A very nice, fully detailed eQSL from Mike Radio. Mike Radio is a Free Radio station operating from the province of Gelderland, The Netherlands. For the Gen Z folks: the station is powered by solar energy!
I sent my report to mikeradio(at)live.nl . UKdxer told me than Mike is one of the younger free radio stations in the Netherlands.
My personal opinion is that rules on hobby broadcasting via MW/SW should be relaxed as apparently nobody seems to care about the interference of PV installations on these frequencies…
For the reception of Radio Frieloo on 6290 kHz I received a friendly QSL email from the operator. I sent my report to frieloo(at)outlook.com .
Radio Frieloo is a pirate station operating from the province Gelderland in The Netherlands. The operator told me that he is not often in the air. When it is the case it is mostly to test antenna designs. The transmitter is a R&S with 100 Watt as shown in the picture.
An e QSL for a new LPAM station from the Netherlands. Golden Oldies Radio from Hoogvliet near Rotterdam started broadcasting on 1224 kHz earlier this year. Power is 100 Watt. Here in Woerden (Hoogvliet is about 45 kms south west from here) reception is good during day time, but in the evening COPE Lugo is causing interference. At the same time it has become more difficult to receive the Radio 1224, another LPAM from Lunteren, some 50 kilometers to the east from my home QTH.
A nice colorful eQSL from Radio Joey on 6395 kHz. All I can tell you is that Radio Joey is a pirate station from The Netherlands (as shown on the QSL) which also shows the hotmail address.
I got a nice e QSL document for my reception of pirate radio station Polaris Radio on 6390 kHz. It had with quite a bit of information which I will not share here for obvious reasons. Unlike most pirate stations they are transmitting from the western part of The Netherlands with a maximum power of 2 kW into an inverted V antenna. I sent my report to polarisradio@hotmail.com .
While searching for sporadic E DX I came across this regional station that I had not yet listened to: Regio 90 from Leersum. Via a webform on their site I submitted a report. The next day I received a kind email from Jos Sterkenburg confirming my reception. I happened to have tuned in to his program:
With 300 Watt Regio 90 is operating on 91.7 from Leersum. They suffer a bit from interference from the 50 kW VRT1 station in Flanders. Target audience is the Utrechtse Heuvelrug and the region just south of it. This is one of my favourite areas for cycling and I can definitely recommend anyone to visit the many castles around Langbroek and Wijk bij Duurstede!
Radio Aktief is a LPAM station from Tilburg. With 50 Watt listed they have a little bit less power than most LPAMs that operate with 100 Watt. At 60 kilometers to the south of my QTH they are still a relatively easy catch. My guess is that last year Smooth Radio got in their way, otherwise I should have picked them up earlier. But Smooth has left AM…
Radio Aktief is built around a very enthusiastic club of technical people and DJs. RadioKidoki is an alternative station ID. They offer a great variety of music styles, so there is a big chance that you will hear something special. I listened to the “Full Experience Show” with a lot of alternative rock, sometimes almost psychedelic.
I sent my report to contact@radio828.nl . Within a day I received an email and eQSL, and yesterday I received a couple of nice flyers by “snail mail”.
With Impact AM from Wassenaar frequently dropping off the air, I had the opportunity to listen to, and QSL Zender Zanussi & Radio Hercules on 819 kHz. I sent my report to radio819am@hotmail.com .
Zender Zanussi & Radio Hercules is (are) operated by two brothers Johan and Andre. On Saturdays Johan runs Radio Hercules playing English music mainly. On Sundays Andre runs Zender Zanussi with with mainly Dutch music. And indeed I heard Zender Zanussi with polka music (the music typically played by pirate stations from the Netherlands) and some German classics as well.
Johan and Andre have been active in the pirate scene since 1977. But like a few other stations in the eastern part of the Netherlands they used the opportunity created in 2016 to start a legal 100 W LPAM operation. They are active on 819 kHz since December 2023 from the village of Mastenbroek, Overijssel province, The Netherlands. In the western provinces of the Netherlands Impact AM is usually dominant on 819 kHz. The other LPAM station “Studio Denakker” from Klazienaveen is apparently not active yet.
Received on my little Grundig G6 Aviator while spending some time with family in Akersloot: Backyard AM, a low power AM station from Zaandijk. Somehow I did not yet receive them on my home QTH in Woerden. My guess is that this is because they are active weekends only. More importantly: Danko Radio from Hungary might get in their way. That said, according to their schedule they are a little bit longer in the air on Sunday’s than Danko Radio (between 20 and 21 h UTC) so that could provide a window of opportunity.
Their beautiful QSL shows one of the most iconic views of the Netherlands, the “Zaanse Schans“, close their QTH Zaandijk.
Older DX-ers might remember that 1116 kHz was once the frequency of Radio Bloemendaal. This religious broadcaster was the first religious broadcaster in the Netherlands, and for a long time the only legal station other than the state radio company that was heard on medium wave. But I will dedicate another post to them!