The mediumwave transmitter of COPE Gijón was closed down in September 2023. The station had been broadcasting on mediumwave for 90 years. More about the closure ans the history of the station on this web page.
COPE Gijón used to be a fairly common visitor on 882 kHz at Lista, even though there was at times heavy interference from co-channel BBC Radio Wales. It was definitely the most common of several other COPE stations on this frequency.
My attempts to get a reply from the station have all been in vain. After seeing another DX-er getting a reply from neighbouring COPE Oviedo, I decided to give this a try too. And voila: After a couple of days I received an e-mail from Oviedo confirming my reception of COPE Gijón from March 2023. The city of Gijón is located in the northern Asturias province and has a population of roughly 280.000 inhabitants.
Colombian religious station Aviva 2 was noted on 1280 kHz at Lista last October. Not a great signal, but sufficient for sending an e-mail and an audio recording to the station. A not so perfect verification was received a few days later. I’ll count this as a verification despite the poor verification text.
Aviva 2 transmits from the capital Bogotá with a power of 5 kilowatts on 1280 kHz. The station belongs to the Avivamento media group. The group has got a rich presence in other channels, such as Youtube, podcasts, blogs etc. as can be seen on their web page. The Avivamento group also runs a lot of devotional meetings.
Reviewing recordings is often tedious, but sometimes gems are found. One of those gems was finding Emisora Radio Furatena which could be heard at sign off at 02.00 UTC on 1060 kHz one evening in October last year. The station was noted well off nominal frequency, I measured it to 1060,21 kHz. This made reception a bit easier although the station was only heard with audio for a few minutes this particular night.
Radio Furatena is located in the town of Chiquinquirá in the Central Boyacá province some 115 kilometres north of Bogotá. The station brands itself as “La Voz Mayor de Boyacá”, as can be seen on the logo depicted above. Their mediumwave transmitter is listed with a power of 10 kilowatts. I received a surprise e-mail from the station a week ago confirming my reception, surprising given that very few Colombians seem to respond to requests from DX-ers anymore.
Yesterday I received a very nice e-mail from Radio Red in Cali confirming my audio recording from October. Radio Red was one of many Colombians heard at our DX-pedition in October last year. At the time of writing 72 different stations from Colombia are present in our log, all heard on the night between October 28-29. Radio Red had a good signal during most of this night playing mostly soft music. The station is a common catch on 1200 kHz whenever conditions favour Colombia. Radio Red is listed with a power of 10 kilowatts on 1200 kHz.
View from the nearby harbour with wind mills in the background
In January Torgeir and myself were again back at Lista for a 4 day long DX-pedition. And what a difference conditions make: 2 months earlier it was, with a few exceptions, all about South America (in particular Colombia) due to disturbed conditions. This time conditions were quiet during the entire period and South Americans were more or less absent and replaced by US and Canadian stations on nearly all transatlantic frequencies..
Our antennas were the usual 700 metre antennas towards the East Coast and a 600 metre long antenna towards the West Coast, both elevated with bamboo canes. Elevating the antennas was an issue this time due to a long period with temperatures well below 0 degrees. The first 12 days of January all had temperatures below 0 at nearby Lista lighthouse going down to -9,1 degrees on January 9, an unusually cold period at such a coastal location as Lista were winters are usually mild and rainy.
Frosty conditions at Lista
The frosty conditions made it difficult to pin the bamboo canes to the ground in a durable manner. Although the wind was not that strong, it was strong enough to blow the canes down on several occasions resulting in less signal level on the antennas. Otherwise nice and cold weather all days with beautiful sunsets and sunrises in the afternoons and in the mornings.
Sunset at 15.45 UTC. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the sunset
Propagation towards North America was fair to good all days, the first DX-pedition with nice conditions to North America for us since February 2021. Conditions particularly favoured the Great Lakes area, but stations were heard all the way from Texas to Newfoundland. The paths towards the Rocky Mountain area and the West Coast were unfortunately closed with a few exceptions for 1070 KNX and 1140 CHRB.
Reviewing the recordings has just started and will no doubt keep us busy for many months to come. Our log will as usuak be continuously updated in a Google Docs document. Interesting stations noted at this stage include 1070 WFRF Tallahassee FL, 1080 WWNL Pittsburgh PA, 1100 WTWN Wells River VT, 1220 WSLM Salem IN, 1310 WICH Norwich CT, 1340 WNCO Ashland OH, 1350 WIOU Kokomo IN, 1350 WHNM Laconia NH, 1350 WWWL New Orleans LA, 1350 WRNY Rome NY and 1560 WRIN Rensselaer IN with more hopefully to be added to the log later.
I made a recording of the entire 49 metre shortwave band on Sunday October 29 hoping to catch some new stations. There weren’t many surprises when reviewing the recordings, but at least I managed to hear a new Dutch station: Radio Casanova International. This ex-pirate station could be heard with a good signal on 6020 kHz playing mostly German and Dutch schlager music. The frequency was measured to 6019,95 kHz, so a but low in frequency.
Operator Ludwig Caarels sent the above electronic QSL-card in return needing just 30 minutes to reply! Radio Casanova transmits from the town of Winterswijk in the province of Gelderland close to the border with Germany.
One of many Colombians heard at Lista last October was W Radio on 1210 kHz. W Radio was heard with a fair signal during several hours on the night between October 28-29th along with another Colombian station, La Cariñosa. The two Colombians were easily separated as W Radio mainly played modern pop music while La Cariñosa played soft Latin evergreens.
Andrés Torres del Rio, Director y Productor at W Radio, confirmed my audio recording with a short e-mail. W Radio transmits with a power of 10 kilowatts on 1210 kHz from the southern city of Neiva. W Radio is also frequently heard on 700 kHz from Cali, but was surprisingly not noted on this DX-pedition.
Radio Koper in Slovenia is an easy catch on 549 kHz, a frequency where the only competition comes from “Jil FM” in Algeria. The station has local programming in Slovenian most of the day, but relays national programmes from Ljubljana at night.
Bojan Ramšak, Head of the development team confirmed my reception of Radio Koper in October with a nice full data electronic QSL shown above. Sadly he also says the days of Slovenia on mediumwave are numbered as there are plans to close both the broadcasts on 549 kHz as well as its Italian broadcasts (Radio Capodistria) on 1170 kHz. No date given as yet though.
I guess this will also be the end of the Beli Križ transmitter site located close to the Adriatic Sea. Beli Križ is used for mediumwave transmissions from both Radio Koper and Radio Capodistria, each with 15 kilowatts.
Hearing Radiolé from Ceuta has been an aim for us for a long time. We finally succeeded in October when the signal of Radiolé was heard with fair signal one evening. 1584 kHz is a difficult frequency as other stations usually dominates and Radiolé only transmits with a power of 1 kilowatt on this frequency.
