Another station from Südtirol that I heard during my holiday in the beautiful Ahrntal. Like Radio Holiday the station covers the valleys of Südtirol with multiple low power transmitters. Radio 2000 has 20 of them. Where the valleys are wider as is the case near the capital of Südtirol Bozen (Bolzano) power is a few kilowatts. But the transmitter I received in Luttach has only 200 Watt. If you know the area it is no surprise that Luttach is chosen as location because it is where the river Ahr makes a 90o turn. From Luttach it possible to cover entrance and “Talschluss” of the Tauferer Ahrntal.
Coverage area of the 200W Radio 2000 transmitter in Luttach
I sent my report to info(at)radio2000.it and got a direct reply from Mr. Lukas Thaler.
Not to be confused with Antenne Vorarlberg, Radio Vorarlberg is the regional station of the ORF, the national public broadcaster of Austria. I heard Radio Vorarlberg while staying in Altenstadt near Ulm (Germany). 98.2 MHz is the main transmitter with 50 kW from Bregenz. Other frequencies (with the exception of the 4 kW transmitter at Bludenz) are mostly relays with less than 100 Watts of power.
There is a webform on the site to contact the Vorarlberg station as well as other regional stations. But as I wanted to include a picture I sent my report to kundendienst(at)orf.at which got forwarded to the Vorarlberg team. From them I learned you could als use this address: publikum.vorarlberg(at)orf.at
Another souvenir from my favourite holiday destination Südtirol: email to QSL my reception of Radio Holiday on 99.6 MHz (Luttach, Italy). They cover South Tirol with 14 transmitters ranging in power between 20 and 1000 Watt only. I guess that in these mountainous regions line of sight requirements result in more antennes rather than high transmitter power.
I heard them in Steinhaus in the beautiful Ahrntal, only 6 kilometers away. So not really DX, but as a said: a nice holiday souvenir for a station that is very difficult to receive, if at all, in The Netherlands. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Email QSL for Radio Holiday from Südtirol
Coverage map op Radio Holiday Südtirol (source: FM Scan)
At a distance of around 600 kilometers from my home QTH FM stations in the southern part of Germany are difficult if not impossible to catch. They are too close for Sporadic E. But also out of range for Tropospheric DX, particularly when transmitter power is relatively low, as is the case for Hitradio RT1. So I took the opportunity to listen to them while I was visiting the area.
Email QSL for Hitradio RT1 Memmingen
Hitradio RT1 has 10 FM transmitters in the Schwaben region in Germany, west of Munich. Power varies between 0.1 and 0.3 kW, with one station at 1 kW. They carry separate local programs for the city of Augsburg, Neuburg, Nordschwaben and Südschwaben. I received the latter one while in Altenstadt, 28 km away. I sent my report to the local station: info@rt1-suedschwaben.de . Markus Sampl replied within a day.
A very friendly but also a bit of an odd email to QSL my reception of SWR DasDing on 98.9 MHz. DasDing (“The Thing”) is the youth radio station of the Südwest Rundfunk, the commercial free radio for the Bundesländer (“States”) Rheinland-Pfalz (Rheinland Palatinate) and Baden-Württemberg in Germany. I heard the station during an overnight stay in Altenstadt, 28 kilometers away from the location of the 1 kW transmitter near Ulm.
Tina from DasDing wrote:
“Actually we are only broadcasting in Baden-Württemberg und Rheinland-Pfalz. But it could be that you have received the 98.9 transmitter from Ulm”.
My reception location was about a kilometer across the border in neighbouring Bavaria. Oh oh these naughty radio waves: propagating to where they are not supposed to go… 😂 . Thank you Tina for the confirmation!
I received Antenne Vorarlberg while staying in Altenstadt near Ulm, Germany. With a distance of 77 kilometers that is apparently just within the coverage area of the powerful 50 kW Antenne Vorarlberg transmitter located near Bregenz in Austria. This is their main transmitter, the other 7 ones are mere repeaters.
I listened to “Party-Mix mit Enrico Ostendorf”. Nicole was so kind to confirm my report sent to service(at)antennevorarlberg.at .
My reception location Altenstadt was exactly on the border of the coverage area
A QSL for my reception of COPE Málaga on 89.8 MHz. I heard them during a Sporadic E opening on June 24th. The transmitter is located south west of Málaga and has a power of 5 kW. Again Artur from Maresme DX was a great help in making the connect with Javier Campos from the technical department at COPE Málaga.
Again with the help of Artur from Maresme DX I received a very nice email and a scan of a QSL letter from Radio Surco, broadcasting from Tomelloso, Spain, on 91.4 FM. I posted a recording of my reception on YouTube. Radio Surco has two transmitter sites: 2 kW on 91.4 MHz, and 1.2 kW on 99.2 MHz:
Radio Surco transmitter locations
Dear Peter,
Thank you for contacting us and receiving news from the Netherlands. This year, at least, we have received three messages like yours, from different locations. We assume that due to the location of our broadcast tower and the very flat area where we are, the waves work their magic and allow us to reach distant places.
We are a radio station with two broadcasting centers, but according to your instructions, it is Tomelloso’s that you heard. Radio Surco Tomelloso was born in 1986 and is an independent commercial station. Its cover, being a flat land, covers “La Mancha”, an area of the Autonomous Community of Castilla La Mancha to which four of its provinces belong. Tomelloso is in CiudadReal, specifically.
The Radio Surco Tomelloso station is located about 12 kilometers as the crow flies or cross-country
I attach the certificate you are requesting, although we do not have an official model. Thank you for being on the other side and greetings from Spain.
Montserrat Castellanos Cañones Directora
QSL letter from Radio Surco, Tomelloso, Spain, 91.4 MHz
Where would I be with a little help from my friends? I heard Blue Radio Chella on 90.2 MHz, but my report remained unanswered. Artur Fernández Llorella was so kind to help me to get in touch with Alex Selfa, director of the station. Within a day I got a nice email confirmation:
Blue Radio is a local station broadcasting on 90.2 MHz with 2.5 kW power from Chella. Headquarters are in Xátiva, 50 km south of Valencia.
I received a nice and personal QSL email from Mrs. Fadela Yahiaoui Boudjelal at Radio Laghouat from Algeria. I heard them on 87.6 MHz, my first reception of an Algerian radio station on FM.
Mrs. Boudjelal writes that Laghouat is a beautiful oasis in the south of Algeria and invites everyone to visit. The funny thing is that, if you look on the map, Laghouat is pretty much in the north of Algeria. That said there is basically nothing south of it other than Sahara desert. It reminded me of my time in Edmonton, which was also referred to as “Northern Alberta”, basically because there was pretty much nothing north of it (while geographically it was located in the south).
With thanks to Patrick Robic and Artur Fernández Llorella for helping me to find the correct address.
A reader of this blog, Abdelilah (thank you for commenting) suggested that I did not know a lot about Algeria, and he is right. But, you learn through this hobby. In 1849 Laghouat was conquered by the French. The French ordered the slaughter of the entire population and the destruction of the town. Two thirds of the population were butchered before the order was withdrawn and the town was spared. No surprise maybe that the armed revolt against the French in 1955 started in Laghouat.
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.
Feel free to copy anything on this weblog. A link back to my site is appreciated.
