Radio Aalsmeer, a local FM radiostation, is only 23 kilometers away from my QTH. But on 105.9 MHz it sits exactly between Radio Ronde Venen on 106.MHz (8 kms away) and RTW FM on 105.8 MHz (18 kms away). Both are quite a bit stronger here. Fortunately SDR console allows to limit the bandwidth to 0.1 MHz and while it did compromise quality a bit it wasn’t difficult to receive Radio Aalsmeer.
I sent my report to info info@radioaalsmeer.nl . Elbert who is secretary of the station and also works at the news desk was so kind to confirm my reception.
The Studio’s Aalsmeer building
Radio Aalsmeer is broadcasting from the studios of Joop van den Ende, the famous Dutch media producer who founded Endemol and Stage Entertainment. He bought the former flower auction site and transformed it to Studio’s Aalsmeer. And that’s where it all started.
Since I resumed the hobby I spent quite a bit of time on maritime DX (DSC mode) and NDBs. But I didn’t do as much on HF Aero. So time to see what’s going on the aero-bands. I did already a couple of SelCal decodes (so nice that we have programs like MultiPSK that allow us to do so) when I discovered HFDL.
I first heard Shannon. On audio the pattern is a brief tone, and then a data burst, as in this audio clip. Using the Klingenfuss guide I started to look for other frequencies, decoded with MutliPSK, and got some Auckland decodes.
Receiving something from New Zealand is always nice, but what about a QSL? I decided to contact Airways New Zealand. Todd, who is operations team lead at Airways told me that they were truly interested in my reception, it wasn’t Auckland Radio that I heard (as they are responsible for voice), but he could confirm I received the HF data link from Auckland.
Meanwhile I’ve learned a little bit more about HFDL. Apparently it is a service called ACARS (Aircraft Communications and Reporting System) initially developed by ARINC (Aeronautical Radio Incorporated). ARINC is now part of Collins Aerospace. UDXF offers a nice information sheet about this service that allows aircraft to exchange date via a ground station with their operators.
Apparently there are 16 ground stations that provide HFDL. I’ve heard Hat Yai, Telde (Canarias), Shannon and Auckland by now. The beauty is that via this digital technique aircraft can for example broadcast their position in 2 seconds, something which would take 1 minute by voice. And during high solar activity periods the digital mode of communication proved to be much more reliable for aircraft flying over polar regions in particular.
San Francisco, CA, USA Molokai, HWA, USA Reykjavik, Iceland Riverhead, New York, USA Auckland, New Zealand Hat Yai, Thailand Shannon, Ireland Johannesburg, South Africa Barrow, Alaska, USA Muan, South Korea Albrook, Panama Santa Cruz, Bolivia Krasnoyarsk, Russia Al Muharraq, Bahrain Agana, Guam Canarias, Spain
Now I fully understand that I’m just a beginner in this field. So if you have additions, corrections, just let me know by leaving a reply in the comments. Thank you!
An e-QSL with lots of details from Moonair Radio, a Free Radio station from Central Europe. DJ Mike is from Holland, and the show I listened to was mainly in Dutch, but from the announcements made it was clear the the location is not in The Netherlands, but somewhere in “Central Europe”. I will not disclose the location, but given the distance I am surprised about the signal strength given an output power of only 250 W. Must be a decent antenna! And I understand why there was a bit of fading.
Mike also shared a nice video of the studio and transmitter equipment. Apparently he is also the operator of Radio Magdalena, a station that broadcasts in AM-stereo.
My reception of Mustang Radio on 6280 kHz, a Free Radio station from the east part of the Netherlands was confirmed with a kind email reply by station owner Herman.
About a week after the email bij Herman he sent me the beautiful QSL card!
e-QSL from Radio WDR “Radio from the Bottom of the Sea”
An e-QSL from Radio WDR. No not the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, but Radio WDR on 5800 kHz, a Free Radio station from the Netherlands. One of their slogans is “Radio from the Bottom of the Sea”, which might imply that their QTH is what used to be the former Zuiderzee.
A program I hadn’t heard before on Channel 292, Germany is SoundBox Radio. On Friday night they broadcast a nice mix of Disco music on 6070 kHz. My reception report was awarded with an e-QSL and a friendly email in a day.
Last weekend Key Channel Radio, broadcasting from Emilia Romagna, Italy, was on air on 6270 kHz. Massimo, who operates the station was so kind to give me a heads up warning. Reception wasn’t easy as propagation conditions were poor and there was quite a bit of noise/interference which required them to change frequency a few times.
