Tag: MW (Page 1 of 16)

QSL WXRF WAPA Radio Guayama 1590 kHz

March 23, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL for WXRF WAPA Radio Guayama, Puerto Rico on 1590 kHz. The station is part of the WAPA Radio network. My report to admin@borinquenradio was answered within a day with a brief email reply from ING Jorge Blanco, vice president of WAPA Radio. I heard this station while staying on the island Curacao (721 km distance).

QSL email for WXRF WAPA Radio 1590 kHz, Guayama, Puerto Rico

WXRF is part of the WAPA Radio network which operates 7 AM and 7 FM stations across the island of Puerto Rico. It is interesting to see that the email address still reads WBQN which was the call sign of the station on 680 AM which I QSL-ed last year (see below). At the time the network was branded Borinquen Radio, with “Borinquen” referring to the native name for Puerto Rico.

Things have changed over the past year. WBQN on 680 AM, the most powerful station of the network, has its old call sign WAPA back since October 2024. And the network is now called WAPA Radio network. WAPA refers to original owners, the Asociación de Productores de Azúcar, or Puerto Rico Sugar Grower’s Association.
The WBQN call sign now belongs to the station on 1580 kHz by the way.

Call sign swap request. Funny thing is that it is not the Ponce 1260 AM station, but the smaller station in Aguadilla/Morovis on 1580 kHz that got the WBQN call sign.

2024 QSL emails for 680 kHz San Juan, which carried the WBQN call sign at the time.

QSL LPAM Radio Redhill 1431 kHz

March 21, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 1 Comment

Radio Redhill is a Hospital Radio station broadcasting on 1431 kHz with 1 Watt only from East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, south of London, United Kingdom. That’s a distance of 360 kms.

I did hear Radio Redhill in the first two months of the year almost on a daily basis, around 04:00 – 06:00 h UTC. But never really strong, just not above the realitively high noise level at my location. Sometimes I could pick up “Redhill”. In the end I decided to wrote down two song titles I recognized, made a MP3 recording, and sent my report to: studio(at)radioredhill.co.uk. Three days later, Ian, station engineer sent me a kind email to confirm my report:

Hello Peter.

Thank you for your reception report.

I can confirm the music you identified was played at that time:

March 14th

04:42 The Carpenters – Goodbye to Love
…..
04:02 Buddy Holly – Peggy Sue

We transmit with 1 watt of power so it is always interesting to receive reception reports from all over Europe. Sweden and Norway are the furthest we have had reports from.

Thank you for your email.

Ian

Station Engineer.

Radio Redhill started in 1974. My guess is that it was a typical “radio by wire” station that you have or had at many hospitals. In 2000 AM broadcasts started, and since 2022 the station is active on 100.4 MHz. You can learn more about the history of this hospital radio station on their website.

Diamond certificate for the SWL Contest 2025

March 18, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 4 Comments

For the SWL contest 2025 that ran during the months of January and February 2025 there was the possibility to do MW only. After I had spent the summer months scanning the SW bands for the SWL Contest 2024 I decided to go for this MW only version. My goal was to log 250+ stations to obtain the Diamond Certificate.

There are 121 European frequencies (spaced 9 kHz) between 530 and 1610 kHz. So an average of two stations per frequency would bring me to 242. Now the problem is that some frequencies don’t carry a single European MW station. Who would have believed that 40 years ago. And there are some frequencies that are dominated by a strong local station.

So it was immediately obvious that I needed to catch at least 3 European stations on some frequencies. An whatever I fell short had to be compensated for by non European stations, particularly Transatlantic ones on a 10 kHz spacing.

In total I received 258 stations from 43 ITU countries. Listening on the right moment helped me to identify individual Spanish stations on the same frequency which run network programs (RNE, COPE, SER) most part of the day. To a certain extent this applied to local Romanian stations as well.

