An e QSL for Texas Radio Shortwave via Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany. TRS ran two test programs last weekend Channel 292. On Saturday I heard them with a relatively weak signal on 6070 kHz, 9 h UTC. On Sunday significantly better on 9670 kHz, 10 h UTC. I sent my report to Texasradioshortwave@protonmail.com .
e-QSL Texas Radio Shortwave test transmission via Channel 292
During the test program they were playing different versions of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” song. The song is from around 1850. The singer tells about his love for a “yellow girl”, a term that in those days was used to describe a light-skinned girl of mixed black and white ancestry. Later the lyrics were changed from “yellow girl” to “yellow rose”.
There is a story that the song refers to Emily D. West, whose statue you see on the e QSL card. Working as a servant in Texas she was kidnapped by the Mexican Cavalry and forced to travel with the forces of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. In the battle of San Jacinto the Mexicans were defeated in 18 minutes by the Texan Army led by General Sam Houston. It is said that the Mexicans were caught unprepared as Santa Anna was in bed with West.
From the Isle of Music is a new program on Radio Channel 292. I like listening to Channel 292 and its programs in the weekend while doing some admin tasks. As such I ran into this lovely program with music from Cuba. I sent my report to: tilfordproductions@gmail.com . Their facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/fromtheisleofmusic/
The station announced that they will be on air next week as well: Next week, my world music program, Uncle BIll’s Melting Pot, will be on same times and frequencies plus a test simulcast from 1900-2000 on 3955 kHz.
Romania still has a strong presence on medium wave with a number of regional stations. I received a brief email that confirmed my reception/QSL Radio Cluj 1593 kHz. I sent my report to office@radiocluj.ro and secretariat@radiocluj.ro and got a reply from the latter address.
The transmitter locations are Sibiu (10 kW) and Oradea (15 kW). Both locations are well outside the Cluj District by the way, and 120 and 130 kilometers of its capital Cluj-Napoca respectively.
Cluj Radio broadcasts in Romanian language. The station identification I heard was “Radio Cluj, ascultă Transilvania” before they went off the air at 20:00 h UTC. The same transmitter location also broadcasts Kolozsvari Radio in Hungarian language as well as Radio Bukarest programs in German and Hungarian. And the frequency is shared with the Radio Târgu Mures program from Miercurea Cluc or Radio România Actualități from Ion Corvin. So make sure you hear a proper ID!
I received two short email confirmations to QSL WBQN Borinquen Radio 680 kHz. The station is located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I received it during my stay on Curacao over a distance of 760 kilometers. Their website is not much more than a streaming portal, but offered a nice opportunity to “spruce up” my QSL emails 😜!
QSL emails from WBQN San Juan, Puerto
The original call sign of the station was WAPA, which refers to the Asociación de Productores de Azúcar, or Puerto Rico Sugar Grower’s Association. It’s current call sign WBQN and name “Borinquen Radio” refers to the native name for the island of Puerto Rico.
The station identifies frequently as “Borinquen Radio, catorze emisoras en Puerto Rico!”. And indeed they have 6 other AM transmitter sites, each with a separate call sign, and each with an FM transmitter as well, so 14 in total. With 10 kW WBQN is the most powerful, the other AM transmitters are typically 1-2.5 kW. “La Poderosa” means “the most powerful” in Spanish.
A QSL from the HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska. HAARP stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. As they write on their website:
It is the world’s most capable high-power, high frequency (HF) transmitter for study of the ionosphere. The principal instrument is the Ionospheric Research Instrument (IRI), a phased array of 180 HF crossed-dipole antennas spread across 33 acres and capable of radiating 3.6 megawatts into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Transmit frequencies are selectable in the range of 2.7 to 10 MHz. Since the antennas form a sophisticated phased array, the transmitted beam can take many shapes, can be scanned over a wide angular range and multiple beams can be formed. The facility uses 30 transmitter shelters, each with six pairs of 10 kilowatt transmitters, to achieve the 3.6 MW transmit power.
QSL HAARP Gakona, Alaska
The facility was built in 1993, funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). With HAARP energy can be “pumped” into the ionosphere. In a controlled way this changes the local ionosphere in what otherwise happens more or less randomly under the influence of the sun. Think about the impact of solar flares causing Aurora. This allows researchers to study the impact of ionospheric changes on radio propagation. For the military this is important to assess impact on radar and communication systems or to develop new systems.
Controversy
HAARP is the subject of numerous conspiracy theories as you can read on this Wikipedia page. It is thought to be a military weapon, it is accused of deliberately triggering hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, used to down aircraft or causing chronic fatigue syndrome. Being a physicist and radio enthusiast I can only laugh about such allegations. True, 3.6 MegaWatt is a a lot of power for a transmitter. But its energy is tiny when compared to a lightning flash which can be up to 10 GigaWatts: 3000 times as much. On a global scale and compared to the sun it is nothing.
The US Air Force shut down their research program in 2015. The control and operation of the facility was turned over to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. The facilities are open to researchers on a pay-for-use basis. Between August 1-14, 2023 there was such a campaign. And as part of this on August 14th the “Ghost in the Air Glow” show was performed.
The August 2023 HAARP campainged featured “Ghosts in the Air Glow”
“Ghosts in the Air Glow” Art Work
Ghosts in the Air Glow is described by the artist/composer Amanda Dawn Christie as a “Transmission Art Work for Ionospheric Research Instruments”. It was already the third performance via HAARP and like a symphony it was referred to as “Composition No. 3“, consisting out of 10 so-called “Movements”.
