European listeners to DSC/GMDSS messages on the various frequencies know that there are a few stations like Coruna Radio who are heard almost every hour, every day. And there are stations that you can only hear when propagation conditions are favorable: true DX. But there are also stations that are just not that often on the air. Martec Skagen is one of those, and this QSL ANFR Donges, the Agence Nationale des Fréquences is for another one.
ANFR is big organisation, and as decribed on Wikipedia their mission is:
“… ensuring the planning, management and control of the use, including private use, of the public domain of radio frequencies subject to the application of article L. 41 of the Postal and Commercial Code. electronic communications , as well as the skills of administrations and authorities allocating radio frequencies. Its budget is allocated to budgetary program 134 “Business and tourism development”, of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.”
By the way: one of the things they do is licensing radio amateurs. That said, I have no clue why this agency was contacting utility ship JIF Helios on 8 and 12 MHz near the Canary Islands.
I decided to give it a try and sent a report to ANFR Donges, Department Radiomaritime, 223 La Pommeraye, 4480 DONGES, France. I added the “Department Radiomaritime” hoping this would help to get the email on the proper desk. A week later I got a polite email back confirming my reception:
Email to QSL my reception of ANFR Donges on 8 and 12 MHz.
A scan of my reception report,with SR Donges stamp was also included. But no answer on my question what this transmission was all about…
If you do know what ANFR does with DSC transmissions… please leave a comment!
eQSL sent bij TWR Asia to confirm reception of TWR PANI, Kyrgyzstan
As I was not sure whether the TWR PANI (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India) would resort under TWR CAMENA or TWR Asia I sent both of them a reception report. Three weeks ago I shared the QSL email received via Mr. Kalman Dobos of TWR CAMENA. Last week I received the eQSL card for my report sent via the TWR Asia webform. Unfortunately, as was the case with the other confirmation, the QSL gave no other information about the QTH than the station ID “CAE”. This stands for “Central Asia East” according to attached information which did include the 1467 kHz schedule.
Fully detailed eQSL from XSX Keelung Radio, Taiwan
If I’m not mistaken this was my 3rd attempt to get this nice QSL for XSX Keelung Radio 12577 kHz. I sent my report to klgmdss@ms1.hinet.net .
Unfortunately I couldn’t find a lot of info about Keelung Radio on the internet. So I will finish this post with my QSL from 1982 from Keelung Radio, when we were still searching the bands for VVV and CQ markers in CW:
1982 QSL for reception of Keelung Radio in CW on 8 MHz.
I got a friendly email to QSL Skagen Skipperskole (Martec) Skagen, Denmark, on 8414.5 kHz. Yes, Skipperskole is Skipper School in English, witnessing the Danish influence on the English language which, as most of you probably know, goes back to the Viking era.
QSL Skipperskole (MarTec) Skagen 8414.5 kHz
Mr. Andersen, principal of the school was so kind to answer my reception report. I sent it to martec@martec.dk and acta@martec.dk. The Skipperskole is part of MarTec a polytechnical education institute in Skagen, a harbor city in the most northern tip of Denmark.
The DSC transmission to a fictive MMSI 999999999 was made as part of a training session in which not only Danish students, but also students from Portugal, Sweden and Panama participated. I’m very pleased with this QSL, if only because I am a huge fan of any real technical study whatsoever. We need more technically educated people!
Martec Skagen, the “eneste” skipper school in Denmark. Eneste is close to “enigste” in Dutch, which means “only”. It’s funny that “only” is more like “ähnlich” in German, which means “similar”. Etymology is another of mine as you can guess.
It probably wouldn’t be too difficult to receive Skipperskole Skagen if it wasn’t for the fact that these training sessions are not an everyday event. So you have to be lucky. And if you are dependent on night time propagation you do have bad luck, as the courses are probably day time only. Other schools that I know off that have DSC transmissions as part of their curriculum are Bergen and Tromso in Norway, but I never got an answer from the latter one on my reception report.
Radio Marabu celebrates its 40th birthday this year. The station started as early as 1984. I received a classic QSL of Radio Marabu for their broadcast on Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany. Their QSL is printed on a beautiful shiny silver card.
QSL card from Radio Marabu
As I said, Radio Marabu exists 40 year. It started as an independent non-commercial platform for an alternative music selection. Music that you typically won’t hear on today’s FM band. Personally I really enjoy listening to their web stream when I’m doing stuff like writing reception reports or working on my blog.
The Sveriges DX Förbund, SDXF (or Swedish DX Assocation) can be heard with a program via Channel 292. December 26th I heard them on 9670 kHz with a special Christmas edition. Unfortunately the program was mainly in Swedish, with a few minutes in German language only. Reception report should be sent to qsl@sdxf.se. QSL manager Gert Nilsson sent me an email confirming that my report was received, and a few weeks later I received their nice QSL card by mail.
