The wonderful world of listening to the radio
The fifth and final beacon of this series. A QSL for NDB OD-322 Örnsköldsvik Airport. Not in Lapland but close. Örnsköldsvik is the first airport in the world to have a remotely controlled air control tower. It is controlled from Sundsvall–Timrå Airport.
Below please find the excerpt of the email to QSL the Lapland beacons. Thanks to Chris from AVISEQ. Feel free to contact me for the QSL address by dropping a comment!
The fourth beacon from the Lapland region in Sweden. Chris from Aviseq sent me an email to QSL NDB DK at 328 kHz, Vilhelmina. The beacon serves as navaid for South Lapland Airport, 1547 km from my QTH.
As is the case for Lycksele and Hemavan Airport there are daily flights from Vilhelmina to Stockholm Arlanda. Vilhelmina itself has a population of only about 4000. Apparently the huge distances to be covered in Sweden justify the airport.
Another two NDBs from Lapland, Sweden. NDBS NUT on 325 kHz and SUT on 342 kHz serve as navigation aids for Hemavan Tärnaby Airport. The distance to my QTH is 1632 kilometers.
Hemavan and Tärnaby are ski/winter sport resorts. From the airport, which is adjacent to Hemavan, you can see the slopes in the background. Amapola (aka Populair) Airlines operates flights between Hemavan and Stockholm Arlanda.
My reports were confirmed by Chris from AVISEQ.
Chris from Aviseq, who also QSL-ed my reception of the beacons WU and VNA for Umea Airport, was so kind to confirm my reception of the beacon OL for Lycksele, Sweden on 320 kHz by email as well.
Lycksele Airport is located in South Lapland, a sparsely populated area in the north of Sweden. The distance to my QTH is 1590 km. Amapola operates daily flights to Stockholm from Lycksele Airport.
To give you an impression what it means to dig such a signal out of the noise with Pskov software I added the above picture. In the yellow/black panel you see how OL is received… Every line from left to right is a capture of the cyclic signal. As you can see the first minutes/cycles offered a better signal… The aggregate is a clear OL identification in morse code.
I received a couple of beacons from the Toulouse area in France. NDBs TW, MUT, TOE and TLF were received in such a good quality that I thought I could share them and ask for a QSL. I sent my report to the responsible person* at Toulouse Blagnac Airport Mr. Jean-Marc Caner.
Jean-Marc confirmed my reception of the beacons TW, MUT and TOE. But TLF is the responsibility of the smaller Francazal Airport in Toulouse which hasn’t replied to my QSL request yet.
There are two other NBDs I received, TLB and TS, which seem to belong to Blagnac Airport as well. So I will give them a try for another QSL. CVU clearly belongs to the local airport of Castres-Mazamet.
Toulouse Blagnac is the 5th largest airport in France. It is also hosts the head office of aircraft manufacturer Airbus, and test flights are conducted from this airport.
* The email address of Mr. J.M. Caner is not public, I can share it on request. Just drop a comment.
The Bouri Oil & Gas field north of the Lybian Coast is considered to be the largest oil producing field in the Mediterranean Sea. And ENI Oil platform DP4 is the biggest platform in the Mediterranean. I was pleased to receive the NDB on this platform, with DP4 as identifier, last weekend.
Having worked in the refining and petrochemical industry for over 30 years, reception of a navigational beacon like this is special. Which also holds for the distance: 1915 kilometers, and the fact their signal was exceptionally strong (see below). I sent an email to ENI hoping they will confirm…
A QSL from NDB VNA-354 Vanja, a navigation aid for Umea Airport in Sweden.
Earlier I received a e-QSL for my reception of the other NDB for Umea Airport WU-329. The engineering team that reached out to me promised to send a QSL card by mail for the other beacon VNA-364 once they had completed their maintenance visit and were able to take a few pictures. Last week I received it!
It is always nice to get a picture of an NDB. Sometimes I’m able to trace them on Streetview in Google Maps. But as Christoffer from the Engineering team explained: no chance for VNA which is pretty much off the beaten track. The picture below shows the access path to the beacon.
The transmitter is SA-100D transmitter with 100 Watt. Christoffer told me it’s the same as WU uses and the stations are near identical in terms of looks.
QSL for NDB NMS-329, a navigation aid for Namsos Airport. This regional airport is located in central Norway, situated along the river Namsen, which flows into the Namsenfjord.
Namsos Airport has one of the smallest runways for airports with regular flights. They are operated by Widerøe with destinations Trondheim, Oslo and Rørvik, as part of a public service obligation. As Trondheim is only 165 kilometers away, and roads between Namsos and Trondheim are upgraded, many people travel by car to Trondheim to take a flight from there.
The beacon is one of those that I receive quite regularly in the Netherlands. Thanks to Goran Hardenmark for helping me out with the contact address at Avinor for the QSL!
Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a post on my reception of two beacons for Umea Airport: WU-329 and VNA-364. At the time I received a polite “thank you email” from Swedavia, the operator of Umea Airport. But hardly a QSL.
Two weeks ago I was contacted by engineers working at AVISEQ, the company responsible for the maintenance of the navigation aids and ATC communication/systems in Sweden. They had read my post and prepared the above eQSL for NDB WU-329 me and there should be a QSL for VNA-364 on its way. Of the latter beacon I also received some nice pictures, as the team was doing some maintenance on VNA. I will post them together with the QSL.
Stay tuned for more!
My 2nd QSL in the series of 10 NDBs from Serbia was for NDB VTN-468. It serves as navigation aid for Morava Airport near Kraljevo. Verie signer was Mr. Savic from SMATSA, the air traffic services provider for Serbia and Montenegro.
Morava Airport is the third largest airport in Serbia, after Beograd and Nis. The military part of the airport is known as Lađevci Airport . The civilian part was opened in 2006. Apparently it is struggling bit to really grow to its full potential. Currently there are flights to Tivat in Montenegro, Thessaloniki and Istanbul only.
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