I received a fully detailed email QSL from WWKB “The Bet” on 1520 kHz from Buffalo, NY, USA. WWKB follows a trend in which more and more stations use a catchy name. Since 2021 they brand themselves as “The Bet 1520” as they focus on sports gambling. I heard quite a few “BetMGM” commercials.
Receiving a Transatlantic station might be a challenge, getting their QSL is another one. The websites of the stations are often blocked for IP addresses outside Europe, so you have to use a VPN connection. But even then often the only contact opportunity granted is via a web form. This makes it difficult to personalize your reception report and impossible to include a MP3 recording. And so far I had poor experience in getting a reply. But as you can see, Kevin Carr from WWKB did reply with a nicely detailed email within a day.
In the last few days I enjoyed pretty good Transatlantic medium wave conditions. This resulted in a couple of QSLs that I will post in the coming days. The QSL for WJR 760 Detroit, Michigan, USA, is the first of those. Mr. Keith Bosworth, regional director of engineering for the Cumulus Group was so kind to confirm my reception with full details:
Whenever you receive a station with a three letter call-sign you can bet it is an older station with a great legacy. The roots of WJR go back to May 4th, 1922, albeit under the call-sign WCX. That is only 5 months after December 1st, 1921. On this date the US government adopted regulations formally defining “broadcasting stations”. The wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) was designated for entertainment broadcasts, while 485 meters (619 kHz) was reserved for broadcasting official weather and other government reports (source: Wikipedia).
WCX obtained a license for both frequencies. With a fast growing number of stations competition was fierce. Stations in the same region had to “time-share”. It took until 2023 when a band running from 550 to 1350 kHz was opened for broadcast activities. But even then WCX had to time-share on 580 kHz with WWJ from Detroit. This situation lasted until 1925, when WWJ was assigned to 850 kHz. That was also the year in which the Jewett Radio & Phonograph Company received a license for a new station. The letters of the call-sign letter WJR apparently refer to this company. This company took over WCX and the call-sign WJR survived until today.
Fisher Building, Detroit home of the WJR studios
The studios are still located in the Fisher Building, a “sky scraper” in Art Deco style, built in 1928. The antennas on top of the building relay the signals to the transmitter site.
My second attempt to QSL Polish Rescue Radio on 2187.5 kHz was successful! Polish Rescue Radio operates from the city of Gdynia in Poland. I heard them with a DSC message to a cargo ship GT Foresti. When I checked the ship was in the Kiel canal, connecting the East (Baltic) Sea with the North Sea, on its way to Brake, a harbor in the Weser river, north of Bremen.
Email to QSL the reception of Polish Rescue Radio on 2187.5 kHz
I snet my report to gmdss@umgdy.gov.pl . Polish Rescue Radio replaced Witowo Radio on January 1st, 2020. They have a very nice website that provides lots of info on their operations.
When I resumed the DX hobby about a year ago I didn’t think that I would be able to add new EDXC radio countries to my total. But this QSL for TWR PANI Kyrgyzstan on 1467 kHz already adds my 3rd new country to my list. It brings my total on 191 as I was never able to get a QSL from the Kyrgyzstan national radio.
TWR has always been a very DX friendly station. But the structure of their organization and website is really tuned to meet the needs of the individual target audiences. As a result it is a bit complicated for DX-ers to find schedules and program/station owners. As Mr. Kalman Dobos from TWR Europe was so kind to send me a QSL for the TWR broadcast from Armenia, I asked him. And indeed within 5 weeks I had my eQSL. The report I sent to TWR Asia via a web form remains unanswered at the time of writing.
QSL TWR Kyrgyzstan 1467 kHz
As was the case for Armenia, the QSL unfortunately only mentions Central Asia. Fortunately there is no confusion possible with TWR from Roumoules, which dominates the frequency in the evening with its high power transmitter from France.
The programs from Kyrgyzstan are referred to as TWR PANI: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Northern India. And the languages spoken are from that region, which makes it difficult to pick up details. But at 15:43 a recording of male voice in English mentioning TWR360.org twice was played. It was followed by the well known TWR interval signal and a telephone number that was repeated in English. That’s probably the best way to identify the station, as there was also another Middle East station from either Saudi Arabia or Iran present on the same frequency. And yes, a local LPAM, Radio Eldorado, contributed to the QRM as well.