Joaquín Fernando Guirval Díaz, Director at Radio Algeciras and Radio Ceuta confirmed my audio recording with a kind e-mail this week. Radiolé belongs to the SER Radio Network, but is mainly a music station.
Very pleased about being able to pick up this station, especially as the Spanish Ceuta enclave is judged as a separate radio country. Now it’s time for hunting the other Spanish enclave in Morocco, i.e. Melilla (972 kHz). Not to mention Gibraltar (1458 kHz), an even more difficult (and probably impossible) catch! 🙂
The only result of rolling out a beverage antenna directed towards the US Mid West in October was catching the signal of German museum radio Radio Eule on 1500 kHz. Conditions towards North America were lousy and no stations at all from the US Mid West or the West Coast were noted.
The antenna picked up Radio Eule from Munich on 1500 kHz, however. A very nice catch and almost worth the effort of pulling out a 400 metre long antenna wire 🙂 The power of this transmitter is just 10 watts! Their signal faded in and out for many hours on the first night with occasionally fair reception. Luise Allendorf-Hoefer who is Kuratorin Nachrichtentechnik und Elektronik at the Deutsches Museum and also a HAM with the call sign DO4LA confirmed my reception with a nice e-mail and an equally nice QSL-card.
The back side of the QSL card explains the goal of and the motivation for running a mediumwave transmitter very well:
“Since 20th October 2018 Radio Eule, the medium-wave station of Deutsches Museum, has been commemorating the beginnings of broadcasting in Germany. In the future, an educational programme is to be developed around Radio Eule that will enable schoolchildren to experience the groundbreaking technology of medium-wave radio, which has led to the development of communication technology, using the simplest receivers. Radio Eule broadcasts with 10W ERP on a frequency of 1500 kHz. The antenna is a symmetrically fed and resonant half-wave antenna.”
It was a surprise to find an announcement belonging to Unique Gold on 675 kHz when reviewing my recordings from March 2023. Usually another Dutch station, Radio Calypso, owns this channel leaving little room for anything else. It was thus a surprise to also hear pop music in the background one night. The pop music turned out to originate from Unique Gold, one of several stations branded under a Unique umbrella name. In addition to Unique Gold which plays oldies music, there’s also “Unique Smooth”, “Unique Classic Rock” and even a channel called “Unique Offshore Tribute”.
Unique Gold is the only one broadcast on mediumwave, the other stations can only be heard through Internet streaming. The transmitter is located in the town of Wijchen, not far away from Nijmegen. Owner Hans Coenen kindly confirmed my recording with an e-mail this week.
The only remaining mediumwave transmitter in Jordan belongs to the state radio Jordan Radio and Television and can be found on 612 kHz. The station was heard with a good signal in October when I heard them with a news bulletin in Arabic.
I sent along a recording of the signal to Mohammad Byouk, Engineering Director at the station and received a nice letter in return confirming my reception of the station. Mohammad writes that the mediumwave transmitter is located in Shobak in Southern Jordan not far away from the famous Petra heritage site. The signal is transmitted from a 230 metre guyed tower using a power of 100 kilowatts.
One of many Colombian stations heard during excellent conditions towards Colombia on October 28-29 was La Voz de Bogotá on 930 kHz. This is a station which I have heard on a few occasions previously, but no replies untill last week when I received a short e-mail signed by John Rodríguez who has the nice title of Coordinador de Gestión Empresarial.
La Voz de Bogotá is the flagship station of the Todelar network, one of the national commercial radio networks in Colombia. According to this Wikipedia article, the Todelar network has been in slow decline since its heydays in the 1960s and 1970s loosing both stations and listeners to the other two big networks, i.e. Caracol and RCN.
As the name implies, the station is located in the bustling capital city Bogotá using a 10 kilowatt transmitter on 930 kHz.
I was pleased to hear Catalan on 621 kHz during one of the local breaks of RNE one morning in March 2023. This news bulletin belonged to RNE Islas Baleares / RNE Illes Balears, the only Catalan speaking station on the frequency. Usually RNE Ávila has the upper hand on this frequency, but not so this particular morning.
The signals of RNE Islas Baleares on 621 kHz originates from a 40 kilowatt transmitter located at Marratxí outside Palma, the largest city on the islands. Manuel Delgado Cañizares confirmed my reception with a full data electronic QSL card.
Local news from RNE Valladolid was heard on 729 kHz one morning in March 2023. Usually RNE Asturias is the clear winner on this frequency, but occasionally some of the other Spanish transmitters can also be heard. No wonder RNE Asturias is the dominant station on the frequency. Not only is it located in along the coast in Northern Spain (which have the best signals here in Scandinavia), RNE Asturias is also listed with a power of 100 kilowatts compared to Valladolids mere 20 kilowatts.
Again, Manuel Delgado Cañizares confirmed my reception with a full data electronic QSL card depicted above. Valladolid is the largest city in the Castilla-y-León province and has a population of roughly 300.000 inhabitants.
I never thought I would be able to hear Madeira on mediumwave because of much interference from much more powerful co-channel stations. Thanks to exceptional circumstances, i.e. powerful station Greatest Hits Yorkshire in the UK shutting down their transmitter on 1530 kHz while the only remaining mediumwave transmitter in Madeira still operating, catching the signal of Posto Emissor do Funchal was a big target at the DX-pedition in March 2023.
I thought the chances of actually hearing Posto Emissor do Funchal were pretty slim and was surprised to find a Portuguese speaking station on 1530 kHz one night. Several station identifications were heard leaving no doubt about the identity of the station. Fair signal at times although with a bit of interference from co-channel Radio Romania Actualitate most of the time. Disturbed conditions and an antenna pointing towards South America no doubt helped the signal making it to our radios Very pleased about this catch – the definite highlight of an otherwise below average DX-pedition.
After a couple of attempts I received a short but polite answer from the station. Posto Emissor do Funchal is listed with a power of 3 kilowatts on 1530 kHz, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual power was less than that. The transmitter is located at Poiso outside the capital Funchal.
Smooth Radio Sussex is another station which have gone dark. The transmitters on 945 kHz (Bexhill, 700 watts) and 1323 kHz (Southwick, 500 watts) were both switched off for good on September 30, 2023.
Both these transmitters were regulars at our DX site on the southern coast of Norway, especially 1323 kHz. Steve Ord of Global’s Engineering Team confirmed my last time reception of the transmitters in March 2023 with 2 different full data verification letters.
