care of the graphics, the promos and QSLs are her creations.
We are an open radio, we have collaborated with several German Pirate Radios, Doctor Tim, Radio BZN and more. Now we collaborate with Radio Monique, Bart even made a broadcast and several Jingles for us. (Pirate for Peace Member).
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Last weekend I received Radio60! in good quality on 5840 kHz. Most likely via the transmitter of the Dutch free radio station Contikenzo.
The program was presented by Jürgen who is known as Erden Man in the Free Radio world. He sent me this beautifully designed e-QSL via erdeman(at)gmx.de . Thank you Jürgen!
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