I got a nice e QSL document for my reception of pirate radio station Polaris Radio on 6390 kHz. It had with quite a bit of information which I will not share here for obvious reasons. Unlike most pirate stations they are transmitting from the western part of The Netherlands with a maximum power of 2 kW into an inverted V antenna. I sent my report to polarisradio@hotmail.com .
Tag: SW (Page 3 of 13)
This morning I listened to Radio City via Channel 292 on 9670 and 6070 kHz. A nice mix of lesser known oldies, including some French songs that always give you that “summer feeling”. Within an hour I received the above QSL which gives some information about the format. The 2nd page of the QSL (not shown here) gave information about the music that was played.
The “Tower of Power!” logo on the QSL confirmed what I already suspected. The station is named after the offshore radio station. The original Radio City was active between 1964 and 1967 from the Shivering Sands Army fort in the Thames Estuary. These were the wild days of offshore radio in the UK, culminating in Radio City’s manager Reginald Calvert being killed by Oliver Smedley, former manager of offshore Radio Atlanta, in a violent row about a transmitter sale.
A QSL for Realmix Radio from southern Finland on 6195 kHz.
With the major broadcasters leaving shortwave there is a trend of smaller low power stations to step in. If only for the fun of it! The Netherlands seem to be leading with stations like Casanova, Delta, Veronica and Piepzender. But Finland is following with Scandinavian Weekend Radio, Piko, Realmix Radio and Radio Blacksmith Knoll (the latter one is a station I still have to receive).
I heard Realmix Radio around 18:30 UTC for a few minutes in reasonable quality SINPO23332, with the English presenter clearly understandable. Around 19:00 I was able to pick up a few song titles with Shazam. Their SSTV signal was also clearly audible, but did not result in a decent decode.
I sent my report to realmix.sw@gmail.com . Realmix Radio is on air during the weekend, check for the latest schedule on their Facebook page.
A QSL from Xenon Transmitting Company on 6205 kHz, broadcasting from England, United Kingdom.
I sent my report to xtcshortwave@googlemail.com .
As they write in their email:
XTC (full name the Xenon Transmitting Company) has been on the air since 1993. We like to talk about various subjects rather than just play music. XTC does not have a regular schedule, but we try to be on the air over the Bank Holidays, Easter and Christmas.
If you google ‘UK Free Radio Shortwave Memories from the 1990’s’ you will find a very good blog which has more information about XTC and other stations that were active during that decade.
I received a fully detailed email to QSL Radio Ö1 Moosbrunn received on 6155 kHz. I sent my report to oe1.service@orf.at .
Radio Österreich International, also known as “Austria Calling” among English listeners, discontinued operations in 2003. Shortwave operations continued as Radio Ö1 International, but got reduced in coverage and quality. In 2010 there was only a 75 minute program on 6155 kHz left.
From March 2022 onwards, in response to the war in the Ukraine, it was decided to increase the number of broadcasts again. With 300 kW there are now morning, afternoon and evening programs on 6155, 13730 and 5940 respectively.
To honor the good old days: below the QSL card from “Austria Calling” as I received it in 1979.
A nice QSL from Radio Voyager. I heard them on 6956 kHz with nice Jazz music. According to their email they are Free Radio from Northern Italy, transmitting with 400 W on a dipole.
I sent my report to radiovoyager@hotmail.com . They have a facebook page shared with – guess what – Enterprise Radio ! Star Trek fans will understand the connection. Unfortunately I’ve only just applied for membership, so I can’t tell you much more about this station.
I did not count on it as I didn’t had the time to listen to their full 1 hour programme. Just dropped them a quick comparison of the 6070 and 9670 reception quality. But probably out of courtesy towards a regular listener I received the August ’24 QSL for their broadcast via Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany.
You can always listen back to their programs via the website: http://radioatlantic2000.free.fr/
I am a fan of Channel 292. It is a nice platform for enthusiastic producers to share their view on music across international borders. This weekend I listened to Alt Universe Top 40. A nice show that provides context on a Top 40 chart in a selected year.
John McMullan is the man behind Alt Universe Top 40. He was so kind to confirm my reception report with a very nice email. Please check out John on his next show, and send him a report!
An e QSL for Scandinavian Weekend Radio on 11690 kHz. According to their website this is the first Finnish legal radio station to broadcast on MW and SW. The 100 Watt transmitter is located in Virrat, some 80 kilometers north of Tampere in central Finland. True to their name they broadcast during the weekend on various frequencies.
You can also get a paper QSL for 5 Euros, 3 USD or 2 valid and properly stamped IRCs.
I received a nice email to QSL my reception of Jazz AM via Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany, on 9670 kHz. Jazz AM is brought by gbradio.uk. They can be regularly heard on Channel 292, but on occasion use a U-turn construction to broadcast via Woofferton 3955 kHz, as explained in the email from John at Jazz AM:
A bit of background about Jazz A M. gbradio.uk is a very small scale programme producer located in Hampshire UK. I have had a long history of enjoying Jazz dating back to VOA Jazz Hour and the whole evenings of Jazz and events such as Montereux on Europe 1 and France Entire in the 1960’s during the period Jazz really took off in FRANCE.
The German Government licences Short Wave Broadcaster who can sell airtime at a reasonable rate. Encompas operate the only shortwave broadcast site in the UK. the BBC ,VOA,and overseas Broadcasters buy time but UK citizens can not as you cannot get UK Broadcast Licence for Shortwave. HOWEVER C292 is licenced by the German authorities and has a relay agreement with ENCOMPASS. So I do occasion broadcasts on 3955 kHz at 125 kW.
Best Regards
John
For those interested: this is the schedule for the coming days:
Relay via Woofferton UK
3955 kHz Sunday 18th August 2100 to 2200 UTC 125 kW
10Kw via Germany Channel 292: (10db gain with beam)
9670 kHz Sunday 11th August 1000 to 1100 UTC Beam R
9670 kHz Sunday 11th August 2100 to 2200 UTC Beam R
9670 kHz Sunday 18th August 2100 to 2200 UTC Beam R
9670 kHz Saturday 24th August 2100 to 2200 UTC