"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on" - Marilyn Monroe
A QSL for NDB BRZ Breza, the “sister” beacon of NDB RI Rijeka. This approach and landing beacon is situated on the opposite end of the Rijeka Airport runway in Croatia. As with the other beacons in Istria such as NDB PLA and KAZ for Pula Airport, Mr. Birkić, head of Istria/Kvarner ATC was so kind to confirm my report.
This beacon shows up nicely on Googlemaps, and the funny thing is that is actually situated close to the city of Rijeka, while NDB Rijeka is only close to the airport.
Rijeka Airport in Croatia has two approach and landing NDBs: NDB BRZ Breza to the north west and NDB RI Rijeka to the south east, as can been seen on the excellent Skyvector website.
As with the NDB PLA and KAZ for Pula Airport, Mr. Birkić, head of Istria/Kvarner ATC was so kind to confirm my report.
While the city of Rijeka is situated on the mainland of Croatia, the airport and NDB RI are located on the island Krk.
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!
There are a couple of NDBs listed for Rijeka Airport in Croatia. I got a kind email from Mr. Mario Birkic from Croatia Control to QSL NDB CRE-433 on the island Cres and KO-438 near Kovala.
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