The wonderful world of listening to the radio
A QSL email from Radio Maria Colombia, broadcasting from Manizales on 1500 kHz. I sent my report to info.col@radiomaria.org . The reply came from programas.radiomaria@gmail.com which looks like a more generic email address, but it carried the Radio Maria Colombia logo.
When staying on Curacao last year (2024) I received BBN – Bible Broadcasting Network – from both Venezuela and Colombia. But I only sent a report to the BBN Colombia which was confirmed with a QSL. So during my holiday this year I took the opportunity to write to BBN Venezuela as well. After all, it appears to be very difficult to get a QSL from a Venezuelan radio station these days. But in the case of BBN the report was sent to, and the reply came from their head office in the USA: red@bbnmedia.org .
Like last time I got a nice detailed letter from BBN. BBN is most likely not as well known in the DX community as for example TWR and AWR. That is most likely because they do not operate on Shortwave. The organisation runs quite a few FM stations in the United States, in addition to 4 low power AM stations. But they are also active in 14 countries in South America, with medium wave presence in Chile, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. Rather than excited preaching heard so often on other stations the BBN programs that I listened to were always about explaining the Bible in a more modest fashion.
A QSL from WKUM “Radio Cumbre”, Orocovis, Puerto Rico on 1470 kHz. I heard this station during my stay at Curacao.
They advertise as “Cumbre 14-70, la estacion de regio central y Puerto Rico”. Which is correct if you see their location on the map below. The spanish word “Cumbre” translates as “Summit”, and indeed this station is located on the central mountain range in Puerto Rico, the Cordillera Central .
A QSL from WRSJ “TIVA Radio” San Juan 1520 kHz from Puerto Rico. I received this station while staying on Curaçao. I sent my report to info@.com and Mr. Edwin Gonzalez was so kind to confirm within a day.
WRSJ “TIVA Radio” is owned by International Broadcasting. They also own WGIT 1660, a station that I have heard in The Netherlands recently. According to Wikipedia WRSJ brings an adult contemporary format, but what I heard was a lengthy and passionate discussion on side effects of the COVID vaccines.
A QSL for WXRF WAPA Radio Guayama, Puerto Rico on 1590 kHz. The station is part of the WAPA Radio network. My report to admin@borinquenradio was answered within a day with a brief email reply from ING Jorge Blanco, vice president of WAPA Radio. I heard this station while staying on the island Curacao (721 km distance).
WXRF is part of the WAPA Radio network which operates 7 AM and 7 FM stations across the island of Puerto Rico. It is interesting to see that the email address still reads WBQN which was the call sign of the station on 680 AM which I QSL-ed last year (see below). At the time the network was branded Borinquen Radio, with “Borinquen” referring to the native name for Puerto Rico.
Things have changed over the past year. WBQN on 680 AM, the most powerful station of the network, has its old call sign WAPA back since October 2024. And the network is now called WAPA Radio network. WAPA refers to original owners, the Asociación de Productores de Azúcar, or Puerto Rico Sugar Grower’s Association.
The WBQN call sign now belongs to the station on 1580 kHz by the way.
Radio Redhill is a Hospital Radio station broadcasting on 1431 kHz with 1 Watt only from East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, south of London, United Kingdom. That’s a distance of 360 kms.
I did hear Radio Redhill in the first two months of the year almost on a daily basis, around 04:00 – 06:00 h UTC. But never really strong, just not above the realitively high noise level at my location. Sometimes I could pick up “Redhill”. In the end I decided to wrote down two song titles I recognized, made a MP3 recording, and sent my report to: studio(at)radioredhill.co.uk. Three days later, Ian, station engineer sent me a kind email to confirm my report:
Hello Peter.
Thank you for your reception report.
I can confirm the music you identified was played at that time:
March 14th
04:42 The Carpenters – Goodbye to Love
…..
04:02 Buddy Holly – Peggy Sue
We transmit with 1 watt of power so it is always interesting to receive reception reports from all over Europe. Sweden and Norway are the furthest we have had reports from.
Thank you for your email.
Ian
Station Engineer.
Radio Redhill started in 1974. My guess is that it was a typical “radio by wire” station that you have or had at many hospitals. In 2000 AM broadcasts started, and since 2022 the station is active on 100.4 MHz. You can learn more about the history of this hospital radio station on their website.
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
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.
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.
VOWR St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada is a station that can be heard regularly in The Netherlands with a fair to good signal. Overnight their schedule features “Music for Relaxation” : non-stop oldies with now and then a VOWR station ID. Ron LeDrew, manager of VOWR was so kind to confirm my report with a brief email reply.
There are only 3 stations that carry a call sign that doesn’t start with a “C”: VOCM, VOAR and VOWR. These stations were founded before Newfoundland joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949. The ITU prefix VO was originally assigned to Newfoundland and remains in use by radio amateurs. With this QSL from VOWR my set is complete!
VOWR was started in 1924 by Reverend Joseph G. Joyce from the Wesley Methodist Church to allow people that couldn’t make it to church to listen to the services. Soon afterwards they added more general programs, but today a fair bit of their schedule still has a religious background. On their excellent website you can learn a lot about this historic station.
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.
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