A QSL for NDB SPP for Sevilla Airport on 420 kHz. Thanks to Enaire for confirming my reception and sending the data sheet:
NDB SPP is located 7 kilometers east of Sevilla San Pablo Airport. When I checked the location I noticed that the beacon is surrounded by solar farms. Exactly these are the point of a controversy in the Netherlands as their reflection creates a safety risk as pilots are blinded.
NDB SPP (here still indicated with its old call sign SVL) amidst the solar panels
The current situation at Schiphol Airport… a lot of concerns are voiced by aviators.
Obviously it might be that approach angles, solar height are different, but it just caught my attention. Thanks again to Enaire for confirming my report as always.
Most NDBs are located either on the airport or somewhere in a field. So when I got the QSL for NDB SO on 390 kHz I was a bit surprised. I checked Google Maps but indeed, there it was, right in the centre of the village Sigüiero, next to appartment buildings and the local soccer stadium. About 7 kilometers north of Santiago-Rosalía de Castro airport.
NDB SO-390 kHz for Santiago de Compostela, in the centre of Sigüiero village (GoogleMaps)
Compared to the other beacons from the north coast of Spain, B (Bilbao), COA, C (La Coruna) and SA (Santander), NDB SO is less often heard at my QTH. And this was the first time in reasonable quality, good enough for a report.
Santiago–Rosalía de Castro Airport was previously named Lavacolla Airport and is also known as Santiago de Compostela Airport. It is the biggest and busiest airport in Galicia and the 2nd busiest airport in northern Spain after Bilbao Airport. The fact that it is at the end of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela does help obviously and traffic is still growing significantly. The airport has been named after the Galician romanticist writer and poet Rosalía de Castro on 12 March 2020
EEC on 327 kHz is a NDB for the military heliport El Copero near Sevilla, Spain. As with EAG and EAL . Enaire (QSL via informacion(at)enaire.es) could confirm my reception report but without their usual data sheet as it is a military installation. It is definitely not one of the easier beacons to log, with only 88 entries in the REU database, so I am pretty pleased with this QSL!
NDB con indicativo EEC:
Ubicado en el Helipuerto de Sevilla/El Copero. Instalación perteneciente al Ejército que da apoyo a los procedimientos instrumentales del Helipuerto de Sevilla/El Copero
Frecuencia 327.000 kHz
Coordenadas publicadas en AIP. ETRS89: 37º18’43.4”N 006º00’07.3”W
Heliport at the “El Copero” military airbase near Sevilla
Originally “El Copero” (which translates as Cup Bearer in English) was a base of the Spanish Air Force but due to the proximity of the river and possible flooding the location wasn’t optimal. The base was transferred to the Army on December 30, 1975. and is home to the units of the Maneuver Helicopter Battalion IV (BHELMA IV), of the FAMET that has assigned 16 Eurocopter AS332B1 Super Puma .
There are three Baleares Islands… Ibiza, Menorca and Palma de Mallorca. I received and QSL-ed two of them, but not the main Island Palma de Mallorca. An earlier report to Enaire (who are very reliable verifiers, thank you Enaire) was missed, but this time they confirmed my report with their nice data sheet:
The beacon serves Palma de Mallorca Airport. It is the third largest airport in Spain, after Madrid-Barajas Airport and Barcelona Airport. In the summer months it is one of the busiest airports in Europe.
And is located here:
Thank you Enaire for the service you provide to us hobby listeners!
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:
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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