Vestmannaeyjar Airport is the first airport in Iceland constructed without foreign or military assistance. It is located on the main island of the Vestmannaeyjar Archipelago (the Westman Islands). With the construction of a nearby ferry terminal at Landeyjahöfn sailing times to the mainland reduced from 3 hours to 30 minutes. This resulted in a drop in demand for scheduled flights. Today there are only government sponsored flights to Reykjavik in winter (probably because shipping and road conditions might not be optimal).
My reception of NDB HL serving this airport on 345 kHz was confirmed (together with NDB-HA which is for another post) by Hjalti Geir Guðmundsson from Isavia, the operators of the airports in Iceland
Vestmannaeyjar Airport
There is a second beacon NDB VM on 375 kHz serving the airport as well. In hindsight I should have added that one to this report as it is one of the most regular received beacons from Iceland here in The Netherlands.
My reception of NDB EAG on 399 kHz for Logroño/Agoncillo airport in Spain was confirmed by Enaire. They couldn’t add the typical data sheet they usually provide with a verification as the beacon is owned by the military. This goes back to the fact that Agoncillo was designated to be a military airfield, although there were always commerical and private flights as well. (for more information check the history website). From the 1996 onwards the local government really made an effort to turn Agoncilla airport into Logroño’s airport.
NDB EAG-399 with Logroño-Agoncillo airport in the background
The NDB EAG can be spotted easily on Google Maps, to the south east of the runway. On the picture above you see the transmitterbuilding between the two masts supporting the dipole. In the back you see the control tower to the left and the new terminal building to the right. The roof of the terminal building seems to feature 5 “wine barrels” which I guess is a reference to the Rioja region of which Logroño is the capital.
Logroño-Agoncillo terminal building featuring 5 wine barrels.
Via Enaire (informacion@enaire.es) I received a QSL for my reception of NDB GRA on 412 kHz. This beacon serves the Aeropuerto Federica García Lorca Granada-Jaën in the south of Spain. The airport is named after the Spanish poet Garcia Lorca who was murdered in 1936 by Nationalist Forces in the Spanish Civil War
A slightly better picture from Google Maps of this beacon:
And a picture of the terminal building. There are direct flights to various locations in Spain and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Terminal building Federico Garcïa Lorca airport Granada/Jaën
Enaire was again so kind to confirm my reception of a few NDBs. I got a QSL for NDB TON Torralba de Aragon on 335 kHz. As usual with a nice information sheet:
Unfortunately it wasn’t clear to me from the information provided what the purpose of this beacon was. Torralba de Aragon is a small village, 115 inhabitants just south of the Pyrenees. There is a nearby airstrip, but on Ourairports.com the function is described as “terminal area navigation”. So my guess is that the beacon supports navigation at Zaragoza Airport.
Back to Torralba De Aragon, just because I like what this hobby brings us. Torralba is a small village but it has a beautiful church. I learned that the tower is built in Mudéjar style. The Mudéjars were the Muslims who remained in the former areas of Al-Andalus after the Christian Reconquista in the Middle Ages and were allowed to practice their religion to a limited degree. Mudéjar art is valuable in that it represents peaceful co-existence between Muslims and Christians during the medieval era. The things you learn triggered by a beacon sending – / — / -.
There are only 9 NDBs left in Finland. I heard 3 beacons for Kokkala-Pietarsaari airport in 2023, but my reception reports to Fintraffic remained unanswered.
Mikkeli Airport however is a small airport in the Finnish Lake District and they have their own local management. I sent my report to airport@mikkeli.fi .Mr. Sami Kahilakoski, FIS manager was so kind to confirm my report of my reception of MI on 346 kHz. And included a nice scan of the Instrument Approach Chart. That’s so nice, as I got these on paper in the 80s, but this is the first one I got since I resumed my hobby.
So this is my first NDB confirmed from Finland. As I said, Mikkeli is a small airport, with no regular flights. But it is popular for sport, gliding and parachute jumping activities.
Chris from Aviseq sent me some pictures when they had to do some inspection and maintenance work on the VNA beacon a few weeks ago. Quite a challenge in Swedish winter conditions:
Ilulissat Airport with the NDB JV tower visible in the background
Jakob Schytz, Ilulissat Airport Manager, sent me a very friendly detailed letter to confirm my reception of NDB JV on 367 kHz. And he also included a photo of the radio beacon (and one of himself in front of it, but for privacy reasons I prefer not to post that one here).