The Smooth Radio network in the UK has closed most of their mediumwave transmitter over the last couple of years. Sad to see them leaving, not because of the music played (boring music taste), but because many of the Smooth stations have been regulars throughout my DX career. On the other hand, closing down regular stations also brings new opportunities for a DX-er! 🙂
One of the Smooth stations closed last year was Smooth Radio Wiltshire on 945 and 1161 kHz which had it last day on air on mediumwave on June 30, 2023. Both frequencies were heard with a fair signal in March last year. Steve Ord at the Global Engineering Team confirmed my recording from March with a full data verification letter.
The transmitter on 1161 kHz was located in Blunsdon ouside Swindon and used to have a transmitter output of 160 watts.
Despite broadcasting with a power of just 1 kilowatt and despite directing their signal towards the east, Radio Center in Latvia often has a powerful signal on 1602 kHz at my place. Or rather a powerful signal on 1602.14 kHz as the station is always on a high offset frequency.
Radio Center broadcasts religious programmes in Russian towards Russia with station identifications in Latvian, English and Russian inserted between the programmes. Radio Center used to operate within Russia, but has been forced to leave Russia only to relocate in the Latvian capital Riga. According to their web site, their office in Moscow has been “temporarily closed”. I guess the closure is permanent – at least as long as Vladimir Putin rules Russia with an iron fist.
Radio Center is run by the “Russian Christian Radio Center”. Their president and long time radio friend Andrey Nekrasov confirmed my reception of the station with a no-data QSL letter. This was for a reception made in March last year.
RNE R5 in Ourense can occasionally be heard on 1305 kHz, usually along with RNE R5 Bilbao which usually has the most powerful signal on the frequency. RNE R5 Ourense was all alone on 1305 kHz one morning in March carrying local news for the region. An audio recording was sent along to Manuel Delgado Cañizares who confirmed my reception with a full data electronic QSL card.
The transmitter of RNE R5 Ourense is listed with a power output of 25 kilowatts. Ourense is an inland city in the Galicia region. It is the third largest city in Galicia with a population of around 100.000.
Manuel Delgado Cañizares also confirmed my reception of RNE R5 in Lugo on 1503 kHz with a full data QSL-card. Reception was made at Lista in March 2023.
Lugo is located in the northern Galicia province. Signals from this province often makes it to Norway and RNE Lugo is no exception. RNE Lugo can be heard without too many difficulties both on 972 kHz (Radio 1), 1098 kHz (R5) and 1503 kHz (also carrying R5). The transmitter on 1503 kHz is listed with the unusual power output of 6 kilowatts
My hopes for getting more verifications from Radio Nacional de España vaned considerably upon hearing that their veriesigner, the always friendly José Antonio Garcia Merino had retired. Thankfully, RNE has found his successor: Sr. Manuel Delgado Cañizares.
Manuel kindly confirmed my reception of 3 RNE stations, one of them being RNE Radio 5 in Pontevedra in Galicia. Stations in Galicia often comes with a strong signal at our DX site, but RNE Radio 5 is an exception. 1413 is usually occupied by either Russian station “Vesti FM” or more commonly Premier Christian Radio and BBC Radio Gloucestershire in the UK. Even with a listed power of 25 kilowatts, it is hard for Pontevedra to beat the signal of the competitors on the frequency.
At Lista in March most of the competition was gone and RNE R5 was heard with a local news bulletin one morning
I have spent hours hunting for the signal of RTP Açores on 828 kHz. Although their signal has been present on many occasions, it has just never been strong enough or good enough for sending a reception report. Untill March 2023 that is, when their signal was finally strong enough to make a recording and send it to the “Gabinete Tecnologias” of RTP in Lisbon. Paula Carvalho, Engenharia, Sistemas e Tecnologia, promptly verified my report with an oldfashioned “RDP QSL card”.
RTP Açores only has local programmes 08.00-18.00 UTC according to Mwlist making it close to impossible catching a local programme originating from the Azores in Norway. Even at night receiving their signal on 828 kHz is not easy as this is a low power transmitter of just 1 kilowatt. Moreover, strong interference from BBC Asian Network on the same frequency is always a problem. The transmitter of RTP Açores is located outside Santa Cruz das Flores, the largest village on the remote Flores island.
Many QSL requests are sent with little hope of getting a reply. Not so with Radio Nacional de España in Salamanca as ace DX-er Mauricio Molano Sánchez works at the station. Mauricio sure didn’t disappoint and sent me the full data QSL card above as well as a picture of their transmitter site. This was for a recording from our DX-pedition last March.
The RNE Radio 5 Todo Noticias transmitter in Salamanca on 1314 kHz is a common catch at our DX-site. It is frequently the dominant station on the frequency although Romania can also be heard with a strong signal at times, especially in the afternoons and early evenings. The transmitter of RNE in Salamanca on 1314 kHz transmits with a power of 10 kilowatts.
It was all about Colombia at Lista in late October. The first night, October 28-29, was particularly fruitful with so far 67 different Colombian stations identified and recorded in our log just on this particular night. Stations noted include rarely heard stations 950 Armonias Boyacenses, 1280 Radio Suroeste, 1300 La Jefa and 1530 Antena de los Andes. Conditions were also good to Ecuador and Northern Peru at the same time with a.o. 750 Radio Caravana (Ecuador), 1240 Radio Metropolitana (Ecuador) and 1360 Radio Capulí (Peru) making it across to our radio. North American stations were totally absent on this night and the signals of many dominant stations from the Caribbean, such as Puerto Rico on 1280, were also suppressed.
The last 2 nights were not particularly interesting with mostly only the most dominant stations on most frequencies. One exception was 1140 WVVO Orlando FL which was heard on the last morning of the DX-pedition. As usual, the log will be continously updated in a Google Docs spreadsheet.
Fellow Norwegian DX-ers Torgeir Nyen and Harald Andersen were my DX buddies on this pedition. Harald introduced us to a new subsection of the hobby: Navtex. An impressive number of Navtex stations were decoded, all on 518 kHz, see last part of the log.
Our usual 750 metre beverage antenna directed towards the East Coast of North America was, also as usual, the antenna giving the best results. We also installed a 400 metre long antenna directed towards the US Midwest on the first night. This antenna gave was totally useless, except for picking up German low power station Radio Eule on 1500 kHz, and was rolled out in another direction for picking up Spain and other European stations for the last 2 nights.
All in all, a very successfull DX-pedition thanks to all the South Americans heard, many of them a first for us. And as always, great company and great to get away from daily routine life, even if it was for just 4 days.
One of the stations heard was SER Radio Valencia which frequently had a good signal on its mediumwave frequency of 1179 kHz, often accompanied with the signal of co-channel SER Radio Rioja.
I received a short e-mail confirming my reception of the station a fews days ago. The transmitter is listed with a power of 50 kilowatts, but I doubt it is operating on full power.
There are several COPE stations transmitting on 1224 kHz. Although Lugo in Galicia usually has the best signal, both Huelva and Almería in Andalucia are not uncommon either. All 3 stations were noted at Lista last March.