Conditions to Canada and the northern states of the US were quite poor given high solar activity. But to my big suprise I was able to receive quite a few stations from Central and South America. Radio Santa Rosa from Lima, Peru at 10525 kms from my QTH was the most distant station. But I also managed to receive TWR Benin, Akashvani from India, the Russian Service “Radio Kitaya” of China Radio International and the VOA from Thailand (which probably is no longer given cost cuttings by the Trump administration). The map below gives an idea of the stations I heard from outside Europe:

Stations I received in the first months of the year from outside Europe

Below you can download the full list (PDF) of all the logs I received. It might be a useful guide for those who are starting with Medium Wave DX, particularly if you live in or close to the Netherlands. And in a few years from now one might wonder what happened to all these medium wave stations.
All receptions made with ICOM R8600, SDR Console, and NTi Megaloop FX antenna. A big thank you to Frank F0DUW for organizing!

MW Contest 2025 Download

QSL VOWR St. John’s 800 kHz

March 11, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

VOWR St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada is a station that can be heard regularly in The Netherlands with a fair to good signal. Overnight their schedule features “Music for Relaxation” : non-stop oldies with now and then a VOWR station ID. Ron LeDrew, manager of VOWR was so kind to confirm my report with a brief email reply.

There are only 3 stations that carry a call sign that doesn’t start with a “C”: VOCM, VOAR and VOWR. These stations were founded before Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949. The ITU prefix VO was originally assigned to Newfoundland and remains in use by radio amateurs. With this QSL from VOWR my set is complete!

VOWR was started in 1924 by Reverend Joseph G. Joyce from the Wesley Methodist Church to allow people that couldn’t make it to church to listen to the services. Soon afterwards they added more general programs, but today a fair bit of their schedule still has a religious background. On their excellent website you can learn a lot about this historic station.

QSL Radio Santa Fe Bogota 1070 AM

March 4, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

I got a confirmation from Radio Santa Fe for a reception from Curacao some time ago, but it is so much nicer to get a QSL for a reception from my home QTH. It is also my first MW QSL from Columbia at my home QTH!

Bianca Bernal confirmed my report and she is most likely family of Hernando Bernal who founded one of the first commercial radio stations in Colombia. She enclosed a nice picutre of the Radio Santa Fe office and their web app:

QSL WXKS Talk 1200 Newton

February 28, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

WXKS Talk 1200, an iHeart station from Newton, Massachussets, can be heard often across the Atlantic. “Boston’s Conservative Talk, Talk 1200” broadcast shows and podcasts offering a conservative perspective. My reception report was confirmed with a nice personal email by Jim Polito, host of their morning show.

Funny thing is that the MP3 clip I included featured the announcement of his show:
“The Jim Polito Show, weekday mornings from 5 to 9 here on Boston Conservative Talk, Talk 1200. Moving in next door to Glenn, Clay, Buck, Sean, Joe Pags & Mark Levin, what a great neighbour to wake up in!”

Thanks to Helmut Matt for sharing the email address!

QSL Akashvani Bhawanipatna 1206 kHz

February 26, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A very nice old school QSL for my first reception of Akashvani from India on mediumwave 1206 kHz. The transmitter is located in Bhawanipatna, in the state of Odisha in the Eastern part of India. Almost 7500 kilometers from my QTH.

QSL Akhasvani on Mediumwave 1206 kHz from Bhawanipatna

QSL Akashvani on Mediumwave 1206 kHz from Bhawanipatna

I heard them with an English program, with news about foreign relations issues with China, Bangladesh and Kuwait and a long discussion on finance. You can hear the ID in this clip “This is Akashvani”:

QSL Radio 208 1440 kHz

February 18, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL from Radio 208 1440 kHz from Copenhagen, Denmark. I sent my report in July 2023, so it took about 82 weeks I guess to get this QSL. Some of my most beloved QSLs took so long, and this one was definitely worth the wait as Stig Hartvig Nielsen, who is also running WMR, is a true radio icon. I am grateful he took the time to reply.

So please visit the streams he mentioned in the post below and give him “the thumbs up”!

eQSL Radio 208 1440 kHz, Copenhagen, Denmark

Stig Hartvig Nielsen wrote:

Dear Peter

Thanks very much for your reception report to Radio208. I am pleased to verify your report; please find attached a Radio208 eQSL. My apologies for the delay in replying.

