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Tag: QSL (Page 11 of 38)

QSL Radio Radicale, Rocca di Papa 88.6 MHz

The spectacular sporadic E opening on June 2nd resulted in quite a few QSLs. One of the first stations I heard was Radio Radicale on 88.6 MHz. Most likely from Rocca di Papa, some 20 kilometers southeast of Rome (1291 kms from my QTH). With 251 kW (listed) the transmitter is probably one of the strongest in Italy. As I couldn’t find an email address I filled in the webform their on their site. Within a day I received a simple reply attached to my message:

Yes,it’s Radio Radicale
Thank you very much

Radio Radicale was founded in 1975-76 as the radio station of the Italian Radical Party. When I saw their logo I thought this would be a socialist party (as the rose is symbol of socialism). But apparently the ideology was liberal. “Was” because the party was dissolved in 1989.

Radio Radicale continues however, but as you can read on Wikipedia, not without controversy. The station has no commercial advertisements. It relies for funding on the party and support from the Italian government as part of an agreement that Radio Radicale broadcasts parliamentary sessions. Which is exactly the sort of programme that I received, as you can hear on my YouTube clip.

UPDATE: fully detailed QSL email received!

QSL MRCC Constanta 16804.5 kHz

A QSL for MRCC Constanta, Romania, with a DSC message on 16804.5 kHz. Mr. Marius Roibu sent a fully detailed reply on my report to rna@rna.ro . The transmission was directed to the Italian ship “Valle di Granada” near the Brazilian coast on its way from Rio to Gibraltar.

MRCC Constanta was operated by “Radionav” company until 2020 when they went bankrupt. Today the Romanian Naval Authority is responsible.

QSL MRCC Klaipeda 12577 kHz

A QSL MRCC Klaipeda 12577 kHz. I sent a report to them earlier, but didn’t receive a reply. Today I saw that another DX-er was successful, so I dug up my latest reception of this station and tried again… guess what, an hour later a fully detailed eQSL was delivered to my inbox! I sent my report to mrcc@mil.lt

QSL Tallinn Radio 2187.5 kHz

A paper QSL from Tallinn Radio

A beautiful paper QSL card from Tallinn Radio 2187.5 kHz from Estonia. I received them with a DSC test message and sent my report to tallinnradio@riks.ee . It was my second attempt in trying to QSL them. The station is operated by Riigi Infokommunikatsiooni Sihtasutus (RIKS). This non-commercial entity provides communication services to public institutions and other state-budgeted institutions.

QSL Regio 90 Leersum on 91.7 MHz

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!

QSL Radio Aktief 828 kHz

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.

eQSL from Radio Aktief

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”.

Nice set of Radio Aktief flyers received by regular mail! Thank you!

QSL WDR5 Langenberg 88.8 MHz

At the start of this post I want to make clear that I don’t intend to make jokes about the very kind people of WDR5. Read my explanation at the end of this post.

Last year I was testing my FM antenna… more about that later. I came across WDR5 Langenberg, Germany on 88.8 MHz. As I read somewhere that they were still issuing dedicated WDR5 QSLs I decided to send a report to wdr5@wdr.de. Two days later I received a polite email:

Vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse am Programm von WDR 5.
Bitte haben Sie Verständnis dafür, dass die Bearbeitung Ihrer E-Mail ggf. etwas Zeit in Anspruch nehmen kann.

If you don’t speak German: “Thanks for your interest, asking for your understanding that it might take a while”.

Two weeks ago I realized myself that I never got answer. So I sent a kind reminder. Within a day I received this reply:

Da Ihr Anliegen etwas sehr komplex ist, geben wir dieses Intern weiter und werden uns nochmal bei Ihnen melden!

This translates as “your question is quite complicated… we will forward and let you know”.

And last week I received a nice fully detailed letter from the Technical Information Department to QSL WDR5 Langenberg:

QSL Letter for my reception of WDR5 Langenberg on 88.8 MHz

As promised at the start of this post, my take away:
I am very grateful that WDR5 is still sending out physical letters to QSL reception reports from listeners. There are very few stations that still do so, and I applaud them for this. But the correspondence does show how unfamiliar the front office public relation desk is with anything related to “technical questions”. Steve Canney, former engineer and QSL Manager of CFRB/CFRX Toronto made me aware of this. And you can see that the reply is from the Technical Department. This is why, when sending QSL requests to bigger stations, I always try to direct them to Engineering or Transmitter Engineering departments.

To finish this post, the beautiful QSL card I received in 1980 for my reception WDR Langenberg on 1593 kHz medium wave… those were the days!

QSL MRCC Lisboa 2187.5 kHz

On my second attempt I received a fully detailed email, with their nice logo, to QSL MRCC Lisboa 2187.5 kHz. I received them acknowledging a DSC test of RoRo ship “Grande Brasile” on its way from Portugal to Senegal. I sent my report to mrcc.lisboa@marinha.pt . Please note that I edited the picture of the QSL email to remove phone numbers etc. for privacy reasons.

QSL email for MRCC Lisboa on 2187.5 kHz

QSL Unique Gold 675 kHz

I received a polite email as QSL for my reception of Unique Gold on 675 kHz. Unique Gold is a LPAM (100 Watt) station in Wijchen, about 66 kilometer away from my QTH. As is the case with a few other stations from that area their signal is surprisingly strong. I suspect that the rivers flowing through the central part of the Netherlands help to promote propagation. And they have antenna at 70 meter height next to a lake. I sent my report to info@unique.am .

Hans Coenen of Unique Gold also told me that they are planning to start broadcasts on 1287 kHz as well. That will create a bit of a conflict with Kilrock when they return on the air after the relocation.
UPDATE: I learned that Kilrock might relocate to the province Zeeland. In that case there is probably no conflict, they might even apply for a new frequency. Will be interesting to see if they retain their old name, as “Kil” refers to the geographical area they are broadcasting from.

Unique Gold is one of 4 radio streams offered by Unique via the internet and they are also active on DAB. You can read more about this station on: https://unique-fm.nl/en/who-we-are/ .

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