I sent along a recording from March to COPE Huelva including an announcement for an important football match with the local team Recreativo de Huelva. Luckily, I received a reply from Pedro Rasco Martín from the technical department of COPE Huelva confirming my reception of the station.
Huelva is a city of around 150.000 inhabitants located in southwestern Spain not far away from the border with Portugal. Its football team has seen better days: A few years Recreativo de Huelva played with the big boys in the “Primera división”. They have been relegated twice since then and currently plays on level 3 in the Spanish league system. Curiously, Recreativo de Huelva is the oldest existing football club in Spain founded already in 1889.
I have tried to get a reply from COPE Valencia many times, but no success untill this past week when Borja Rodríguez García confirmed my reception with an e-mail.
The only other station using 1296 kHz in Europe nowadays is Radio XL in Birmingham. As there is little interference, COPE Valencia is an easy catch in Norway (and probably across Europe as well). Their mediumwave transmitter is listed with a power of 50 kilowatts, but not sure if they are actually using so much power.
Valencia is the 3rd largest city in Spain with a population of around 800.000 inhabitants.
1210 kHz has become an interesting frequency now that powerhouse Absolute Radio has vacated the frequency. WPHT in Philadelphia and “La Cariñosa” in Colombia are the most common stations on 1210 kHz at my listening post, but other stations can also be received.
One of the less common stations is WHOY Radio Hoy in Puerto Rico, which was heard several times in March before signing off at 02.00 UTC. As can be seen in the logo depicted above, Radio Hoy boasts with a transmitting power of 5 kilowatts. The station is located in the town of Salinas on the southern coast of Puerto Rico.
Radio Hoy is an independent station not belonging to any of the national radio chains in Puerto Rico. The station is owned by the Colón Radio Corporation whose owner Martín Colón was kind enough to listen to and to confirm my recording of the station.
IRRS (The Italian Radio Relay Service) is easily heard on 1323 kHz in the evenings in Norway. IRRS relays various English language programming on this frequency, currently at 1800-2210 UTC. This mediumwave transmitter, listed with a power of 5 kilowatts, belongs to a company simply called AM Italia. The transmitter is located in Villa Estense in the province of Padova.
IRRS verified my reception report from March with a nice full data electronic QSL card. The card is dedicated to the people of Ukraine and is designed using the colours of the Ukrainian flag. A very nice QSL card!
1233 kHz is an “empty” frequency after Absolute Radio abandoned mediumwave last year. A station which has taken advantage of this is the Italian hobby (but still legal) station Milano XR. The station was heard one afternoon in March with a weak signal.
This is a DX friendly station and confirmed my reception with a full data electronic QSL card. Milano XR is only on the air in the afternoon/evening broadcasting from 17.00 to 21.00 Central European Time. The station is listed with a power of 500 watts.
It was a big surprise finding the Dutch LPAM station Zuid West Brabant AM on a recording from March. The station was only heard for about 20 minutes one morning, but had a surprisingly good signal when it was audible. No interfering stations either, which was even more surprising as the frequency of 1467 kHz is usually occupied by two other Dutch stations: Radio Eldorado in Friesland and Radio Paradijs in Utrecht. May be these two stations were not on the air this particular morning?
I received a friendly e-mail in Dutch from operator Arno, which Google Translate helped me understand, confirming my audio recording. Zuid West Brabant is a typical hobby station transmitting from the village of Heerle in the southern part of the country, not too far from the border to Belgium. The station is usually on the air only on Sundays and occasionally also on Saturdays.
Yet another QSL from a low powered Dutch station: Radio 1224 was heard several times on 1224 kHz last March. Reception definitely best after the SER stations faded out in the mornings and again before the SER stations faded in in the afternoons. Radio 1224 was the only Dutch station we noted on 1224 kHz this time, a frequency where we have picked up several other Dutch stations on previous DX-peditions.
Operator Teun Lagerweij confirmed my audio recording a couple of days ago. As Teun is also a HAM, with the call sign PA3GDL, he knows all about DX-ers and appreciates reception reports. Radio 1224 has 14 different DJs aboard according to Teun, most of them broadcasting Dutch “piratenhits”. The station in located in the town of Lunteren in the central parts of The Netherlands and broadcasts with a power of 100 watts.
A new catch for me was Dutch low power station Album AM on 846 kHz. The station was noted both late in the morning and again later in the afternoon on a Sunday in March. Album AM only plays pop music, as both the station name as well as their logo (a rip off of Pink Floyds famous”Dark Side of The Moon” album) suggest.
I received a very nice reply from operator René Liedenbaum, who is also a HAM with the call sign PE0RL. René writes that the station is usually only on the air during weekends from around 08.00 to 18.00, sometimes less. As René is also a HAM, he has arranged some “DX tests” with morse code inserted allowing the signal to be heard as far away as in Finnish Lapland (at a distance of 2275 kms) and in Arctic Norway (at a distance of 2437 kms). Not bad!
Album AM has a very nice and comprehensive blog at https://www.albumam.nl/blog/ with many pictures and lots of information about the station. All in Dutch, but with Google Translate it can easily be read also by non-Dutch speakers. The station is located in Uden in the North Brabant province.
When reviewing the recordings from March, I discovered a station identification from Dutch station Extra AM on 1332 kHz on the hour one afternoon. This was a big surprise as Gold in the UK totally owns this frequency.
The station confirmed my reception report with an e-mail a few weeks ago. Extra AM operates with a power of 100 watts from the Dutch capital Amsterdam.
This summer Gold closed their mediumwave transmitter on 1332 kHz. This should mean that it will now be significantly easier to pick up the signal of Extra AM for DX-ers.
Turkey state broadcaster TRT still operates a few mediumwave transmitters. None of them are commonly heard at my place. The easiest transmitter is probably the transmitter located in Antalya on 891 kHz which in addition to the national Radio Bir programme also carries local programmes.
TRT was heard on 891 kHz when they signed on at 03.00 UTC in March with a fair signal and a presumed local identification too (my Turkish is unfortunately non-existent!). At this time their signal was stronger than Algeria which usually owns this channel.
As I couldn’t find an e-mail address to the station, a letter and a CD was sent to the station without much hopes for a reply. A few weeks later, however, I received a nice surprise: An e-mail from Ibrahim Güneştekin at TRT Antalya Radyosu appeared in my inbox with a letter confirming my reception report . There was even an invitation to a cup of Turkish coffee at the station should I ever visit Antalya!
1584 kHz is always an interesting frequency where many stations can pop up in our headphones. At Lista in March Jeo Radio in London was the dominant station, but several other stations were also noted. One of the more unusual stations heard was Radio Gandía, a first for us.