Radio208 is a music station playing tracks from the period 1964-1984. The main focus is on classic rock, punk/new wave, alternative, ‘hippie’, and progressive music.

Radio208 commenced broadcasting on 1440 kHz on December 17th 2019 from Ishøj, in the southern suburbs of Copenhagen. At present the power is 650 Watts. The aerial for 1440 kHz is a sloping dipole 2×50 m from a height of approx. 73 m. Is on the air 24/7 (with a short break 0155-0210 UTC).

Radio208 started broadcasting on 1422 kHz in July 2024 from Nørrebro in Central Copenhagen with very low power (around 1 Watt). A coil aerial is used. Is on the air 24/7.

Radio208 is also broadcasting on short wave from Hvidovre, Copenhagen, since May 1st 2020. From the beginning the frequency was 5805 kHz, but in December 2020 this was changed to 5970 kHz. The aerial is a horizontal dipole. The power is approx. 150 Watts. Is on the air 24/7.

Radio208 can also be heard through Internet streaming via various platforms such as Tunein.com, Radio.garden, Radio.net, Streema.com, and MyTuner.com. In particular listening via radio.garden is recommended: http://radio.garden/listen/radio-208/JhdGV04A (please add Radio208 as your favourite). If you like to see the titles of the tracks played on Radio208 you can use this site: https://raddio.net/331831-radio208/ (please give “thumps up )

Best 73s and good DX,
Stig Hartvig Nielsen,
www.radio208.dk
www.wmr.dk

QSL Radio Emanuel 1430 kHz

February 14, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A QSL email from Radio Emanuel 1430 kHZ, from Santiago, Dominican Republic. My first MW QSL from this country, and my 2nd QSL ever with La Voz del CID, from 1987 being the other one I received. This one really belongs in the category “things I wouldn’t have thought possible” two years ago when I resumed my hobby. But apparently I’m still learning as I go.

As mentioned earlier, SDR console definitely has some advantages over the HDSDR software I used a year ago. But also keeping track of what others in the MW list group hear – facilitated by Jaguar software – helps me to tune in to those 10-15 minutes that a rare station is audible. That allows me to extract the title of that one song, that one station identification that is required for a meaningful reception report. Basically it boils down to this: you need to use software and intelligence to compensate for today’s high noise levels!

Radio Emanuel is a religious station broadcasting with 3 kW from Santiago de los Caballeros, the 2nd largest city in the Dominican Republic. They present themselves as “La emisora de Dios por la familia de hoy” (God’s radio station for today’s family). I found it difficult to learn a bit more about this station. Based on their website it seems like station with roots in the Dominican Republic and not one of the missionaries with head offices abroad.

Radio Twents Gejengel 675 kHz is back

February 7, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

My radio friend Joé Leyder couldn’t match a station he heard on Twente WebSDR with any of the webstreams he was familiar with. I gave it a try and found out that LPAM Twents Gejengel was back in the air. I heard mainly non stop Dutch music, but at 16:05 LT there was this ID:

“Hit na hit na hit, zo hoort radio te klinken. Jij vraagt en wij draaien ze. U luistert naar station Twents Gejengel vanuit Westerhaar”

As in the clip below:

No idea how when they resumed broadcasting, but they were still listed as “inactive” on the MW list. So I contacted the MW list and within an hour they changed it to “active”. Thank you Mauno! So nice that I can contribute to a community of fellow radio lovers!

The name of the station “Twents Gejengel” refers to Twente (the region in the east of the Netherlands from which they are broadcasting), while “Gejengel” would translate as “whining” when a little kid does it, but in this context the translation would be more like “loud irritating music”. Ah well….. it is definitely something different.

I’m not sure if I can receive this station at my own QTH, as LPAM Unique Gold from Wijchen seems to dominate the frequency at my location. And I’ve no clue whether they QSL as well… they seem to have a website Twents Gejengel, but the only thing it shows are a few reports.