QSL SDXF via Channel 292
Not sure when they are on the air again (they had a show on World Radio Day yesterday), so please check the websites of SDXF or Channel 292 for more information.
Today I received a polite email to QSL my reception of Tianjin Coastal Radio on 8414.5 kHz. I sent my report to tianjinradio@163.com, and three hours later I received my reply. The call sign of Tianjin Radio is XSV.
Tianjin is the third largest port in the world, after Shanghai and Singapore. That said, I don’t see them in the DSC logs as often as for example Shanghai and Guangzhou Radio. The port is situated on the Haihe river. Tianjin has a population of 14 million.
Tianjin Coastal Radio Centre
By the way, last week I was away on a skiing holiday, but I kept my receivers on DSC watch. I also triggered remote logging on the YaDD decoder. The beauty is that I could see in Tirol what was being received via YaDDNet . So I already knew that I had received Tianjin before I got home… and DX Atlas confirmed it. Not all is bad in the modern age of DX-ing!
A rare opportunity to get a paper QSL from a main European broadcaster on shortwave: the NDR “Gruß an Bord” program. It is a special program that is being broadcast by the Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR) on Christmas Eve.
Paper QSL from NDR for their “Gruß an Bord” Christmas program
As they write on their website (where you can also listen back to the 2023 program):
This year “Greetings on Board” celebrates its 70th anniversary. The traditional NDR program was broadcast for the first time on Christmas Eve 1953. So that ships on the world’s oceans can receive the broadcast, NDR rents additional shortwave frequencies. The series is a bridge between seafarers who travel the world’s oceans and their relatives in Germany. The sailors send greetings home. Families and friends wish them a happy holiday at sea or in distant ports.
Apart from the paper QSL I really enjoyed this program for a number of reasons.
First of all this program was brought from the “Hamburger Duckdalben“. The Duckdalben is the International Seaman’s Mission in Hamburg. There is a lot to be told about the good work they do, please visit their site to learn more. They had a significant role during the Covid-19 episode. This had a huge impact on sailors as they couldn’t travel back home to their families for months, as was discussed in the program.
Celebrating it’s 70th anniversary, the design of the program takes you back to the old days. There was no satellite. Shortwave radio was the only way to connect sailors and their beloved ones at home. And I can’t say it better than the “Gruß an Bord” team does:
The emotional, melancholic but also happy messages from the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children of our sailors reflect the life that continues, at home and on board. And this connection between the two, this bridge between land and sea is needed – today just as much as it was 70 years ago!
I vividly remember how Radio Nederland had similar programs for Dutch people abroad when they were still active on shortwave!
Three transmitter sites, three countries verified on one QSL!
Another reason why I enjoyed this program is because my dad (who passed away two years ago) was an engineer – “machinist” – on merchant ships of the KNSM, The “Royal Dutch Shipping Company”. For my Dutch readers: it was also referred to as “Kleine Nietige Scheepjes Maatschappij” according to my dad. In the 50’s of the previous century he made many trips to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean seas, but also to Hamburg. The “Reeperbahn” was one of the first streets abroad that I heard about as a 6 year old kid. But it took me another 10 years to find out what the Reeperbahn was really all about 😜!
I understand that for many years this program was broadcast via Norddeich Radio, a former German coastal station. I have a QSL for one of their USB transmissions on MF, see below. These days NDR rents time with some of the few major transmitting stations that are still active on shortwave. My QSL was for Issoudun, Nauen and Tashkent. The latter one is nice. I do have QSLs from Uzbekistan from the past, but it is the first QSL from this country that I can add to this blog which I started after my return to the DX hobby.
1980s QSL of Norddeich Radio, a former coastal radio station in Germany
Let’s hope that they will continue this tradition, looking forward to their 71st program this year!
This was my fourth attempt in the last 12 months and finally successful: QSL Hai Phong Radio 8414.5 kHz. They were broadcasting a DSC message to cargo ship “Ga Hong” on the South Chinese Sea. I sent my report to hphong_radio@vishipel.com.vn . It is only my 2nd QSL from Vietnam. The other one is from the Voice of Vietnam, years ago.
Successful on my 4th attempt: eQSL from Hai Phong Radio / XVG
Hai Phong Radio is probably the station from Vietnam that I receive most often. Ho Chi Minh Radio is another regular one. I received Nha Trang Radio once on 8 MHz. This station apparently doesn’t operate on higher frequencies. I sent reports to these latter two stations via regular mail, but never received a reply. So if someone has a good (email)address, feel free to put it in the comments.
e QSL from Gary Gordon, broadcasting via Channel 292
Gary Gordon is a former Radio Atlantis DJ who now presents four two hour shows every week. On Saturday mornings the show can also be heard on Channel 292, both on 6070 and 9670 kHz.
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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