Radio Gandía, located in the city of the same name in the Valencia region, transmits with a power of 2 kilowatts on mediumwave. José Joaquín Gorrita at the Dept. Técnico of the station clearly knows what DX-ing and QSLs are all about and confirmed my recording with a perfect full data PDF letter in Spanish and English.
Thanks to very poor propagation for receiving Transatlantic stations during our latest DX-pedition to Lista, more focus than normal was paid on Europe. As our log shows, quite a number of European stations were noted while our log of stations from the Americas was less impressive… 😦
Several of the low powered Dutch stations were heard, including Radio Jong Europa on 801 kHz, a first for us. Their signal was only heard late in the morning and early in the afternoon when there was less interference from the Spanish RNE transmitters on the same frequency.
Operator John confirmed my reception with a kind e-mail. He tells me the station has been operating on and off all the way since 1970! The transmitting power, according to his e-mail, is 250 watts which is a bit more than the 100 watts mentioned on a.o. mwlist.org.
In addition to 801 kHz, Radio Jong Europa also has a licence to transmit on shortwave 6130 kHz which is certainly an easier catch than 801 kHz. The station usually identifies only as “Radio Europe” on both frequencies. The station transmits from Alphen aan den Rijn southwest of Amsterdam.
RNE Radio 5 in Barcelona is an easy catch on 576 kHz at Lista. Their 100 kilowatt transmitter is the dominant station on this frequency although Bulgaria and RNEs transmitter in the Canary Islands are also heard at times.
José Antonio García Merino at RNE in Madrid confirmed my reception of RNE R5 Barcelona in March with a full data electronic PDF. All news bulletins from Barcelona are of course in Catalan.
RNE Radio 5 has 3 transmitters transmitting on 558 kHz. 2 of them (San Sebástian and La Coruña) are regulars at Lista while the last one (Valencia) had so far not been heard so far.
José Antonio García Merino at RNE in Madrid confirmed my reception of a local news bulletin from RNE R5 La Coruña this past winter. RNE has a 20 kilowatt transmitter located outside La Coruña on this frequency.
Trans World Radio in Benin was heard on 1476 kHz in February 2022 thanks to Carillon Wellbeing Radio dropping audio one morning. Without this audio failure it would have been difficult to catch Trans World Radio as the signal of Carillon is always very strong here.
TWR has always been a reliable verifier to DX reports and TWR Benin is no exception. Britta Pfeiffer at the station confirmed my audio recording with an electronic QSL card (although not quite correct as my reception was done in 2022 and not 2023). Glad to finally receive a verification from Benin as the state broadcaster ORTB never replied when they were broadcasting on shortwave many years ago.
TWR has 2 mediumwave transmitters in Benin located just north of the city of Parakou. Each transmitter broadcasts with a power of 100 kilowatts on 1476 and 1566 kHz respectively. The broadcasts are in African languages as well as in English and French targeting West Africa.
Radio Alicante was heard on several occasions during our latest DX-pedition to Lista. The station broadcasts on 1008 kHz with a power of 5 kilowatts. It belongs to the SER network and is one of three stations using 1008 kHz. Radio Extremadura is usually the SER station heard here so catching Radio Alicante was a welcome change.
Pedro Alacid Clemente at the Dept. técnico of Radio Alicante confirmed my reception with a kind e-mail. Alicante is a city and a tourist destination on the Mediterranean coast. Many tourists visit the city every year, not least from Northern Europe.
Despite several attempts I never managed to get a reply from Signal Radio in Stoke which could be heard from time to time on 1170 kHz. Signal Radio was ditched in favour of programming from the Greatest Hits Radio network in 2020. Sadly, the mediumwave transmitter once belonging to Signal Radio was closed down for good on January 19, 2023.
In February 2022, however, the transmitter was still on air. Greatest Hits Radio still carries local identifications and we heard “”across Staffordshire and Cheshire, this is Greatest Hits Radio” on the hour one night on 1170 kHz during this DX-pedition. If I remember correctly, the transmitter in Stoke had a fairly low power output of 200 watts only. Matt Soanes, Senior Newsdesk Editor at parent Bauer company listened to my recording and confirmed my reception with a kind e-mail.
Aurora borealis, geomagnetic storms, coronal mass ejections. These are some of the risks when planning for a DX-pedition as we are approaching solar maximum. We experienced all these at our DX-pedition some weeks ago. True, we didn’t see the aurora borealis ourselves, but the northern lights were seen a couple of days before our arrival even at such a southernly location as 58° N.
As usual we had 2 beverage antennas installed, the first 720 metres long at 285 degrees directed towards the east coast of North America and a second antenna 400 metres long at 215 degrees directed towards Spain and West Africa. Prior to our departure we also thought about installing an antenna towards the west coast of North America, but this was pointless with such a poor propagation outlook.
As expected, transatlantic reception was very poor, especially for North America, throughout the DX-pedition. We managed to hear a few new (for us) stations on 1200, 1210 and 1220 kHz thanks to Absolute Radio having shut down in January. Otherwise we concentrated on DXing Europe where the southern antenna gave nice reception from Spain and Portugal. We were especially pleased about hearing Posto Emissor do Funchal in Madeira on 1530 kHz, a new catch for us.
Apart from Madeira, we were also pleased about catching WPPC Penuelas in Puerto Rico on 1570 kHz. A review of our recordings will hopefully result in a few more interesting stations. Based on a first review my expectations are not too high though. As usual, our log is continuously updated in a Google Docs document.
Although this was certainly not one of our most memorable trips to Lista DX-wise, it is always nice to get away from our regular lives just to listen to and talk about radio. And also nice to get away from the snow! Lista was completely free from snow – a welcome change from snowy Telemark.
Super Rádio Brasil in Rio de Janeiro is a regular on 940 kHz, especially if we have an antenna directed towards South America such as in February 2022. Not sure if they are really transmitting with a listed power of 100 kilowatts. If so, I would have expected their signal to be even better. Still, their signal is noted quite often, although with variable signal quality.
Super Rádio Brasil only transmits network programming from the religious Super Rede Boa Vontade de Rádio network without any local programming whatsoever (as far as I know). Marta Trigueiro, Assesoria da Comunicação sent an e-mail thanking me for listening to their signal on 940 kHz.
Zamora was one of the 4 RNE transmitters on 801 kHz heard at Lista in February 2022. Noted with good signal carrying local news for Zamora one morning.
José Antonio García Merino also confirmed my audio clip of this transmitter, listed with a power of 10 kilowatts.
801 kHz is an interesting frequency. Radio Nacional de España is usually the strongest station also on this frequency. What makes 801 kHz is that RNE has no less than 6 transmitters on this frequency. 4 of them were heard at Lista in February 2022 (Burgos, Zamora, Lugo and Ciudad Real). Ciudad Real is probably the less common of these transmitters, but had the strongest signal one morning when their local news bulletin was broadcast.
