While Transatlantic conditions are poor there is still plenty to listen to on medium wave. This week I received TWR from Parakou, Benin. They started a bit earlier than announced. Around 0305 h UTC I heard some nice African music like the song “Noé” from Pasteur Plaingué. The Shazam app works wonders… At 0320 their regular program started in Hausa, the lingua franca of the region. The typical TWR interval signal was absent.
QSL TWR Africa from Parakou, Benin, 1476 kHz
My report was answered within a day by Mrs. Lorraine Stavropoulos, DX manager for TWR Africa via lstavrop@twr.org. Unfortunately, unlike the e-QSL from TWR Eswatini which featured the 50 years anniversary logo, there is no reference made to Benin. This seems to be a bit of a TWR policy, as neither of my Kyrgyzstan QSLs indicated the QTH.
Another beacon from northern Sweden confirmed. A QSL for NDB OO-369 Örnsköldsvik. The other NDB for this airport is OD-322. Chris Landstrom from Aviseq was so kind to send a confirmation (together with NDB OL Luleå):
As for OO, it’s definitely our station but it baffles me how your reception was so much worse than previous NDB’s or even OL which is several hundred kilometers further away from you than OO is, I looked into weather history for these dates and saw nothing that should indicate a worse prerequisite in terms of climate and considering OO’s placement there shouldn’t be any difficult obstructions or similar making it much worse than OL. I’m not aware of any conflicting frequencies that could play a role but maybe you have an idea what could cause this? Our monitoring receivers are generally placed at nearby airports so any long-range discrepancies wouldn’t be picked up; but it would be fun to understand it better.
“I’m happy to confirm that Peter Reuderink has received the following stations: NDB OO on 369 kHz on October 26th, 2024, 22:15 h UTC, and NDB OL on 377 kHz, on October 27th, 2024, 23:15 h UTC”
I explained Chris that the quality of the reception depends on the propagation at the time I scan that specific part of the frequency band. And at the time conditions were not stellar due to solar activity. Moreover, OO shares a frequency (with similar offsets) with NL Goteborg-Landvetter and MNE Munich, which are more or less in the same antenna direction and definitely much stronger at my QTH.
It’s nice to have these sort of conversations with the engineers that maintain these beacons!
Chris Landstrom from Aviseq Sweden was so kind to confirm my reception of OL Luleå on 377 kHz (as well as OO Örnsköldsvik):
We’re happy to confirm these receptions – technically OL Luleå @ 377 kHz belongs to our colleagues in Luleå but due to workload right now I’m confident you’ll struggle for a reply there. They have quite a bit more work this time of year than we do so they’re pretty busy right now. I feel confident enough that we’re looking at OL Luleå here so I’ll go ahead and confirm that.
Luleå Airport is quite a busy airport with regular flights to Gothenburg and Stockholm, but also to Paris, Düsseldorf and London, plus charters to various holiday destinations around the Mediterranean.
A QSL for CFZM 740 Zoomer Radio, Toronto. I heard this station for the first time this year. The reception report was via their webform. Following a brief email exchange Genya Hulak was so kind to send me a fully detailed email:
The 740 AM frequency was in use by CBL (a CBC station) until 2000. But as their AM transmissions suffered from interference in downtown Toronto they left this frequency. Despite the interference issue many stations contested for this clear channel frequency. The application was granted to CHWO which moved from 1250. CJYE is their replacement on 1250. The CBC brand is still visible on the Hornby transmitter building:
CBC transmitter station at Hornby, now in use by CFZM 740
In 2007 the CHWO operations were sold and the station was rebranded to CFZM. The format is “oldies and adult standards”.
Scanning the medium wave band I found Radio Briscola in pretty good quality on 1449 kHz. As I only heard a lady talking, without an ID, I made a recording and sent it to radiobriscola@gmail.com (thank you Artur at Maresme DX for the tip).
e QSL Radio Briscola 1449 kHz from Lenta, Piemonte, Italy
Gianfranco Giudice sent me a kind email reply:
I’m very pleased with your listening report Radio Briscola is a small amateur broadcaster with a regular permit that broadcasts from Piedmont (Italy) with 500 watts/carrier and a 32 meter vertical folded antenna every weekend, also because electricity costs a lot; we plan to power the transmitter with photovoltaic, but later……….
