Tag: Mediumwave (Page 7 of 12)

QSL Radio Timișoara 630 kHz

November 25, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

I received a polite email from the English desk of RRI to QSL my reception of Radio Timișoara on 630 kHz. They thanked me for my report and they will mention it in the upcoming Listener’s Corner on RRI. Funny detail: the English desk is very clear in communicating that engl@rri.ro should be the only address to be used, but their replies still seem to come from different addresses. Anyway: engl@rri.ro it is for you!

Like other stations in Romania (see my post on Marosvásárhelyi Rádió) Radio Timișoara has a rich history. Timișoara is most important city in the region called Banat, which is currently split between Hungary, Romania and Serbia. The name itself comes from the original Hungarian name Temesvár, which means “castle on the river Temes”.

As early as 1930 there were plans to create a “Radio Timișoara”. These plans were approved in 1939, but WWII thwarted execution. After the war the first programs began to be broadcast from Timișoara in 1952. In 1956 regular broadcast in Serbian and German language began, each with a 20 minute program. Censorship from Bucharest increased over the years, but Radio Timișoara managed to stay “out of sight” until Ceaușescu ordered the closure of all regional radio stations to facilitate censorship from Bucharest in 1985 .

Personally I vividly remembered Timișoara as the city where the Romanian Revolution started in December 1989 (I was 17 years old at the time). This led to the demise of the Ceaușescu regime. Soon after the revolution Radio Timișoara resumed broadcasts, and the Hungarian language was added to the program in addition to German and Serbian. Today they feature broadcasts in Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Romani and Bulgarian as well.

VOCM: “Your Merry Christmas Station is back!”

November 20, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

In the Netherlands we just celebrated the arrival of Sinterklaas this weekend, a children’s party that culminates in a festive gifts evening on December 5. Only after December 5th we start preparing for Christmas.

However in Canada VOCM is already in the Christmas spirit. After the Aurora of the past few days, reception conditions seem to be recovering. So for those who want to get into the Christmas mood right now: tune in to VOCM 590, “your Merry Christmas station is back!”. Click on the link for a short YouTube clip.

QSL CFGO Ottawa “TSN 1200”

November 19, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

Receiving Transatlantic medium wave stations is still one of the nicest aspects of the DX hobby. Rick Furniss, engineer at CFGO was so kind to QSL my reception of CFGO Ottawa, Canada, better known as “TSN 1200”. I heard them with a TSN network program, broadcasting the NFL game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Detroit Lions.

In his email Rick wrote that he receives more reports for the 50 kW sister station CFRA on 580 kHz, most likely because the antenna direction is more favorable for Europe. So that is another challenge for this winter. Rick also sent two nice pictures with comments which I’d like to share:

“The first is one of the Current Main Tx, a Nautel NX50 sitting beside our old backup Tx a Gates 10kW full tube unit. The Nautel is about 5 years old and the Gates is built in 1962 from a 1959 Gate Corp. drawing. It was removed from service after a small electrical fire in the power supply cabinet about 5 years ago but it worked great right up till then. We have not owned it from new but we did buy it from the station that did. We have it’s complete documentation and log books since the day it went on air, Truly a museum piece today. We also have a Nautel ND50 Tx not shown that is our current backup Tx for this site.” (Photo Rick Furniss)

“The second picture is of the 6 towers in the CFGO antenna array in south Ottawa. I was waiting to go into the site while a thunderstorm passed (It had taken us off the air with an Hydro failure) and I noticed the rainbow.” (Photo Rick Furniss)

A big “thank you” to Rick for the QSL and the nice pictures!

QSL Album AM 846 kHz

November 13, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

René L’Baum, PE0RL, sent me a comprehensive email to QSL my reception of Album AM on 846 kHz. Album AM is one of many LPAM stations that are active in The Netherlands. The station is located in Uden, 66 kilometer from my QTH.

Compared to a few other stations at comparable distance their signal is very strong, almost always better than SINPO44444 (in the evening hours there might be some interference from Irish pirate Radio North). That is so strong that I was wondering whether they started up a relay at Linschoten (only 3 km away) as Album AM bought the right to broadcast from this location/frequency as well. But if I understood René correctly that was not the case.

