The wonderful world of listening to the radio
I received an email to QSL Del Tracks (sometimes referred to as Deltracks) on 6270 kHz. Del Tracks is a Free Radio station from The Netherlands. I heard them last weekend with the slogan “Del Tracks, your Classic Rock Station! Do you remember where you were in 1984?” I sent my report to deltracks@outlook.com .
Last weekend I received Baken 16 (Dutch for Beacon 16) on 6385 kHz. This Free Radio station is named after the popular program “Baken 16” which was broadcast by Radio Mi Amigo on weekdays, lunch time, from August 1976 unit October 1978. The program was presented by Marc Jacobs. In 1979 the show featured on Radio Caroline for a few months (source: Radiopedia).
There is a nice nostalgic video on YouTube with fragments from the 500th Baken 16 show.
As a Free Radio station from The Netherlands the name Baken 16 lives on. The transmitter is a Rohde & Schwarz SK010 (100W) connected to an inverted V.
While busy processing IQ.wav recordings for CLE-297 of the NDB list group, I enjoyed listening to Radio Delta. Within a day I received this e- QSL Radio Delta, Elburg, The Netherlands, 6060 kHz.
Radio Delta is on the air weekends on 6060 and 12075 kHz. Check their website for the latest schedule. Not only their website is pretty nice, but they can also be very proud of their studio! Professional! On 6060 they featured a program “Radio Delta goes DX”, reading listeners reports from all over Europe. Their signal is certainly strong enough!
I received a QSL from Sublime FM 90.7 MHz, broadcasting from IJsselstein, The Netherlands. From September Sublime will no longer be received on FM.
After the allocation of FM frequencies to national and regional public radio there are 9 “packages” of frequencies left for commercial parties. These are sold via an auction mechanism. In the auction of last July “Mediahuis”, the company behind Sublime, gave up the Sublime frequencies. They were taken by newcomer Financial News Radio which acquired the rights until September 2035.
The fact that Sublime will disappear from FM (they will continue on DAB+ and internet streaming) made me send a QSL request to info@sublime.nl . Nowadays nobody at these networks knows what a QSL is, so I had to explain it a bit, after which I received a kind email from Audiohuis.
I received this beautiful e QSL from station Witte Tornado (White Tornado) and Lady. A pirate station operating from Almelo, The Netherlands, on 1647 kHz. Operator Gerard informed me that they are on air every 2nd Sunday from 17:00 to 00:00 h local time.
If you want the email address, drop me a note via a comment on this mail.
In April I received KL85 on 900 AM celebrating their 3rd anniversary. A little quiz was held during the show I was listening. “What is story behind the name of the station KL85?”. My answer was correct , it is Kortrijk – Leie and postal code 85. And today I received my prize: a beautiful book about the history of Radio Veronica. Find out more about KL85 and their cool programs on https://kl85.net/.
Thank you Geert and the KL85 team!
I enjoyed an email conversation with Dicky Denkers, the man behind the transmitters and antennas of LPAM stations Radio Emmeloord and Radio 0511. The antenna of Radio 0511 is located in Easternijtsjerk (in Frysian) or Oosternijkerk (in Dutch). In the north of the Netherlands, close to the Waddenzee. It is an inverted L , mounted on a windmill as you can see in the picture below:
Radio Emmeloord was stronger than Radio 0511 at my holiday location near Appelscha, some 50 kms away in the Drents-Friese forests. Dicky explained to me that the longer wave length might help getting through an area surrounded by forests. Being an experienced mediumwave broadcaster – going back tot the days of Radio Veronica and MiAmigo – he mentioned that stations in the past also struggled in this respect.
Radio Seabreeze has two transmitters operational. On 1395 kHz from Grou in the northern province of Friesland they use a 100 Watt transmitter. On the same frequency they operated a transmitter from Laren. As that resulted in issues with interference they moved the Laren transmitter to 1098 kHz.
As Laren is situated in the south-east corner of the province of North Holland (still with me😉?), this will benefit listeners in the central part of the Netherlands. More information on the Seabreeze website. Reception reports are welcome via their webform.
I recorded the announcement of their new frequency on this YouTube link.
I received a beautiful e-QSL Radio 182 Waddinxveen 1485 kHz. Accompanied by a friendly and detailed email from Gert Voogd. With 4 Watts PEP only this is truly a low power AM (LPAM) station. The 1485 kHz frequency is allocated in the Netherlands to stations with an effective power of 1 Watt max. Obviously this is done to avoid interference from the bigger 100 Watt LPAM stations. In the evening hower the SER stations with 10 kW from Spain will provide a challenge to the DX listener.
Despite being a small AM station it has very mature 24/7 programming. And that is because the little AM outlet is more or less a fun addition to Radio 182 on DAB+ for the “Midden Holland” region. Basically this is the area between Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht, also know as the “Green Heart” of the Netherlands. They are really looking forward to reception reports, either via the webform or email: info@radio182.nl
What I like about their QSL card is that it shows the Lift Bridge in Waddinxveen across the river Gouwe. Together with a similar bridge a few kilometers north in Boskoop it was constructed in 1936, a real piece of industrial heritage. On my cycling tours these bridges are real landmarks, as they can be seen from miles away in our flat polder landscape.
Waddinxveen is about 18 km from my QTH. But based on the strength of the signal they probably enjoy a relatively big reception area. This is facilitated by their antenna being placed on a huge steel roof that provides perfect ground effect. The SINPO written on the QSL card is in fact incorrect, it is more like 45454 here in Woerden.
These days most stations respond to reception reports with an email or – if you are lucky – an e-QSL. But Radio SeaBreeze is “old school”. For my reception report to info@radioseabreeze.nl I received this very nice QSL card by traditional mail.
Radio SeaBreeze is one of the Dutch Low Power AM (LPAM) stations in the Netherlands. They broadcast on 1395 kHz from the village of Grou in the province of Friesland with 100 Watt. What I like about the station is that they have plenty live programs (that is with a DJ). Some of the other LPAM stations just play non-stop music from a computer. I don’t understand the fun of that to be honest.
SeaBreeze is also planning to start broadcasting with 50 Watt on 1098 kHz from the village of Laren in North Holland. At the time of writing I don’t know if they are already in the air. I will check, and provide updates accordingly!
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