While it is nice that in countries like Holland and Italy there is a bit more of a liberal attitude toward low power broadcasters on AM, the energy costs are providing a challenge. We haven’t seen the sun in The Netherlands for 9 days on a row now. Will we get messages like “our station is off the air because a lack of solar power?”.
An e- QSL for Radio Thailand World Service 7475 kHz. Heard them in excellent quality on 7475 kHz with an English program. As my report to rthworldservice@gmail.com remained unanswered I sent them a friendly reminder and received a fully detailed card within a day.
e-QSL for Radio Thailand World Service on 7475 kHz
I really wanted to get this QSL. In the 80-ies it was a bit more difficult to receive them but when I managed to do so I got a schedule and beautiful pennant by mail, but not a confirmation that resembled a QSL.
Pennant I received from National Broadcasting Service of Thailand in the 80-ies.
December 1st, 1924, was the day on which the VLF transmitter in Grimeton with call sign “SAQ” was taken into service. The station connected with telegraphy transmission across the Atlantic to Riverhead and Rocky Point on Long Island, New York. The quality of the Centennial Transmission was exceptionally good… better than any of my SAQ receptions so far.
An e-QSL card for Radio Vanuatu on 9960 kHz. In 2023 Radio Vanuatu started to issue e-QSLs. I tried to catch them on 7260 kHz but wasn’t successful. As Vanuatu would be a new EDXC country I decided to make an exception and tune in via a Kiwi SDR in Brisbane to get a QSL.
This week Helmut Matt let me know that Radio Vanuatu could be received in decent quality on their new frequency of 9960 kHz around 0630 – 0700 h UTC. So I gave it a try and this time I was able to hear them with news, weather and a Lionel Richie song. Given local noise not easy, but definitely doable: SINPO 24222. Within a day I got the eQSL from Warren Robert, Manager of Technical Services.
e-QSL from VTBC Radio Vanuatu on 9960 kHz
It feels good to have this station QSL-ed for a reception from my home QTH!
This year Trans World Radio (TWR) celebrates that it was 50 years ago that they started broadcasting from a location near Manzini, Swaziland. I had the pleasure of visiting the country, which is now called Eswatini, and the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary 12 years ago. Transmitter power has been upgraded from 25 kW to 100 kW which results in a very good reception of their program on 9500 kHz here in The Netherlands. Unfortunately, as far as I know there is only 1 hour of English programming left on their schedule, Sundays only. And when I tuned in they went already off air after 30 minutes. So I’m afraid that TWR is also moving more and more to FM and the internet to get their message heard.
e QSL to celebrate 50 years of TWR Africa
Mrs. Lorraine Stavropoulos confirmed my reception within a day. I sent my report to lstavrop@twr.org (please note the first letter is an “L”). Funny detail is that the QSL features a Bible text in Dutch, so apparently custom made! Below the well known QSL card which I received in 1980.
What’s in a name? Well it does matter. I heard what I called Rijeka Radio on 2187.5 kHz in October. As I didn’t receive a reply on my reception report I tried again today. Within a few hours the duty officer MRCC Rijeka M. Butkovic was so kind to send me this confirmation:
And yes it was that MMSI I received:
TIME: 2024-10-21 04:37:48 FREQ: 2187.5 DIST: 1027 Km SYMB: 120 120 024 089 098 000 000 108 000 023 087 001 000 118 126 126 126 126 126 126 126 122 004 122 122 FMT: SEL CAT: SAF TO: SHIP,248998000 Ro-Ro Lismore FROM: COAST,002387010,HRV,Rijeka Radio TC1: TEST TC2: NOINF FREQ: — POS: — EOS: ACK cECC: 4 OK
So Rijeka Radio is no more, it is MRCC Rijeka now. Which effectively means it is a new station for me as well😉. Below you can see my Radio Rijeka QSL from 1993: 6 kW in CW on 8700 kHz. When I pulled it out of my collection I noticed that is was stamped by Plovput. The same company that confirmed my NAVTEX reception of Split Radio a year ago, with Rijeka Radio still on the QSL. QSL collections are documenting history!
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