"It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on" - Marilyn Monroe
Not my first QSL of this station. I received one earlier in 2023. But there is no harm in sending an additional report to a station that keeps a tradition alive. I heard them during the Easter weekend. As last time the QSL was part of a lengthy PDF with lots of history… I sent my report to wmrscotland@mail.com and got a reply after 16 weeks. Hey, it’s a hobby after all, so things can take a bit of time.
Like last year the German service of Radio Taiwan International ran a few test transmissions to find the best frequencies for their summer broadcasts from Tamsui. My reception report to deutsch@rti.org.tw was awarded with a beautiful QSL that arrived 6 weeks later by mail.
Every year the BBC has a short program with family greetings to the staff of the British Antartic Survey. This year the program was aired for the 70th time. It’s a bit of a tradition as unlike 70 years ago the researchers have access to broadband internet enabling them to communicate with friends and family in the UK.
I heard them on 12065 kHz from Woofferton and on 9575 kHz from Ascension Island. A program with family greetings from the UK to the folks at South Georgia and Rothera Base. And with a brief message from King Charles as well. In the 90-ies I as able to receive these BAS stations on 9106 kHz, but I’m not sure whether they are still active on that frequency given modern communication tools.
Below the opening clip taken from the Woofferton broadcast as it was of better quality. The Ascension broadcast had a strange digital signal over it which almost seemed to originate from the station itself.
I sent a report to their eQSL service. Unfortunately it only returns random picture postcards without reception details. But fortunately mine was with a picture of Ascension Island facilities.
Last night I made my first reception of a SSTV station from Brazil. I picked up pictures from PY4XC, Rio Doce, Minas Gerais, about 200 kms north of Rio de Janeiro.
When I checked QRZ.com it was obvious that the picture received was that of the shack:
Shortwave Radio from Winsen is an easy catch here. For a little compensation they will confirm your report with a traditional QSL card. You can read the details on their website.
The station is located in Winsen “on the river Aller”. So that is the Winsen located 20 km north of Hannover, Germany (there is another Winsen south of Hamburg). They broadcast on 6160 and 3975 kHz. Next to their own program Shortwave Gold there are various other program producers that use the Shortwave Radio facilities.
I received a SSTV station with call sign UT1KWA from the Ukraine on 14230 kHz. It turned out to be the Rivne DX club, from Rivne, a city in the northwest of the Ukraine.
Pavlo (UT1KY) is running the station. He is a teacher by profession, but also teaches kids to how to run radio. A very nice initiative as I welcome anything that interests kids in technology! QSL manager for the station is Antonello IK2DUW.
Pavlo also shared some nice pictures of him and kids working at the club, showing some nice awards they got. Given privacy considerations I prefer to share a picture they posted on their website. I think this is Pavlo some years ago. His beard is a bit more grey today (as is my own hair).
Thank you Pavlo for your kind reply, all the best with your initiative and the Rivne DX club. It’s these sort of connects that make our hobby so nice.
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!
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.
© 2025 Peter's DX Corner
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