The frequency on which these movements were broadcast varied from 5 to 10 MHz. The antenna direction was also different each time. In two of them two antenna beams were apparently sweeping as if they were searchlights. Modulation was AM usually, but there was also one SSTV, one FM CW and one CW movement. While I did see the carriers on the majority of them, only one (directed to Marseille) was strong enough to hear some modulation: faint choir singing. CW showed its strength again. Although the beam in Movement XXVII was directed to Dallas I could clearly pick up and decode a poem by ear: “IF MY VOICES LOW GHOSTS SHUNDER MEANING INTO THE (……) YOUR BONES”. Apparently this is a poem from T.D. Walker, but I couldn’t find the full text.
Reception report for “Ghosts in the Air Glow” – August 14th, 2023, via HAARP
QSL
I submitted my report to the website . Unfortunately I never received a QSL card. A week or two ago I saw someone on Facebook who got a QSL directly from the HAARP organization via UAF-GI-HAARP@alaska.edu . Within a day I had my e-QSL and a physical QSL was promised. I also sent a gentle reminder to the artist Amanda Dawn Christie.
I have no idea when the next opportunity is to receive HAARP, and what it would look like. They do announce campaigns on their website though. The Facebook page looks less up-to-date. And otherwise you could maybe just ask them: the response mail I got was very friendly towards radio amateurs.
There are two opportunities to hear the Bahamas on medium wave. On 1540 AM the National Voice broadcasts with 50 kW from Nassau. On 810 AM there is The Light with 10 kW from Freeport.
I have seen a few reports of 1540 AM from Europe. I’ve not been so lucky yet: all I heard on 1540 was CHIN from Toronto, and KXEL from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During my stay on Curaçao it was easier to receive this station. The only competition came from Radio Cóndor from Colombia.
Email QSL from ZNS The National Voice, Bahamas
My report to digitalmedia@znsbahamas.com was answered with a fully detailed email in a day.
Among the DSC stations Faversham Radio, call sign MNC, is something special. You have the major Coastal Radio Stations and Rescue Coordination Centres (JRCC or MRCC) and then there are a few maritime colleges and training institutes like MarTec in Skagen, NuTec in Bergen and Trondheim, and the Constanta Maritime University. Faversham Radio in Kent, United Kingdom is also a training facility but operated by volunteers. It is situated in Faversham along the Swale, a tidal channel in the Thames estuary.
Roger Taylor was so kind to confirm my reception of Faversham Radio. After serving as a radio officer at sea and then teaching Decca radar systems all over the world, he joined the Merchant Navy College at Greenhithe in Kent. After a stint at the National Sea School in Gravesend he and a few colleagues decided to become independent and start Snargate Radio as a training facility for GMDSS. They gave it call sign MNC, referring to the old college at Greenhithe. But also the first coastal radio station in the UK using an M (as in the old days of the Marconi Stations) rather than G in their call sign.
Later MNC was relocated to Faversham, and the name was changed accordingly. The station is entirely voluntary run by ex seafarers. The transmitter is a Sailor 5000 SSB kit because, as Roger explains, this is the only kit that allowed them to program an MMSI number starting with “00” indicating that it is a coastal radiostation. This is indeed something that is odd with stations like MarTec, NuTec, CMU or ANFR Donges: their MMSI is like that of a ship.
Faversham Radio is allowed to acknowledge DSC test calls. Making it the only HF maritime provision in the United Kingdom. In the beginning (2013-2015) the station was heavily used. But then a drop in requests was noted. Apparently due to the fact that the UK MCA had asked the entry in the ALRS (Admiralty List of Radio Signals) to be deleted. This has no been decided otherwise, but the use of Faversham Radio is still very low. Making it a rare catch.
A QSL CBEF 1550 “La Première” from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Thanks to Hugo Matten! I sent a report to cbef@radio-canada.ca twice. But twice all I got back was an acknowledgement by a CBEF employee that my email was received, and my request forwarded to the responsible team…. and that was all.
Hugo however got a direct reply from Mihai Bulgaru, Supervisor Transmission. So my third email went directly to Mihai. And yes he was so kind to reply to me as well, even referring to Hugo’s report:
Mihai included two nice photo’s of the station and transmitter site as well:
CBEF 1550 “La Première”, Windsor, Ontario
A big thanks to Mihai for the confirmation, and thanks to Hugo for sharing his QSL!
I got “Great!” as an answer on my reception report for Direct 107, a station broadcasting on 107.1 FM. Is it enough to count as a QSL or not? Probably not. But for me it is another nice souvenir from a holiday on Curaçao!
Nevertheless I’m still grateful to the people at the station for acknowledging my reception report. Nice logos on the email make up for the lack of detail! And I learned a new word in Papiamento: “Atministrashon”.
Direct 107 broadcasts in Papiamento, the language of the people on Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire. On Curaçao it was recognized as an official language in 2007 (which is a bit late if you ask me). If you know a bit of Spanish and English you might be able to understand a bit of it. But the origin is Portuguese rather than Spanish. Which is a reminder of dark times when the Dutch “imported” slaves from the Portuguese colonies Cabo Verde, Senegal and Guinea Bissau to the islands.
Modern Papiamento is more a mixture of Spanish, English and Dutch though. There are 180.000 people on the islands that speak Papiamento. Together with the people from the islands that live in The Netherlands there are about 250.000 Papiamento speaking people in the world. I would have loved to send my report in Papiamento language, but there is no Google Translate for it…
Direct 107 is one out of two stations of Direct Media on FM. They also run a television program TV Direct13.
BDXC : SWL 2262 PRe VERON : NL 14228 If you want to get in touch, just leave a message on one of my posts. Please note that I don't publish email addresses of verifiers which are not part of the public domain. So if you don't see the QSL address, just leave a message and I'll get back to you.
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