Contrary to some other LPAM stations who try to bring a program to a local audience, René is mainly interested in being received over the longest distance possible. So far René has received reception reports from 14 countries. Recently he organized a DX event, transmitting with a little offset to the 846 kHz frequency to avoid Radio North. The most distant report came from Murom, 300 km east of Moscow (2410 km). Listening from a car with simple receivers and a small (23 cm) loop antenna, the morse ID “Album AM” was picked up on the hour.

I think it is very well possible that René will organize future DX events, so suggest you monitor his website albumam.nl !

QSL Marosvásárhelyi Rádió 1323 kHz

November 9, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

The English desk of Radio Romania was so kind to send me a QSL for my reception of Marosvásárhelyi Rádió on1323 kHz. And even seem to promise a real QSL, so let’s see… I heard them starting their daily transmission with interval signals on chimes or metallophone. This was followed by the Romanian National Anthem at 03:54 h UTC.

Marosvásárhelyi Rádió is a regional radio station broadcasting from Târgu Mureș, located on the river with the same name. Târgu Mureș means “Marketplace at the river Mureș”. The river is called Maros in Hungarian, and vásárhelyi is Hungarian for marketplace.

For a long time the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. All the people living there were Hungarian. But after the First World War the victors wanted to reduce the influence of the empire, and it was agreed that Târgu Mureș should be part of Romania. After WWII the policies of the communist regime under dictator Ceaușescu resulted in the Hungarian speaking population being reduced to a minority (just above 40% these days).

Marosvásárhelyi Rádió started in 1958 with a daily broadcast of 30 minutes in Romanian and 15 minutes in Hungarian. In 1985 all regional stations were prohibited by the communist regime. After the fall of Ceaușescu and his regime in 1989 transmissions were resumed and grew steadily to 15 hours a day. On 1323 kHz you usually hear Radio Marosvásárhelyi Rádió in Hungarian. Weekend days feature an hour of Radio Târgu Mureș Minoritate in the language of the Roma, and an hour Radio Neumarkt in German. By now you should be able to guess where the name Neumarkt comes from…

QSL Marosvasarhelyi Radio — Email from RRI English Desk to confirm my reception of Marosvásárhelyi Rádió

WCBS 880 New York

November 7, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

In the last week of October I received strong signals from WCBS 880 New York. Click the link for a YouTube recording. On the internet I could find a QSL report from 2016, but nothing of a more recent date.

WCBS Newsradio 880 is operated by the Audacy group in the United States. Audacy apparently owns 235 radio stations. In 2017 they took over CBS radio, which might explain why I couldn’t find a QSL of a more recent date as Audacy appears to be not very “friendly” to DX-ers or even listeners overseas in general. All of their websites can’t be viewed in Europe for example, unless you use a VPN to bypass the IP blocker. And if you do so: contact email addresses are nowhere to be found.

So in addition to a traditional mail, on which I didn’t receive a reply, I sent them a Facebook message for my reception in January this year. All I got was a generic message expressing their appreciation… Disappointing that a group with a 1.5 billion USD revenue can’t do a little bit more in terms of public relations.

QSL WBBR 1130 Bloomberg Radio … Wow!

November 1, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 1 Comment

I got a QSL WBBR 1130 Bloomberg Radio… Wow!

WBBR on 1130 kHz is one of these stations (like CJYQ and VOCM) that most European DX-ers use to see whether there are favorable Transatlantic reception conditions for either the USA or Canada. It is really a fairly easy to catch station. That said, having lived in Canada for 4 years listening to these sort of stations always brings back memories… On the 25th of October conditions were really good!

But easy to receive doesn’t mean easy to QSL. The station started as WNEW in 1934, with the call sign referring to their slogan: “New York’s newest radio station”! And as such I heard this station often in the 80-ies, when they were still broadcasting music programs on 1130 AM. But they also featured the famous Larry King… although I have to admit that in those days I wouldn’t have known who Larry King was. I sent multiple QSL requests to WNEW… never got an answer.

