Thanks to a tip from Goran Hardenmark I was made aware of a transmission from NTNU Ålesund, Norway. During a class exercise a radio check was made on 3366, 8297 and 12353 kHz. I heard nothing on 3 MHz, some weak conversation on 8 MHz (but not sure if it was NTNU), and a clear “All ships all ships” at 09:20 UTC on 12 MHz. I have to admit that I need to train my ears again for proper USB listening: I got a bit spoilt with all the digital modes!
eQSL NTNU Ålesund for their USB Radio Check on 12535 kHz
The Radio Check could be monitored via their Facebook group. And this also gave me the opportunity to chat with Mr AH Barmen who coordinated this course. He provided the following details:
The frequencies we used today are reserved for intership communication, 3366 KHz have been used for intership communication in Nordic waters, the two others are randomly picked from Appendix 17 – Sub Section B of the Radio Regulations. All maritime schools that provide training for maritime radio certificates are equipped with a ship radio station that can use these frequencies.
On our radio station we have a Sailor 6300 MF/HF radio, 150W and a 12 m antenna, in adition we have Sailor and Furuno NAVTEX receivers, two Sailor VHF’s, INMARSAT-C and an Iridium LT3100s.
I also received the special eQSL card for this event. Thank you Mr. Barmen!
QSL for ZSC Cape Town Radio 16804.5 kHz. Already in the 80-ies I tried this one when I received them in CW. No luck. More recently I tried again to get a QSL for their DSC transmissions. No luck. Then I got a contact email of Mr. Khan from Artur at Maresme DX, but even that took a 2nd attempt. But hey, here it is, a nice f/d eQSL showing the Table Mountain and the city of Cape Town, South Africa.
The call that I received as logged by ZSC itself: connect with MMSI 229989000, which is container ship CMA CGM RHONE on its way from Miami to Port Klang Malaysia.
And that was not all. The QSL was accompanied with a friendly email, a comprehensive letter describing the history of Telkom maritime services in South Africa, and a 4 page e-brochure:
Among the DSC stations Faversham Radio, call sign MNC, is something special. You have the major Coastal Radio Stations and Rescue Coordination Centres (JRCC or MRCC) and then there are a few maritime colleges and training institutes like MarTec in Skagen, NuTec in Bergen and Trondheim, and the Constanta Maritime University. Faversham Radio/MNC MMSI 002320204 however is a voluntary run station specifically set up to allow DSC test call Acknowledgements in NavArea 1 following the closure of LyngbyRadio HF provision quite some time ago. It is not part of the GMDSS system but runs automatically H24 and while very active pre the Pandemic is now rarely used with the expansion of HF provision elsewhere. It is situated in Faversham along the Swale, a tidal channel in the Thames estuary.
Roger Taylor was so kind to confirm my reception of Faversham Radio. After serving as a radio officer at sea and then teaching Decca radar systems all over the world, he joined the Merchant Navy College at Greenhithe in Kent. After a stint at the National Sea School in Gravesend he and a few colleagues decided to become independent and start Snargate Radio as a training facility for GMDSS. They gave it call sign MNC, referring to the old college at Greenhithe. But also the first coastal radio station in the UK using an M (as in the old days of the Marconi Stations) rather than G in their call sign.
Later MNC was relocated to Faversham, and the name was changed accordingly. The station is entirely voluntary run by ex seafarers. The transmitter is a Sailor 5000 SSB kit because, as Roger explains, this is the only kit that allowed them to program an MMSI number starting with “00” indicating that it is a coastal radiostation. This is indeed something that is odd with stations like MarTec, NuTec, CMU or ANFR Donges: their MMSI is like that of a ship.
Faversham Radio is allowed to acknowledge DSC test calls. Making it the only HF maritime provision in the United Kingdom. In the beginning (2013-2015) the station was heavily used. But then a drop in requests was noted. Apparently due to the fact that the UK MCA had asked the entry in the ALRS (Admiralty List of Radio Signals) to be deleted. This has no been decided otherwise, but the use of Faversham Radio is still very low. Making it a rare catch.
European listeners to DSC/GMDSS messages on the various frequencies know that there are a few stations like Coruna Radio who are heard almost every hour, every day. And there are stations that you can only hear when propagation conditions are favorable: true DX. But there are also stations that are just not that often on the air. Martec Skagen is one of those, and this QSL ANFR Donges, the Agence Nationale des Fréquences is for another one.
ANFR is big organisation, and as decribed on Wikipedia their mission is:
“… ensuring the planning, management and control of the use, including private use, of the public domain of radio frequencies subject to the application of article L. 41 of the Postal and Commercial Code. electronic communications , as well as the skills of administrations and authorities allocating radio frequencies. Its budget is allocated to budgetary program 134 “Business and tourism development”, of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.”
By the way: one of the things they do is licensing radio amateurs. That said, I have no clue why this agency was contacting utility ship JIF Helios on 8 and 12 MHz near the Canary Islands.
I decided to give it a try and sent a report to ANFR Donges, Department Radiomaritime, 223 La Pommeraye, 4480 DONGES, France. I added the “Department Radiomaritime” hoping this would help to get the email on the proper desk. A week later I got a polite email back confirming my reception:
Email to QSL my reception of ANFR Donges on 8 and 12 MHz.
