Tag: Iceland (Page 1 of 2)

QSL NDB RE Reykjanesskóli 316 kHz

February 22, 2026 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

The name of the NDB RE Reykjanesskóli on 316 kHz is a bit misleading, and that is augmented by the fact that it belongs to Reykjanes Airport. That might make you think it is located on the Reykjanes Peninsula in the South East of Iceland, where you find Reykjavik Airport and Keflavik Airport. And if you ‘google’ for Reykjanes Airport you end up finding many links to either of the these two.

But this Reykjanes Airport is located in the West Fjords region, in the NW corner of Iceland. To avoid confusion the ICAO locator “BIRS” is often added to the name when reference is made to Reykjanes Airport.

Location of Reykjanes Airport (BIRS) bottom right. The larger Isafjordur Airport is seen top left.

The airport is nothing more than a landing strip. There is no infrastructure, the only service offered is a wind vane on a pyramid with the last two letters of the ICAO locator code -BIRS- to let you know you found it.

If I’m not mistaken the beacon itself can be found across the road of the Reykjanes Hotel. It is a dipole antenna. On the Google Streetview photo below you see one of the suspension masts, the feed point to the dipole, and the hotel in the background. The building with the exhaust on top of it seems to be a generator for the hotel and most likely also the beacon, and there is a little diesel storage tank to the right (just outside the picture).

NDB RE Reykjanesskoli on 316 kHz (Googlemaps)

Below you can see the beacon signal as received with Pskov software, and the QSL signed and sent by Mr. Hjalti Geir Guðmundsson from Isavia Navaid Division.

QSL NDB 385-IS Ísafjörður

December 3, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

NDB 385-IS is located in northwestern Iceland. It serves the small airport of Ísafjörður. Located in the fjord the approach of this airport is quite challenging requiring flying along the mountains and making a sharp turn before landing.

The beacon IS is located at the entrance of the fjord, situated on a cliff which seems to house several antennas:

The beacon IS Ísafjörður is one of the antennas located on top of the cliff

My reception report was confirmed by Hjalti Guðmundsson from Isavia.

QSL NDB 355-RK Reykjavik

November 28, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

Isavia was so kind to send me a QSL for 5 radio beacons from Iceland I received recently. See also previous posts of NDB GO, and NDB 387-NB and 415-OE. NDB RK Reykjavik operates Reykjavik Domestic Airport. The beacon is situated on the golf course of Golfklúbbur Seltjarnarnes.

Reykjavik Airport was constructed by the British Army during World War II on the site that was previously in use for sea planes mainly. After the war the airport was handed over to the Icelandic government. It acted as the main gateway for international flights from Iceland. But it was considered too small for the bigger jet planes introduced in the 60-ies which instead used Keflavik Airport (50 kms away).

Ever since there have been discussions on the future of Reykjavik Airport. In 2019 that resulted in the closure of the shortest runway, allowing housing development projects. Other than that no decision has been made on closure or relocation.

QSL NDB 340-GJ Gjögur Airport

November 4, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

During the CLE-321 event I heard 5 new beacons from the north coast of Iceland. Beacons from the south and south-west are heard more often here in the Netherlands. My guess is that they benefit from transmission over water. This time there were excellent conditions to the Arctic regions allowing me to pick up these beacons including NDB 340-GJ Gjogur Airport.

Gjogur –. .— on 340 kHz as registered with Pskov software

Earlier I wrote about the two beacons serving Akureyri Airport, a bigger international airport. This post is about 340-GJ for Gjogur Airport, or Gjögurflugvöllur.

Gjogur is one of the airports that is purely there for the benefit of the local population, most likely sponsored by the Icelandic government. It is staffed part-time by an AFIS controller, and only opens for Norlandair flights, which are twice a week in the winter and once a week in the summer. In the winter, the airport is the only means of access to the entire district, as the access road is impassable.

There is a very nice slideshow “Descent into the Fjord” by Rajan Parrikar available on the internet that gives a nice impression of a flight to Gjogur Airport.

QSL NDB 387-NB and 415-OE Akureyri Airport

October 31, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 1 Comment

The weekend of September 27th I participated in a Collective Listening Event (CLE 321) of the NDB-list group. I just fitted my make shift antenna in the garden (5x5x5 delta with NTi Megaloop FX box). And stations came booming in… Not only did I receive 6 beacons from Nunavut (I will write about that later), but I also received 5 new beacons from Iceland. In hindsight I guess that exceptional conditions were more important than my antenna… but judging my other medium wave receptions my antenna is working well! Hjalti Guðmundsson from Isavia was so kind to confirm my reception.