In 1992 Bloomberg bought the station. And since you can receive them with one of the best slogans in the world (at least that is what I think): “From the financial capital of the world, this is WBBR New York, Bloomberg 11-3-0“. I submitted a QSL request earlier this year (never give up) and made a second attempt a week ago… and guess what!

A nice answer from Bob Janney, who is a HAM, which always helps! Bob is also a fan of the famous Friesian horse breed from the Netherlands!

“Ukraine” QSL from NEXUS IBA 1323 kHz

October 25, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

Following a brief email confirmation in August I received this beautiful “Ukraine” e- QSL from NEXUS IBA 1323 kHz. They broadcast from Villa Estense in Italy.

As they wrote in the accompanying email; “Our latest QSL card is dedicated to all the people in Ukraine, those who died, and those who left their home country as refugees during the current times of war. The card was designed by Pauline Marx, a young German artist who joins us in expressing a message of hope to the people in Ukraine because there is always hope for a better future”.

NEXUS IBA 1332 kHz QSL card dedicated to Ukraine — NEXUS IBA 1332 kHz QSL card, dedicated to the people in Ukraine

They continue:
“We run extraordinary high power broadcast on Shortwave and Medium Wave (1368 kHz) in the evenings with news and inspirational programs to reach those in the current conflict zones. If you wish to know more or support our efforts, please visit our web pages:

Humanitarian Radio Broadcasting at the time of the Ukrainian war

You may also donate to our fund to sponsor the cost of airtime and allow us to
continue these broadcasts:

https://www.nexus.org/ukraine-donate-to-humanitarian-radio-broadcasting/ “

QSL Vocea Sperantei 1584 kHz

October 18, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

The medium wave scene is pretty dynamic right now. And 1584 kHz has always been a frequency where several low power stations compete. I got this QSL Vocea Sperantei for my reception of their program on 1584 kHz. I sent my report to rvs@rvs.ro .

e QSL letter from Vocea Sperantei, Romania, 1584 kHz

Vocea Sperantei has 4 transmitters on this frequency. All have a rather modest power of 1 kW only. Nevertheless I hear them quite often, battling with SER stations from Spain, Greatest Hit Radio from the UK, or Studio X from Italy.

Vocea Sperantei means “Voice of Hope”. The station is part of the Adventist World Radio network (as you could have guessed from the three trumpets in the logo).

As they write on their website: “In an indifferent, confused world with toppled values, Voice of Hope is a different kind of radio, with a different message. Because of the current topics, the warm and optimistic tone of the producers and the interest in the problems of the listeners, Vocea Sperantei radio is for everyone who needs a friend, strength and hope”. And indeed in these troubled times I can only applaud them for their effort.

QSL United AM, Neede 1008 kHz

October 2, 2023 / Peter Reuderink / 1 Comment

Yesterday I was cleaning up my email inbox and to my surprise I found an e-QSL that I forgot I had. Late 2021 I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I retired and I started to explore the radio bands a bit again. I soon found out that a lot had changed. With my JRC ND535 attached to a simple long wire for example, I struggled to hear anything because of high noise levels. So I tried the Twente WebSDR.

But not only the reception conditions had changed, the whole band use had changed as well. For many years 1008 kHz was a key frequency for Dutch national radio broadcasting. Initially from Lopik (only 15 kms from my QTH in Woerden) and later from Flevoland with a powerful 400 kW transmitter. In 2004 national radio left mediumwave, and the frequency went up for auction. Radio 10 – a commercial broadcaster – took over. From 2007 Groot Nieuws Radio, a radiostation with a religious backgrond, used the frequency until New Years Eve 2018.

Soon after the frequency was made available to LPAM stations. United AM from Neede started broadcasting on this frequency and as they are located close to Twente University and their WebSDR I was able to receive them very well. I decided to give it a try and sent a reception report. I got a nice e-QSL showing the huge antenna setup near a relatively small house.

But after 5 years United AM shut down as well… and like their big brother on New Years Eve. Their QSL is still my first QSL from the new Dutch LPAM scene!