During the night of July 25th/26th I heard three new NDBs from the Azores. GC on 428 kHz on Graciosa Island was one of those and it was confirmed with the other two by Mr. Figueiredo from NAV Portugal:
The bigger airports of which I received other beacons (Horta, Ponta Delgada, Flores) are managed by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal. Smaller airports like Graciosa are managed by SATA Aeródromos. They also operate the airports on Islands Corvo, Pico and São Jorge. SATA is the abbreviation of Serviço Açoriano de Transportes Aéreos and they also operate the daily flights to Graciosa to Lajes and Ponta Delgada.
The night of July 25th/26th offered excellent reception conditions from the Azores. I heard all 6 NDBs including 3 new ones! Mr. Figueiredo from NAV Portugal was so kind to confirm my reception report. So my Azores collection is now complete
NDB HT Horta on 360 kHz is one of two NDBs on Faial Island. The other one, FIL on 380 kHz, is easier to receive in The Netherlands. Horta Airport is relatively small with flights to neighbouring islands in addition to a scheduled flight to Lisbon, Portugal.
A very nice QSL letter from Jennifer Bath at NAV Canada for my reception of NDB YMH Mary’s Harbour on 250 kHz, 4012 kms away from my home location. It was not the first Canadian NDB that I received at my location (that was CA-281 Cartwright), but it is my first QSL. Thanks to Wolf, DE2WHG, for giving me the address tip.
To my surprise I wasn’t only able to receive this signal during summer, but also in pretty good quality as you can see on the picture below. I have to admit that with 1000 Watt the transmitter power is higher than most European beacons. And Roelof Bakker – and experienced NDB DX-er – told me that indeed this beacon is often stronger in summer than CA from Cartwright.
Mary’s Harbour Airport (YMH) is a small airport in Canada with domestic flights only, operated solely by Provincial Airlines (PAL Airlines). There are two non-stop destinations from Mary’s Harbour: Blanc-Sablon (YBX) and St. Lewis (YFX), each with around 9 flights per month.
The airport has one gravel runway and limited facilities. And no internet presence, so this is the best picture I could find:
A QSL for NDB AV on 414 kHz, located 8 km from Asturias Airport near Aviles, in line with the only runway. Aviles is a small harbour town situated on the north coast of Spain in the Asturias region.
On the data sheet that Enaire sent with the confirmation it looks like one of the antenna towers is crooked. Not sure what to think of it, I don’t see it on the Googlemaps Streetview pic:
Asturias Airport sees close to 2 mln passengers a year, with domestic flights but also quite a few scheduled international flights to other European countries.
My reception, as always, was confirmed by informacion@enaire.es .
The QSL for NDB VTA on 345 kHz for Vitoria Airport in Spain revealed that it has a different antenna set-up from other Enaire beacons. In the info sheet I got as a QSL it shows what they call a “Sistema radiante de tipo margarita” (which refers to the daisy flower not the cocktail 😉) as opposed to most Enaire beacons that have a dipole: “Sistema radiante de tipo T”.
Vitoria-Gasteiz airport seems a modest airport in terms of passenger traffic with only a few Ryanair destinations abroad. But it is the 4th cargo airport in Spain.
NDB VTA Vitoria on Googlemaps Streetview
My report was again confirmed by the folks of ENAIRE via informacion@enaire.es. A big thank you for providing me with all these details!
NDB EBT on 362 kHz supports the navigation of the army heliport Valencia/Bétera in Spain. The heliport is part of the Jaime I military base.
Bétera It is the home base of the Batallón de Helicópteros de Emergencia núm. II (BHELEME II), whose Super Puma and Cougar rescue helicopters (HU-21 and HU-27, respectively) are stationed here.
The Base Militar “Jaime I” near Valencia
My reception report was confirmed by Enaire (informacion@enaire.es). Without their usual data sheet as the beacon is operated by the Spanish Military.
On Googlemaps Streetview the T-antenna of the NDB EBT is visible just outside the heliport Bétera
NDB JER on 433 kHz is another beacon with the typical T-antenna set-up in use by Enaire. As usual for my reception report to informacion@enaire.es I got a nice confirmation email with data sheet:
The beacon is located 10 kilometers NNE of Jerez Airport, aligned with the runway of Aeropuerto de Jerez. It is pretty well visible on Googlemaps. The entrance is fenced off with multiple warnings that cell phones are prohibited. Not sure if this makes sense for an NDB, but it looks like there is other communication infrastructure present at the location as well:
Fence at the NDB JER premises, lots of “no cell phone” messages
The two antenna towers and dipole of NDB JER (Googlemaps Streetview)
The history of Aeropuerto de Jerez goes back to 1936. At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War an airport was needed in the south of Spain for the transfer of rebel troops to and from North Africa. It was decided to build a provisional airport south of Jerez de la Frontera on a provisional basis. But already during the civil war, in 1937, it was decided to build a new permanent airport on the current location.
The people of Jerez de la Frontera bought Jerez de la Frontera Airport ( Cádiz ) for almost one and a half million pesetas, opening in 1946 to civil air traffic, national passengers and freight. With tourism growing it is now an international airport, the 18th in size in Spain, the 3rd in size in Andalusia.
When I received my QSL for the NDB SC for Santa Cruz I asked Mr. Figueirado if you could also confirm my earlier report for NDB PD Ponta Delgada on 351 kHz that I didn’t receive an answer on. He was so kind by immediately sending me a reply, so this is my 3rd NDB QSL from the Azores. The contact adres for NAV Portugal is geral@nav.pt :
John Paul II Ponta Delgada Airport is the largest airport of the Azores, with scheduled flights to the US and Canada and many European countries.
While NDB FIL for Horta Airport on Faial Island is a signal that I pick up relatively easy here, I had never heard any of the other Azores beacons in a reportable quality. But during the last CLE event of the NDB list group I heard NDB SC for Flores Island Airport. My reception was confirmed by mr. Marco Figueiredo, Deputy Director of the Santa Maria (Azores) region of NAV Portugal. I sent my report to geral@nav.pt.
Mr. Figueiredo writes that the airport is nearby the town of Santa Cruz. Well, that is a bit of an understatement. The runway cuts of Santa Cruz from the rest of the island, and leaves only two roads along the edge of the cliffs open to access the town… one north, one south:
Flores Airport, and the south access road the vlilage Santa Cruz on the right
Wikipedia writes that the first need for an airport/airfield on the island of Flores was recognized as early as 1927 by the Marquis Francesco de Pinedo, colonel of the Italian Air Force, who was forced to land 200 km from the island of Flores, during his attempt to reach Newfoundland. His Savoia-Marchetti S.55 hydroplane was rescued by the Portuguese fishing boat Infantes de Sagres and towed to Horta where it was repaired.
But, it was only in 1972 that an airport was inaugurated on the island of Flores. It offers regional flights to the nearby Azores Islands.
The second NDB on my QSL from Sakaernavigatsia, the Air Traffic Safety provider in Georgia was NDB DF on 520 kHz from Mukhrani. According to some sources there used to be an airport in Mukhrani, but if that was the case, it is now closed. The beacon is used for enroute navigation.
QSL email for NDB LU Batumi and DF Mukhrani in Georgia
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