The wonderful world of listening to the radio
The various reports I sent to the English desk of Radio Romania International on my reception of regional stations were all answered politely. A great service. They promised to send me a QSL, but they were changing to a new e-QSL policy. In November their e-QSLs became available, and yes, I received all of them in one email:
See also my previous posts for details on these stations:
Radio Oltenia Craiova, 1314 kHz
Radio Timisoara, 630 kHz
Marosvásárhelyi Radio, 1323 kHz
Antena Satelor, 1314 kHz
Via Stian Tveit, QSL manager at Kystradio Sør, I got this informative QSL letter for my reception of Ørlandet Radio at 518 kHz, I sent my report to kystradio.sor@telenor.no, but you can also send your reports directly to stian.tveit@telenor.no. Mind you, Kystradio Sør is only responsible for stations below 65N. The more northern stations are responsibility of Kystradio Nord.
Orlandet Radio, callsign LFO is one of three stations that broadcast NAVTEX information on 490 and 518 kHz. The others are Jeloya and Rogaland Radio, all controlled from Kystradio Sør.
UPDATE: what is known as Jeloya (letter M) is actually located in Tjome/Horten and should be referred to as Tjome Radio. Rogaland (L) and Orlandet (N) are still – albeit remotely operated – separate transmitter sites. See also comments below. (Thanks to Stian Tveit from Telenor).
Thanks to a tip from René van Hoof I was able to receive Amica Radio Veneta in the late afternoon. A day later I received this nice QSL letter from Amica RAdio Veneta 1017 kHz. They are broadcasting from Peraga di Vigonza, near Padua, Italy. I sent my report to amicaradioveneta@yahoo.com .
I made little YouTube clip with a clear station ID. They were broadcasting nice Italian music.
According to MW List Quick and Easy Amica Radio Veneta is on air until 1800 UTC only. They are broadcasting with 1 kW, which is on the treshold of being an LPAM (Low Power AM station). That said, at 17 hrs UTC they dominated the RNE station from Burgos with 10 kW on the same frequency.
My third QSL from a French CROSS station. This email confirms my reception of CROSS Étel from Bretagne. They can be easily received here in The Netherlands. Though not as frequent as the CROSS Gris-Nez and CROSS Jobourg stations who are situated along the very busy Channel. Jerôme Christ was so kind to send me the QSL a few hours after I sent my report.
I found a nice picture on the internet showing the service areas of the various CROSS stations in France, 5 main ones (in red) and the sub-station on Corsica (Corse):
A very nice QSL letter from CROSS Jobourg on 2187.5 kHz. And radiating the French spirit, which makes it stand out. The station is located on the French coast of the Channel (the French hate it when you refer to it as the English Channel, and I agree), one of the busiest seaways in the world. And as a result it can be heard often.
I sent my report to jobourg@mrccfr.eu
A nice e-QSL from CROSS MED La Garde, France, on 2187.5 kHz. A station that can be heard regularly with DCS messages.
I have to admit that I’m still trying to establish the link between the new DSC stations and what I heard some 40 years ago. Coastal Radio stations like Bordeaux Arcachon, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brest-le-Conquest and Grasse are gone. But the current CROSS stations are not their descendants. They are the successors of the French Navy stations that were easy to hear in CW in the 80-ies, not only from France, but from all over the world… resulting in nice QSLs from countries like Reunion, Tahiti, New Caledonia and French Guyana for example.
CROSS La Garde is one of 6 CROSS stations in France. The others are Jobourg, Gris-Nez, Étel, Corsen and Ajaccio. The latter, also known as CROSS Corse or “Aspretto” is a secondary station that heard less often. The community of La Garde is situated adjacent to Toulon, the most important French Navy harbor on the Mediterranean Sea (which also features in the movie “Napoleon” (2023))
Göteborg and Stockholm Radio can be received regularly on 2187.5 kHz with DSC messages. As I already had QSLs from the 80-ies for I didn’t bother to send a reception report and QSL request for these two stations. But then I saw a QSL from Artur at MaresmeDX for JRCC Sweden. And I wondered how they are actually organized these days.
Within an hour of sending my reception report for a reception of MMSI 002653000, Göteborg Radio on 2187.5 kHz to jrcc@sjofartsverket.se I got an answer:
So it seems that everything on MF is now under the jurisdiction of JRCC Sweden. The HF band isn’t covered anymore. And I guess that the name Stockholm Radio is used for VHF DSC watch and weather broadcasts: https://stockholmradio.se/ .
In the 80-ies you could listen to a couple of stations on MF. In addition to Göteborg (SAG) and Stockholm Radio (SDJ) I remember Karlskrona (SAA), Härnosand (SAH) and Tingstaede (Visby, SAE). The nice thing was that they had matching set of QSL cards. But although I heard all stations, I managed to get the QSLs for Göteborg and Stockholm Radio only…
Things are a bit slow as I didn’t spend too much time behind the radio the last couple of weeks. But there are still some QSLs from a year ago that I didn’t post yet, as I received them before I started this weblog. This QSL for Radio Eli, Estonia on 1035 kHz is one of those.
Radio Eli aims to bring the gospel to the countries of the post-Soviet space as they write on their website. They started in 2001 with a two hour Russian program of Tartu Family Radio via a 50 kW transmitter on 1035. In 2008 power increased to 100 kW. Since 2010 they are working together with Trans World Radio (TWR) and power increased to 200 kW, but this seems to be used for TWR and Radio Liberty transmission only. Using the loop antenna to block Radio Lyca from the UK on the same frequency they can be received quite well here in The Netherlands.
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.
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.
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