Massimo sent me the beautiful e QSL, a friendly email and some photo’s of the stunning scenery in Emilia Romagna:
Dear Peter, thanks for your valuable listening report. In the end you listened to us too. Tough evening, stanag, CW all active. Yes we changed the frequency 4 times. KCR has been broadcasting since January 2016 from a location on the hills of the Emilian Apennines. We use a commercial transmitter with a maximum power of 400 W (in use 250 W) and a self-built Morgain 48/88 Antenna. There are three of us who manage it, I take care of the technical part, programs. My girlfriend takes care of important statistics on listeners and small studies on propagation. A dear friend of ours takes care of the graphics, the promos and QSLs are her creations. We are an open radio, we have collaborated with several German Pirate Radios, Doctor Tim, Radio BZN and more. Now we collaborate with Radio Monique, Bart even made a broadcast and several Jingles for us. (Pirate for Peace Member).
A few times per year the International Space Station (ISS) has an event in which they transmit SSTV messages in the amateur band. Between April 11th and 16th there was such an event, dedicated to “Humans in Space”. Note that April 12th, 1961 was the date of the first human space flight with Yuri Gagarin.
The frequency used was 145.800 MHz in the 2 meter amateur band, which is covered by my ICOM R8600 so I decided to give it a try. I used the AMSAT site to get information when the ISS was flying over. Each morning there were 5 passes, about 1.5 hr apart. During a pass the ISS would “theoretically” be in visible range for 6 to 10 minutes. As I didn’t have a 2 meter band antenna I just pointed my 5 elements 100 MHz Yagi (6 m elevation) westward to see what would happen.
The Amsat site provides a tool to predict ISS pass times.
On the first try I was lucky. The SSTV broadcasts were in FM and PD120 mode, which took me some time to sort out. Good thing that I made an SDR recording so I could leisurely experiment with fine tuning the decoding. Now each picture takes 2 minutes to send, followed by a pause of 2 minutes. And while the ISS is “theoretically” in sight for 6 to 10 minutes, the reality is that at my location I don’t have a free view from west to east. On the west there are houses and somewhat further away a 9 story apartment tower. But east is worse with a nearby 5 story apartment blocking my view. Combined with the directional properties of the antenna it meant that I never managed to have more than 2 minutes of good quality reception each pass. As you can see in the pictures below:
But good enough to upload my pictures to the ARISS website and apply for an award which was almost immediately returned (Tip: do check you spam email box, as that’s where my copy landed!).
Award for my reception of ISS during the “Humans in Space” event.
Now the problem is that I don’t have a reliable source for upcoming ISS events. The ARISS website doesn’t always seem to mention them. I got my information form the AMSAT-UK website, which had links to various relevant pages. So suggest you follow them if you are interested to try for yourself.
Another nice QSL from a local radio station in The Netherlands. This time from BR6, the local station for Bodegraven & Reeuwijk. John Bekker was so kind to confirm my reception report. He wrote that they have no QSLs, but in thThey have been heard as far as Wolfsburg, Germany, which isn’t bad given their power of only 50 Watts.
BR6 is also part of the RTV Midden Holland group (see my post on RTV Krimpenerwaard). Their antenna is located on an advertising column in an industrial park in the south of Bodegraven. Just over 10 kms from my QTH!
I hate these ugly advertising columns, but if you put a radio antenna on it, I can live with it😉
By the way… did you know that Bodegraven, like my own QTH Woerden is situated along the old river Rhine? Which was once the northern frontier, the “Limes” of the Roman Empire…
Back on my journey exploring the local FM radio scene: Another nearby local FM station is RTV Ronde Venen. They have two frequencies in use. I listened to their 60 Watt transmitter from Kockengen on 106 MHz (8 kilometers from my QTH). The other frequency is 105.6 MHz from Mijdrecht with 50 Watts. My report was confirmed within a day with a f/d email reply.
I heard and QSL-ed this station with a similar name “Radio Ronde Venen” in 1990 (no TV then apparently). This was the local radio from Mijdrecht, in the municipality Ronde Venen which was established when Mijdrecht, Vinkeveen, Wilnis and Waverveen merged into one muncipality in 1989.
Radio Ronde Venen logo in 1990
Kockengen however is part of the the municipality Stichtse Vecht. With RTV Stichtse Vecht they were broadcasting on 106 MHz from Kockengen and 105.3 MHz from Maarssen. But since the start of 2025 they decided to join efforts with RTV Ronde Venen. Financial considerations with regards to investments in the studio apparently played a role. As I described in my post on RTV Krimpenerwaard it is another example of the trend in which local stations merge into more regional entities… Not sure what happened to 105.3 MHz though, that transmitter seems to be taken off the air.
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