THE HAMRADIO DOT COM

Lots of QSLs have arrived in the last weeks. Actually already 20 this year! So I have not had time to update my blog. Anyway I have got two interesting QSLs from Norway:
first NRK Nordland local programme on 675 kHz. This transmitter was closed on the 31st of December 2012. I sent my report for local programme heard earlier and got a replay from DX Listerners Club Norway’s Svein Olav Pedersen. I also recorded the final seconds of transmission via Haparanda Perseus over the web. You can listen them here.

LKB / LLE Bergen Kringkaster is temporary station which sends sometimes on old Kvitsoy frequency 1314 kHz. They send instrumental music, voice IDs in Norwegian and callsign with Morse. Output power is a bit over 100 watts. Check the website here. Svenn Martinsen, Broadcast Coordinator replied with an email in 2 weeks.

QSL-wise it has been quite slow. From the last batch of reports sent only one QSL received. Fortunately we had very good North America propagation one week ago during the weekend and I have now maybe 20-25 reports to send. Last weekend on Saturday I added some wire to my main antenna, 285 meters to 295 degrees, and now it is 525 meters long. Now problem is that I can’t listen to MW when Preiviiki 963kHz is sending at all – with shorter wire I was able to do it with 30dB attenuator on. Last weekend propagation was not so good but some CA/SA and Canadians were audible – probably good enough to one or two reports.

So my only QSL recently has been BBC Radio Cumbria. The report was sent for 756 kHz but I have heard 837 kHz also. Assistant editor Graham Moss replied in one day with an email.

This season I have logged quite many MW stations from Puerto Rico. In the 1980s and 1990s I don’t remember hearing many of them in Pori. WNIK Arecibo was heard in the 5th of October 2012 with ID “Unica Radio 1230 AM” on 1230 kHz. WNIK is not the most common PTR-station – WCMN from same town on 1280 kHz is much more often heard here. V/s Jose G Garcia Gonzales replied to my email with very short answer: “saludos si es wnik 1230”. Well, it is clearly a QSL … and my first one from Puerto Rico!

WNIK has a live stream on USTREAM.

Radio Golestan from Iran was the first Iranian station replaying for my Farsi-language report directly from the station. Their Farsi-language email was translated in English with Google translate – same method I used for writing to them 🙂 In their short replay they were wondering how I could hear their station far away in Finland.

Vahon Hindustani Radio is a new (legal) Dutch MW station. They programme (short times what I have heard of) is quite funny: Hindi programme with Dutch “pirate style”. I tried to get QSL from their official email and then via Facebook without luck. Finally found email for QSLs and got nice replay from QSL Manager Koos Wijnants, who is a member of Benelux DX Club.

Romanian local stations are nice: local programmes are quite easy to hear and they seem to replay with QSL very well. I already got verifications from Radio Timisoara and Radio Tagru Mures earlier this year and now Radio Cluj sent their QSL. This is especially nice one because I visited in Cluj-Napoca few years ago. Verie-signer Florin Pruteanu verified my report with PDF-letter attached to email.

Another QSL for the reports of Petalax arrived. WYLL is a “Christian Talk” format station at 1160 kHz which was heard with the great signal on the 20th of October. This was my 10th QSL from North America this year.

One new experience for me during my Petalax weekend was to record and listen to Iranian regional stations. These stations are plenty, many not in WRTH and some still unheard in Finland. These regional/province stations usually give their station ID at 1530 and 1630 UTC – these are prime time for Iran DXer. Anyhow some frequencies don’t send local IDs – they play similar an hour interval-signal but give only a generic “Radio Iran”-ID.

During the Petalax weekend I was able to ID over a dozen of different Iranian local programmes. I have now sent few reports in Farsi directly to the stations but so far I have not received any direct QSLs. Some of those known email addresses have replied with “mailbox full”-message. My solution was to send a copy of my report to English deparment of VOIRI, Radio Iran. They replied quickly and promised to send me a QSL card via post. One of these locals was Radio Arbadil, transmitting on 1197 kHz (and few other frequencies too). I attach an audio file which shows what kind of identifications these Iran stations use:

1197kHz IRIB Radio Arbadil 201012 1530

As you notice, identifying is not so easy when we are talking in Farsi …

I have recently activated my other old hobby: listening of foreign broadcasting stations on medium- and shortwaves. This weekend there was a special activity for so called “free radio” around the world, so many “pirate stations” have been active. I decided to log my MW/SW catched to this blog.

14th January 2012

6170 FIN: Scandinavian Weekend Radio, Virrat with strong 59+30dB signal. This is a legal station although many DJs have strong free radio background (and some are hams). DJ Häkä already confirmed my reception report by email. 1100-
6205 NLD: Sluwe Vos Radio. Sent thanks for report to me in live transmission. 1414-1420*
6300 NLD: Radio Morning Star. Bad QRM. 1505-
6320 NLD: Radio Osaka. 1526-
6331 NLD: Radio Boomerang. Close down just after coming to QRG. -1444*
6374,7 R Caroline International. One of many R Carolines. 1250-
6920 NLD: Trans Europe Radio. “This is test transmission of Trans Europe Radio”. Sent also greetings to me. Good signal with 60 watts and G5RV antenna. 1302-1328*
6925 NLD: Radio Mustang. Very loud although said that he is “low power station”. -1457*
7535 NLD: Trans Europe Radio. Heard also here with strong S9+10dB. In live transmission said thanks to me for my email report and promised to send me a QSL card next week. 1500-
15235 NLD: Radio Shadow. Good signal, playing oldies. 1225-
15460 NLD: Radio Black Bird. Also sent greetings to me in live transmission. MUF was down, fading from average to zero. Black Bird already sent me QSL via email and mentioned that he used CB-antenna 1 meter above the ground with 4 radials. 1126-
15515 NLD: Radio Borderhunter. This station is probably in Baarle-Hertog or Baarle-Nassau.

I already received email-QSLs from SWR and Radio Black Bird (who is ham radio operator too…).

Radio Nord was a famous pirate radio station broadcasting at sea outside of Stockholm in 1961-1962. Now there is an anniversary station on 1512 kHz and 6060 kHz. Check for details:

http://radionordrevival.blogspot.com/

More about Radio Nord on Wikipedia.