The first two beacons I’d like to comment on in my blog are NB on 387 kHz and OE on 415 kHz. Both are serving as navigation beacons for Akureyri Ariport. Akureyri Airport – or Akureyrarflugvöllur in Icelandic – was established in 1954. Already in 1928 there were flights to Akureyri, but those were seaplanes from Reykjavik landing on the fjord of Eyjafjörður. Today there are seasonal international flights from the UK, Switzerland and The Netherlands serving tourism.

I struggled a bit to find the location of both beacons, but I guess the map below is correct. I tried GoogleMaps to find a picture of the beacons… but so far I wasn’t successful. If you are… please let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: Patrick ON4CDJ informed me that by using the coordinates provided by several sources for NDB OE you end up on an industrial parking lot. Between the light poles there is one strange mast – occupied by a seagull. Is this NDB OE?

QSL NDB HN-330 Hornafjördur

July 5, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

NDB HN on 330 kHz serves Hornafjördur or Hornafjörður Airport, located on the south east coast of Iceland. It serves the community of Höfn (about 2500 people) with scheduled flights to Reykjavik. The terminal building looks slightly bigger than that of Thorshofn, but not by much.

QSL for NDB HN-330 Hornafjordur (and TN, VM as well)

It is my 6th beacon from Iceland confirmed. Mr. Guðmundsson from Isavia was so kind to send a scan of the QSL letter.

QSL NDB TN-373 Thorshofn

July 1, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL for NDB TN-373 Thorshofn, an Icelandic beacon that I don’t hear as often as some of the ones earlier posted in this blog.
Thorshofn Airport, or properly spelled in Icelandic, Þórshöfn Airport is a small airport on the Langanes peninsula in northeast Iceland. There are flights to the bigger Akureyri airport 5 days a week by a plane that does a round trip Akureyri – Vopnafjörður – Þórshöfn – Akureyri.

ccording to Wikipedia the terminal building is only 12×9 meters as domestic flights in Iceland don’t need security checks and the 19-seat Twin Otter aircraft used does not need large terminals.

The Þórshöfn Airport control tower with the terminal wing to the right.

QSL NDB VM-375 Vestmannaeyjar

June 30, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL for NDB VM Vestmannaeyjar on 375 kHz (together with two other Icelandic beacons which I will discuss in upcoming posts). VM is one of the beacons heard most often at my QTH, even during summer.

Vestmannaeyjar is an archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. It has a small airport and two longwave beacons: VM-375 and HL-345 Vestmannaeyjar/Helgafjell. You can read more about the airport in my post on the QSL for HL-345.

QSL NDB HA-348 Vopnafjörður/Hofsa

March 20, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

The other beacon verified on the QSL I recently got from Isavia is NDB HA Vopnafjörður Airport. Vopnafjörður is a small village in the north east of Iceland. Its Airport has slightly over 500 movements per year. Regular flights are carried out by Norlandair to Akureyri Airport in the north of Iceland 5 times a week. From there people can connect to other airports on Iceland including Reykjavik and seasonally to a number of Airports in mainland Europe.

QSL for NDB HL Vestmannaeyjar and NBD HA Vopnafjörður

The NDB HA is located in Hof (or Hofsa), a little hamlet about 15 kilometers SW of the airport.

Vopnafjörður Airport and Terminal Building

QSL NDB HL-345 Vestmannaeyjar/Helgafjell

March 19, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

Vestmannaeyjar Airport is the first airport in Iceland constructed without foreign or military assistance. It is located on the main island of the Vestmannaeyjar Archipelago (the Westman Islands). With the construction of a nearby ferry terminal at Landeyjahöfn sailing times to the mainland reduced from 3 hours to 30 minutes. This resulted in a drop in demand for scheduled flights. Today there are only government sponsored flights to Reykjavik in winter (probably because shipping and road conditions might not be optimal).

My reception of NDB HL serving this airport on 345 kHz was confirmed (together with NDB-HA which is for another post) by Hjalti Geir Guðmundsson from Isavia, the operators of the airports in Iceland

There is a second beacon NDB VM on 375 kHz serving the airport as well. In hindsight I should have added that one to this report as it is one of the most regular received beacons from Iceland here in The Netherlands.