QSL email for NDB JV-367 Ilulissat
Ilulissat Airport is the 2nd biggest airport in Greenland. Currently a new airport is being built in Ilulissat, scheduled to be completed in 2026. Together with the airports in Nuuk and Qaqartoq the airport should form the backbone of air transport in Greenland. You can read more about these projects on the website of the Nordic Investment Bank.
A nice QSL email for my reception of NDB SF at Kangerlussuaq Airport on 382 kHz. I made my reception using the BDMR/Clashmore SDR during the “Pyramid Event”. But this is definitely one of the stronger Greenlandic beacons so at a noise free location reception is possible in The Netherlands.
Kangerlussuaq was the main airport in Greenland until the new Nuuk Airport opened in November 2024. There is a lot to be said about the strategy and politics behind the development of Greenland Airports, as you can read here. Climate change apparently plays a role, as permafrost underneath Kangerlussuaq is thawing. But at the same time the Kangerlussuaq airport has a future because its location is less sensitive to weather and traffic disruptions, which is important for cruise ship passengers. And yes, in these days where Donald Trump is talking about taking over Greenland: this airport was constructed by the US military during WWII, when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany.
Don’t forget to watch this nice Youtube clip about Kangerlussuaq Airport, its history and surroundings.
A QSL from another Greenland NDB which I received via the Clashmore Kiwi in Scotland during the recent CLE event: NDB AA on 336 kHz for Aasiaat airport. The operator was not allowed to open the MP3 file, but the description of the beacon signal was suffucient. The email text misses the details, but I have another email from Greenland Airports headoffice that does contain the details for my reception of this beacon AA-336 Aasiaat as well as NA-359 Narsarsuaq.
Aasiaat is a small airport on the west coast of Greenland, south of Disko Bay. From Aasiaat you can fly to the bigger airports at Nuuk and Ilulisat. In winter there are cargo flights from Aasiaat to nearby settlements for which you can book a seat as well. In summer the connection is by ferry only.
Every month the NDBlist group organizes a so-called Coordinated Listening Event. For the Christmas Holiday season they had something special in mind. Between December 25th and January 3rd participants had to build a Size 10 “Pyramid” with a size 10 aerial on top! In order to do that you needed to log beacons from 19 different radio countries of your own choice as follows:
Log just TEN NDBs from any one radio country, just NINE NDBs from a second, just EIGHT NDBs from a third,… down to just TWO NDBs from a ninth radio country.
10 extra loggings from 10 other different countries to make the antenna on top.
So the end result should look like this:
The Pyramid Challenge in CLE 311 of the NDBList group
Smaller and bigger pyramids were OK provided that all its levels were filled and the height of the aerial matched the base level. The NDBlist group uses a slightly different country definition than in use by ITU or EDXC: the UK is split up in ENG, SCT, WLS, NIR. Remote islands like Shetland or Svalbard, offshore and the Canadian provinces and US states count as individual countries.
Now we had planned to spend the week after Christmas on a farm lodge on the island of Ameland. While the lodge was in a nice rural location I knew I had no opportunities to install a proper outdoor antenna. That’s why I decided to use the BDMR Kiwi of the Medium Wave Circle in Clashmore (IO78hf) for this event. The Kiwi switches between two beverages: between 1350-1950 UTC: 420m at 46° (Asia); 1950-1350 UTC: 920m at 305° (North America)
Clashmore in Scotland… close to the sea and with plenty of space for a Beverage
At home I make SDR recordings to be processed by Pskov software to cut through the noise. Using the BDMR Kiwi meant that I had to listen by ear again, which is the nicer “old school” way of listening to beacons. The additional advantage was that I could just sit in the living room with my laptop scanning the band, while the rest of the family was watching TV or reading a book as outdoor activities were a bit compromised given an 8-10 Beaufort storm hitting the Island.
Below you can find my logbook:
December 27th-28th: broad band scan
As most family members will two days later I have some time to scan the band between 250-450 kHz. The result is 164 NDBs, from 31 countries. And it becomes clear how this challenge will unfold itself. Nearby countries with lots of active beacons like SWE, ISL, NOR, ENG, SCT, FRA, DEU easily deliver more than 10 logs. And I have plenty of countries with 1 to 4 beacons. But the midfield is underpopulated: I have no countries with 6,7,9 or 10 beacons. Without those I have to “downgrade” a few countries resulting in a Size 13 Pyramid. That is already above the target of 10, which is good, but I want to see how far i can push it. It is time to focus on what I need rather than just logging what I hear.