José Antonio García Merino again confirmed my audio recording with a full data electronic QSL card. The transmitter in Ciudad Real has a power of 25 kilowatts
612 kHz is another frequency where Radio Nacional de España usually owns the frequency. RNE has 2 transmitters on 612 kHz located in Vitória and Lleida respectively. The transmitter in Vitoria is definitely the most common one at our QTH and was heard with a good signal in February 2022 with a local news bulletin. The transmitter in Vitoria is listed with a power of 10 kilowatts.
José Antonio García Merino again confirmed my audio recording with a full data electronic QSL card.
Radio Nacional de España is usually the only station heard on 621 kHz nowadays. Radio Nacional has several transmitters on this frequency. At our place the transmitter in Ávila is the most commonly heard. RNE Ávila was also heard with local news for Ávila one morning in February 2022. The transmitter has a power of 10 kilowatts.
José Antonio García Merino confirmed my reception with a full data electronic QSL card (see above). Ávila is a city in the Castilla y León province located about 1 hour northwest of Madrid.
The transmitter of Radio Nacional de España in La Coruña is the clear dominant station on 639 kHz nowadays after Český rozhlas shut down their powerful transmitter on this frequency a couple of years ago. In February 2022 the transmitter in Bilbao was also heard with local news for Bilbao one morning. This transmitter is listed with a power of 50 kilowatts so not strange they are making it also to Scandinavia.
José Antonio García Merino confirmed my audio recording with a full data electronic QSL card.
Hunting the 1 watt low power AM stations in the United Kingdom is great fun. We have received a few of those over the years at our DX location at Lista. This is a great place for DX-ing radio stations in the UK as you can almost see across the North Sea to Scotland and England from there 🙂
In February 2022 both Radio Cavell in Oldham and University Radio York in York made it to our headphones. Radio Cavell was heard quite well several nights while University Radio York was only noted briefly one morning with a rather tiny signal. Still good enough for Sam Randewich, Secretary at the station for recognizing their signal.
University Radio York, or URY as the station brand itself, is the student radio station of the University of York, run by and for students. In addition to 1350 AM, the station can also be found on 88.3 FM. Plus online of course.
Patience and persistance pays off: I have tried to get a reply from Radio Seagull in The Netherlands for a number of years. No success untill this month when Martin Wallis finally confirmed my recording of the station made on 747 kHz in February 2022.
Radio Seagull is relayed by Radio Emmeloord at night on this frequency, just as it is relayed at nights on Carillon Wellbeing Radio on 1476 kHz. The 747 kHz transmitter is located in the small village of Pietersbierum in the Dutch Friesland province with a listed power of 100 watts.
1008 kHz is nowadays occupied by stations in Spain or The Netherlands. Of the 3 stations in Spain currently using 1008 kHz, SER Radio Extremadura is the easiest one to hear, at least at our DX location.
My previous attempts in getting a reply has not resulted in a reply, but this time I received a nice e-mail confirming my reception of the station. This was for a reception made in February 2022. Radio Extremadura transmits with a power of 10 kilowatts from the provincial capital city Badajoz.
Several Spanish stations can be heard on 1287 kHz, all belonging to the SER network. One of the stations, SER Radio Lugo, was heard with a good signal and local programming in February 2022.
Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Director de Contenidos, confirmed my audio recording with a short e-mail. Radio Lugo is located in the city of Lugo in Galicia. The mediumwave transmitter is listed with a power of 10 kilowatts. Not sure if this is correct or whether the outpur is a bit less as I would have expected to be stronger if they indeed transmit with a power of 10 kilowatts.
Catching Salaam Bury Community Radio was a definite target before heading to Lista in February 2022. The hunt was successful as the station was noted one afternoon on its frequency 1566 kHz. Weak signal and only audible for a brief period though, but sufficiently strong for sending an e-mail to the station. A short reply was received quite instantly confirming my reception of the station.
Reception of Salaam Bury Community Radio is quite difficult as 1566 kHz is usually dominated by 2 other English stations, BBC Somerset and Premier Christian Radio. The signal of Salaam BCR (as the station prefers to call itself) is easily recognizable with its Islamic programming and frequent chants from The Quran. Salaam BCR is licensed with a power of just 60 watts broadcasting to and from Bury outside Manchester. For lovers of English football Bury is most known for being the first(?) English professional club going bankrupt. This happened in 2019, see the Wikipedia article for an account of the sad events leading to its demise (but also about the clubs glorious past!)
Another nice catch on 1584 kHz in February 2022, besides Regional Radio, was catching the signal of Radio Vocea Sperantei in Romania. The station was heard early in the afternoon one day with a sufficiently strong signal.
Radio Vocea Sperantei is listed with no less than 4 transmitters on 1584 kHz, each with a power of 1 kilowatt. The station also uses 1485 and 1602 kHz as well as many FM frequencies of course. It is the voice of the adventist church in Romania.
The adventist church is wellknown among DX-ers, not least because of its comprehensive Adventist World Radio service. Adventist World Radio has a reputation of being reliable in replying to DX-ers QSL requests. It is nice to see that Radio Vocea Sperantei keeps this tradition alive. The station replied with a full data electronic verification letter (see above).
This nice electronic QSL card from Regional Radio in Italy was received some weeks ago confirming my reception of the station in February 2022. Regional Radio could be heard briefly on 1584 kHz during this DXpedition on a frequency shared by many other stations.
Regional Radio is a small Italian station which has started broadcasting on several mediumwave frequencies during the last couple of years. All transmitters are low powered and only meant to reach Central Italy. Currently, the frequencies 1395, 1440, 1485 and 1584 kHz are in use. I received the 600 watt transmitter located in Narni north of Rome. The 1584 kHz frequency in Narni has now changed to 1440 kHz to provide better reception in the coverage area according to v/s Naldino Forti, Director of Marketing.
Our DXpedition in February 2022 brought quite a lot of Argentinians, including Radio 2 in Rosario. Although only heard briefly, their signal was good enough to submit a reception report. Adrian Gallo at the station confirmed my audio recording with a brief e-mail.
Radio 2 is listed with a power of 25 kilowatts and is heard fairly frequently in Europe. The station is owned by Grupo Televisión Literal which also owns a couple of other radio stations, TV channel and a news portal branded Rosario3.
Mittelwellen-Sender Joe, or mediumwave transmitter Joe in English is a fun radio station. The brainchild of German HAM Ralph Oppelt (DL2NDO), this mediumwave transmitter was put on the air in December 2018 as a low power transmitter on 1476 kHz. The station has since moved up to 1485 kHz to avoid interfering another hobbyist radio station (Museumsradio in Austria). The transmitter is located at the well regarded Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen-Nürnberg in Bavaria using a power of 100 watts.