A scan of my reception report,with SR Donges stamp was also included. But no answer on my question what this transmission was all about…
If you do know what ANFR does with DSC transmissions… please leave a comment!
In October 2023 I (and some other DX-ers on YADDNet as well) received a DSC message from Svalbard Radio with MMSI 002570900 on 2182.7 kHz. This station MMSI is not received very often. And what I heard was an acknowledgement of a test message sent by the ferry Silja Serenade on its way between Mariehamn in Finland and Sweden on the Baltic Sea. So I wondered if I truly received Svalbard Radio.
I sent a reception report to Kystradio Nord in Bodø (kystradio.nord@telenor.no), as they remotely operate Svalbard Radio. But quite unusual for them I did not get an immediate answer. So I tried again last week. And with apologies (which is not necessary at all as they are just doing us DX-ers a favor on all of our requests) I got an email that QSL-ed my reception of Svalbard Radio.
Email confirming that I received the Svalbard transmitter of Telenor, Kystradio Nord
The email also explains why there was such a strange connect between a ferry on the Baltic and Svalbard Radio/ The test acknowledgements are fully automated on many (but not all) coast stations. So my guess is that the radio officer – who has to execute a mandatory weekly test – decided to go for something special… and triggered a response from the Svalbard transmitter?
This means that I have received a QSL from a station from mainland Svalbard/Spitsbergen for the first time. Not a new radio country though, as Bjornoya (Bear Island) which I received with NDBs LJS in the past and BJO last year is considered part of Svalbard according to the EDXC country list.
But where exactly is this station located on Svalbard? The first maritime station on Svalbard/Spitsbergen, Svalbard Radio was established in 1911. The location was Finneset, close to Barentszburg, the Russian settlement on Spitsbergen. But in 1930 the station was moved to Longyearbyen. And in 1975 the transmitters/antennas moved to Longyear – Svalbard Airport. Since 2006 the station is remotely controlled by Kystradio Nord in Bodø.
But that is not the location of the MF transmitters though. In 1932 two Soviet ships went aground. These were probably coal ships to Barentszburg. The Russian coal mining company Arktikugol developed an intiative to improve the navigational aids. It included the construction of a new station on Isfjorden in 1933. Once it was called Isfjord Radio, but since 1976 the station is remotely operated by above mentioned Svalbard Radio after completion of the Longyear – Svalbard Airport facilities. The Isfjord name seems no longer in use. Isfjorden is also the location from which Svalbard NAVTEX messages are being transmitted.
Isfjord Radio Station
Today the housing facilities of the radiostation in Isfjorden are exploited by Basecampexplorer to accommodate arctic tourists. So it is possible to make a visit!
Fully detailed eQSL from XSX Keelung Radio, Taiwan
If I’m not mistaken this was my 3rd attempt to get this nice QSL for XSX Keelung Radio 12577 kHz. I sent my report to klgmdss@ms1.hinet.net .
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a lot of info about Keelung Radio on the internet. So I will finish this post with my QSL from 1982 from Keelung Radio, when we were still searching the bands for VVV and CQ markers in CW:
1982 QSL for reception of Keelung Radio in CW on 8 MHz.
Today I received a polite email to QSL my reception of Tianjin Coastal Radio on 8414.5 kHz. I sent my report to tianjinradio@163.com, and three hours later I received my reply. The call sign of Tianjin Radio is XSV.
Tianjin is the third largest port in the world, after Shanghai and Singapore. That said, I don’t see them in the DSC logs as often as for example Shanghai and Guangzhou Radio. The port is situated on the Haihe river. Tianjin has a population of 14 million.
Tianjin Coastal Radio Centre
By the way, last week I was away on a skiing holiday, but I kept my receivers on DSC watch. I also triggered remote logging on the YaDD decoder. The beauty is that I could see in Tirol what was being received via YaDDNet . So I already knew that I had received Tianjin before I got home… and DX Atlas confirmed it. Not all is bad in the modern age of DX-ing!
As far as I know JRCC Piraeus, Greece, is not heard too often with DSC messages, but this week the station was heard a few times on 12 and 8 MHz with DSC messages. I sent my report to contact@yna.gov.gr . Within a day I received an email from the Duty Officer to QSL JRCC Piraeus on 12577 kHz.
Email QSL for my reception of JRCC Piraeus with a DSC message on 12577 kHz
Coast Guard Radio in Spain is remotely operated from three centers: Coruna, Valencia and Las Palmas. This e-QSL CCR Las Palmas confirms my reception of the latter, operating from the Canary Islands on 8414.5 kHz. It was my 2nd attempt to get a QSL from this station via ccr.laspalmas@cellnextelecom.com , so maybe they reply a little bit irregular.
Unfortunately the e QSL doesn’t show the station name, so I have to save the email that went with it in my files as well:
A real QSL card for Cyprus Radio 5BA on 8414.5 kHz. I heard this coastal station with a DSC message. It is nice that they still award QSL cards by mail. Forty years ago they were also reliable verifiers. I attached an old QSL letter from 1982 for a reception of a broadcast in A1 (Morse code).
Nice QSL card from Cyprus Radio 5BA, Nicosia, Cyprus
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