More info on the station can be read on the very informative Ydun’s Medium Wave Info site.
As my antenna is usually directed WNW/ESE for Transatlantic MW DX I don’t receive them too often. But during last weekend I was busy chasing NDBs and had the antenna pointing North. In addition to Arkhangelsk Radio I had a nice reception of a NAVTEX message from Vardø Radio on 518 kHz. Within a day I had my QSL.
eQSL for Kystradio Nord
Vardø is located on the NE tip of Norway, 2430 kilometers away from my QTH. Together with Svalbard and Bodø Radio the station serves NAVAREA19, basically the waters around Svalbard/Spitsbergen. The stations are remotely operated from Bodø.
Vardø on the NE tip of Norway is 2340 km from my QTH.
With 25 kW Danko Radio on 1251 kHz you definitely need to listen LSB and pray that they don’t play overmodulated music. But JOY Radio, or CJYE from Oakville, Ontario, Canada ( between Toronto and Hamilton) can be received in The Netherlands.
“PPC” QSL card for CJYE 1250, Oakville, Ontario
For my reception report I got a friendly email from Hollie at the customer desk. It’s a small world, as she apparently grew up in Sherwood Park, near Edmonton, Alberta. For four years I lived in Sherwood Park with my family, so we had a bit of an email exchange about Sherwood Park memories. But despite a gentle reminder, the engineering team has not responded yet… I will make another attempt by “snail mail” using the above PPC.
CFQR 600 from Montreal, QC, Canada is a relatively new station that went live in 2017. My reception report was confirmed with an email that – including some spelling errors – I copied pasted in the “PPC format” I intend to use for email QSLs.
“PPC” based on email QSL for CFQR 600, Montreal, QC, Canada
I learned something new: this radio station is owned by a socalled “numbered company”, in this case “7954689 Canada Inc.”. Apparently you get a default number according to the Canadian Business Act if your business doesn’t have an established corporate identity. Meanwhile the business behind CFQR is know as the “TTP Company” with the letters TTP referring to the owners Tietolman, Tétrault and Pancholy. who also own CFNV 940.
A classic paper postcard QSL from 9AS Split Radio on 518 kHz!
A classic QSL card for 9AS Split Radio on 518 kHz
Spilt Radio is 1312 kms away from my home location and pretty much a “regular” every night. Plovput is the private company responsible for maintenance and operation of this service. You can see the NAVTEX messages on the Plovput website.
Kudoos to Plovput for offering the QSL service, and yes, I have said it before, I do think hobbies like ours might help to gain interest with young people to undertake technical studies that are so needed to keep our society running! Well done people working at Plovput!
Alexis LeBlanc technician/producer at CFMB 1280 Montreal was so kind to confirm my reception report with an eQSL. CFMB is a multilingual broadcaster, and some say the call sign refers to that: “Canada’s First Multilingual Broadcaster”. On their website I counted 16 languages, and my reception was a program called “Horizons” brought by a Canadian Bulgarian newspaper, followed by a program with Arabic contemporary music.
eQSL from CFMB 1280, Montreal, Quebec
The station was originally broadcasting on 1410 kHz. The move in 1997 to 1280 kHz, a former French language frequency, was quite controversial. Some saw it as an attempt to prevent French language stations to take this frequency. Others considered it an attempt to promote a multicultural society preventing immersion in French language. Such things were and are still sensitive.
Bo Mogensen, Chef Kystradio, was so kind to confirm my report for NAVTEX transmissions from Greenland:
Simiutaq Radio – letter M Igdlutaligssuaq (Kook Island) – letter W Upernavik – letter I
I still see the old names like Nuuk and Cape Farewell in the logs (as I reported earlier), and yes I have to say…. Nuuk is just a few kilometers away from Igdlutaligssuaq, and with due respect for the Greenlandic language, it is a bit easier to quote.
In the letter I got from Bo Morgensen (regular mail, old school QSL!) he gives a little bit of info about the history of these stations.
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.
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