Mittelwellen-Sender Joe transmits programmes from Funklust Campusmedien from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität during daytime and during the evening. From 2300 to 0400 at night, however, a 1 kHz tone is transmitted on the frequency. These tones are far easier to receive than the normal broadcasts. They were received at night with reasonably good quality one night in February 2002, albeit with quite a lot of interference from co-channel SER Radio Santander.
Ralph Oppelt confirmed my reception with an electronic QSL-card pictured above. He also sent along a real card by postal mail a few weeks later.
Quite a few Dutch stations has popped up legally also on shortwave over the last couple of years. One of them is Sunlite Radio on 5955 kHz, a wellknown Dutch frequency used by Radio Nederland for many many years. The shortwave transmitter of Sunlite is located in the village of Westdorpe close to the border with Belgium. The station has been widely reported on shortwave since it started broadcasting on shortwave in 2021. Their signal was also noted during our last DX-pedition in February providing good reception for several hours one morning.
Sunlite is a reliable verifier having an own QSL manager, Herbert Visser, who issued the above electronic QSL card to me last week.
The 50 kilowatt transmitter of Rádio Nacional in the Brazilian capital Brasília is frequently heard here and was also heard with a good signal at times last February. This is one of the most commonly heard Brazilian stations at our place.
Just before Christmas, I received a full data QSL-card in PDF format from parent company Empresa Brasil de Comunicacão. The QSL card actually confirms my reception of Rádio Nacional da Amazônia on 980 kHz, but as both the date and frequency is correct I’ll take this as a genuine verification 🙂
Radio Mitre in Buenos Aires is one of the Argentinian stations sometimes making it to our radios at Lista. Radio Mitre had a fair signal several nights last February. Radio Mitre is one of the big traditional stations in Buenos Aires, having been on the air all the way since 1925. The station is listed with a power of 25 kilowatts transmitting from the Hurlingham area in the western part of the Argentinian capital.
A few weeks ago I received a nice e-mail confirming my audio recording from engineer Sebástian Sanchez Calveira who works at the transmitting site. Sebástian is also a HAM with the call sign LU4DAT and has a nice web page at qrz.com.
Another Dutch station heard last February was Japie de Portier on 1134 kHz. This station broadcasts from the village of Buitenpost in the Friesland province. It is listed with a power of 100 watts. Just like many other of the rather new Dutch legal station, Japie de Portier also has a pirate background. According to mwlists, the station is only on the air in the afternoons from 12.00 to 18.00. The station plays Dutch “schlager” music without announcements between the records.
Station owner Eddie van der Meer confirmed my audio recording with a postcard from the village. A postcard is a rarity these days!
Radio Eldorado has one of the strongest signals of the many legal mediumwave stations in The Netherlands which have popped up during the last couple of years. Both the frequency and the location is favourable as 1467 kHz is a clear frequency for many hours and transmits from a location not far from the North Sea coast. The station is located in the village of Damwald in Friesland and transmits with a power of 100 watts.
Station owner Wiebe Dijkstra confirmed my audio recording with an e-mail last week. Radio Eldorado is usually only on air in the mornings and during daytime. The station plays oldies music, with the occasional station identification inserted in between the records played.
Getting an answer from the home service of Bulgarian National Radio has proven very difficult. I have heard and sent reception reports on both longwave 261 kHz and mediumwave 576 kHz over the years, without success. The longwave transmitter has now closed down, but the mediumwave frequency is still active. The mediumwave transmitter, located near Vidin in the northwestern corner of Bulagaria, is listed with 250 kilowatts, but I am suspecting they are using a bit less power. Bulgarian National Radio carries the “Horizont” programme on this frequency, the only mediumwave frequency which is still being used in Bulgaria.
The Horizont programme can be heard quite well at times, but often with a lot of interference from Spain. My last report was made last February and resulted (finally) in a nice QSL card and some stickers sent by postal mail. The QSL card was signed by Desislava Semkovska
Radio 0511 often provides a good signal on 1287 kHz in the winter months, especially in the afternoons when there is less interference from other stations. The station is easily recognizable with its oldies format. Radio 0511 has previously used both 747 and 1602 kHz, but has now stayed on 1287 kHz for a number of years.
The station confirmed my reception made at Lista last February with an e-mail. They write that they started up as an illegal FM station in the 90s, but has now been legally on AM for several years. The station name originates from the telephone area code for this area in Friesland. The transmitter of Radio 0511 is located in the village of Ternaard close to the North Sea
1467 kHz is a frequency now being used by several Dutch low power stations. This is a frequency which is free of interfering stations most of the day, except from in the evening when the powerful Trans World Radio transmitter in France is used. Usually, Radio Eldorado in Friesland dominates the frequency here in Norway but this station only broadcasts during daytime. At night Radio Paradijs broadcasting from the city of Utrecht is frequently heard, although usually with a weak signal.
Radio Paradijs is the hobby station of veteran broadcaster Ruud Poeze. The station has been broadcasting on 1584 kHz for many years with a low power transmitter. Catching the signal of Radio Paradijs is significantly easier on todays frequency of 1467 kHz here, thanks to less competing stations using this frequency. The station was heard both in February 2021 and in February 2022 at Lista. Ruud confirmed my audio recording adding that Radio Paradijs runs with a power of 100 watts broadcasting from an old cold war fort.
MCB Radio has been heard every time on 747 kHz during our last visits at Lista. I haven’t had any luck in getting a reply untill now when owner Rene Brandaris replied with an e-mail.
MCB Radio is another of the low powered Dutch radio stations which has started broadcasting legally on mediumwave during the last couple of years. MCB Radio started broadcasting on mediumwave 747 kHz in 2019 after having existed as a pirate radio station for several years (not an uncommon background for many of the new Dutch mediumwave stations).
The station is located in Alphen aan den Rijn about halfway between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It is listed with a power of 100 watts. MCB Radio is a clear number 2 stations among the Dutch stations on 747 kHz, usually Radio Emmeloord in Friesland has the better signal on this frequency.
Another COPE QSL: This time from COPE Granada on 900 kHz. This is the most difficult to hear of the 3 Spanish stations broadcasting on the frequency. Still, COPE Granada made it to our SDR radios one morning in February.
Manuel Marín confirmed my audio recording with a short e-mail. Granada is a city with 200,000 inhabitants, especially known for its fabulous Alhambra palace.
As the dominant and very powerful RAI transmitter on 900 kHz closed down for good last month, I suppose it will be easier to catch the signal of COPE Granada now than it was last season. Their mediumwave transmitter is listed with a power of 5 kilowatts.