December 29th: midfield focus and Russia
So the challenge for the next days is now to raise the number of logs in my bottom half countries. But many of those are islands that simply don’t have more than 1 or 2 beacons. And with 4 logs I have logged all that CAN-Newfoundland can offer. So it is clear that I need to elevate my results for POL(1), DNK (1), CAN-Nunavut (4), ESP (4), GRL (5), numbers in brackets being the logging count after the first two days. And where are the Balkan countries?
But there is some low hanging fruit I didn’t pick yet as I didn’t scan above 450 kHz: Russia. So I put some effort in scanning Russian frequencies. In less than two hours I log 12 signals, securing a Size 14 Pyramid. I try to do the same for UKR, but without success.
Improved conditions to the Gulf of Biscaye late afternoon help to increase ESP to 9. Good for a Size 15 Pyramid. Can’t get POL further than 3. CZE remains stuck at 2. And while Sweden is booming in, the Danes (DNK) remain silent. Funny thing is that I also don’t hear much signals from nearby northern Germany either, while signals from Bavaria in the south are an easy catch. Long wave propagation sometimes behaves in mysterious ways.
December 30th: going offshore
I forgot that off shore counts as a country as well! Throughout the day I scan the various frequencies searching for oil platforms like Ekofisk or Statoil. Including the less often heard 375-SNR Snorre it is good for 7 logs. Size .
Tried DNK, AUT, CZE, Balkan again… nothing. And from GRL I hear only 4 of the 5 I already received, so I call it a day.
Helicopter landing on the Snorre Platform
December 31st: doubts, Denmark and Nunavut
Bad news… just read that a new CME (solar storm) will reach earth the coming night which will most likely ruin propagation. More bad news… I start to doubt my reception of 336-AA from GRL as it hasn’t been reported for a year in REU. And unlike the other 4 GRL beacons I haven’t been able to receive it a second time. Revisiting the frequency it looks like the mix of RS and LT sometimes produces something that easily can be mistaken for AA… if I discard AA it sets me back to BASE 15. Why didn’t I make a recording to double check???
Good news in the early evening run: finally some success with the Danes as I picked up 5 signals moving DNK to 7 in total! Size 17 Pyramid is in the pocket, if my AA log is valid.
One hour left in 2024. Everyone has had enough beer and “oliebollen”, the elderly family members have given up and already went to bed, the rest is watching the final songs of the Top 2000. I decide to go for a quick check: and yes there it is: 336-AA… clearly audible, and yes I did make a recording this time, just for ease of mind.
With no other beacons from GRL audible other than the ones I already heard I browse through CAN-NU frequencies. Standing on par with CAN-NL at 4 logs it would be nice if I could raise this one to the 6 I’m still missing. And I hit the jackpot: within 20 minutes I had 6 Nunavut stations added to the list: Size 18 Pyramid in the pocket. The most And I heard my first CAN-ON signal: 334-YER. The final log for 2024. Time for champagne and New Year celebrations!
NDB LT at 305 kHz located at Canadian Forces Station Alert… world’s most northern station!
January 1st: Pyramiden
Can I move it to BASE 19 Pyramid? I have 3 countries that I can add to the antenna, that’s not the problem. But I need a new country at at least 6, and even then I have to move 4 other countries up the list as well. That’s only going to happen if I can get something from the Balkan. But the powerful Beverage antennas of the BDMR put me at a disadvantage here, as this really is their blind spot. So no luck.
I try the Arctic once more… and to my surprise I receive 295-EN from Svalbard. It hasn’t been reported by any of the group members for more than 3 years! This is a navigational beacon for the Russian coalmine Artikugol at Barentsburg. They used to operate from another town nearby as well, called Pyramiden !!! For me the perfect final of a fantastic Pyramide building event!
Recording of EN at 295 kHz, Cape Heer (Barentsburg Mine) at Svalbard/Spitsbergen. It mixes with RS (Roros, Norway), and in the background you hear LT (Halmstad, Sweden)
End results
What you can hear pretty much depends on your location. Aside from noise levels the number of countries and active beacons play a role. The members in the US and Canada are a bit at a disadvantage with the best of them reaching a 14 size pyramid. In Europe 4 participants went over 20! With 30 being the tallest pyramid consisting of 494 NDBs from 59 different radio countries!
My logs for the Pyramid event: note the huge blind spot in the direction of the Balkan
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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