I made a few shortwave recordings at Lista last time too, primarily of the 49 metre band. By chance, the weather forecasts from Deutscher Wetterdienst were caught one evening. These weather forecasts are only broadcast 4 times a day, each lasting half an hour. In addition to regular broadcasting, Deutscher Wetterdienst also uses shortwave for RTTY and facsimile transmitting.
All shortwave broadcasts are transmitting from their site at Pinneberg 20 kilometres north west of Hamburg with a power of 10 kilowatts. After a few weeks I received a nice full data electronic QSL card (shown above) as well as an e-mail in Danish(!) signed by Antje Elsässer.
1269 kHz is another frequency vacated by European stations. COPE is the only European station still using the frequency with 2 transmitters located in Badajoz and Zamora respectively. Both transmitters are easily heard at Lista, often mixing with each others when they have regional or local programming.
COPE Badajoz confirmed my reception of the station made last February with a nice e-mail. They are a small station with a total of just 6 employees working there. Their mediumwave transmitter is listed with a power of 10 kilowatts. Badajoz is the capital of the Extremadura region close to the border to Portugal and has a population of around 155.000.
1143 kHz is a frequency which has been vacated by most stations. At present there are just 2 stations left in Europe, both belonging to the Spanish COPE network and listed with a transmitting power of 5 kilowatts each.
Both COPE Ourense in Galicia and COPE Jaén in Andalucia were heard in February. Although Ourense usually had the better signal, Jaén was also heard with a fair signal at times.
Alfredo Simón Gonzalez, Jefe Técnico de Zona Andalucia Oriental, confirmed my reception with an e-mail. Jaén is an inland city in Andalucia, known among others for its production of olive oil. Jaén even describes itself as The World Capital of Olive Oil as the province of Jaén produces about 45% of all olive oil in Spain.
COPE Vigo was another Spanish station heard last February. Usually RAI in Italy and Radio Popular in Bilbao are the stations heard on 900 kHz, but on this DX-pedition both COPE stations (Vigo and Granada) were heard too.
COPE Vigo uses a 5 kilowatt transmitter on 900 kHz. Or may be used to transmit with a power of 5 kilowatt is a more precise formulation as COPE Vigo is not listed on MWlist anymore. Their own web page still lists “900 onda media” though, so may be the station still broadcasts on mediumwave.
A short but adequate e-mail signed by José Jardón Magdalena was received promptly confirming my audio recording of the station. Vigo is also located in the northwestern Galicia province, close to the border to Portugal.
The DX-pedition to Lista last February resulted in a record number of Spanish stations in our logs. In fact, more than 100 stations from Spain was heard, a number which will be hard to beat especially now that also Spanish stations are abandoning the mediumwave band.
One of the stations noted was COPE in Ferrol on the northwestern coast of the country. COPE Ferrol is sometimes heard on 837 kHz, a frequency shared with three other COPE affiliates (Las Palmas, Sevilla and Burgos). All 4 COPE stations have been heard by us at Lista. Ferrol is the station with the least powerful transmitter with only 2 kilowatts of power.
My first attempt in getting a reply was not successfull, but the second attempt resulted in an e-mail confirming my reception of the station.
Caracol – or CAdena RAdial COLombiana – is one of the big radio networks in Colombia. The network operates many mediumwave transmitters across the country, in addition to broadcasting on FM and on the Internet, of course.
One of the most powerful mediumwave transmitters – and probably the easiest one to catch – is the transmitter in Cali on 820 kHz. This transmitter has been noted several times by us, last time back in February. John Camacho, Director, confirmed my audio clip with a friendly e-mail last month.
Caracol Radio is wellknown among all DX-ers who have been around for some time. Years ago, Caracol Radio was easily received on shortwave. Shortwave was abandoned several decades ago, nowadays a DX-er has to concentrate on mediumwave.
WXYT in Detroit is a pretty easy catch on 1270 kHz, even at Lista. This station is frequently heard when conditions go further inland than just the East Coast. With a 50 kilowatt transmitter, the signal of WXYT goes pretty far.
WXYT has had a sports talk format for many years, carrying CBS Sports Radio for a long time. Last year, however, the station changed its format to sports gambling. It is now “The Bet Detroit”
James Powers at the station sent a short e-mail confirming my reception of WXYT from February 2021.
RNE Radio 5 has several transmitter on 936 kHz, one of them located in Valladolid in the Castilla-y-León province. This 20 kilowatt transmitter was heard in February 2021 with a local news bulletin for Valladolid. Pretty strong signal on the southern antenna too where RNE Radio 5 Valladolid easily outperformed the signals from the more usual British stations Dales Radio and Smooth Radio Wiltshire. A full data electronic QSL card was received from José Antonio García Merino for this reception too.
Spain often outperforms signals from the United Kingdom on our southern antenna. This also happens on 1107 kHz where the RNE stations usually dominates and overrides the signal of the Moray Firth Radio in Scotland. The 25 kilowatt transmitter in Logroño in Northern Spain, is along with the one in Santander, the most commonly heard here. A local news bulletin for La Rioja was heard one morning in February 2021. José Antonio García Merino also confirmed this recording. Logroño is the capital of the La Rioja province, famous of course for its wine production.
One of the more surprising catches when examining the recordings from February 2021 was finding a station identification for RNE Radio 5 in Almería on 1098 kHz. Almería is far from being the most common of the RNE stations on this frequency, but made it to our radios one morning at 06.25 UTC. José Antonio García Merino again confirmed my audio clip with an electronic QSL card. The transmitter of RNE in Almería has a power of 25 kilowatts.
3 different local RNE Radio 5 stations on 1125 kHz made it into our logs in February 2021. The 10 kilowatt transmitter in Toledo was one of these, noted one morning with local news for Toledo. Toledo is located just south of Madrid and was once the capital and largest city in Central Spain. José Antonio García Merino confirmed my audio recording with an electronic QSL card.
Hearing Spain on 558 kHz is quite easy. There are several RNE transmitters on this frequency and the one in San Sebastián is probably the easiest one to hear. I caught this transmitter with local news from RNE Radio 5 in San Sebastián one morning in February 2021. The always friendly José Antonio García Merino confirmed my recording with an electronic QSL card.
RNE in San Sebastián transmits with a power of 50 kilowatts so not strange they are easily received here.
We heard a number of U.S. daytimers at our DX-pedition in February 2021 when conditions towards the East Coast of North America was at times quite good. One of the stations making it one evening was WVNE in Leicester, Massachusetts.
I have tried to get a response from the station previously, without luck. This time, however, Josh Blount confirmed my recording of WVNE with a very nice electronic QSL card, pictured above.
WVNE broadcasts Christian programming from Life Changing Radio, programming well known to us through the much more commonly heard AM stations WDER on 1320 kHz, WFIF on 1500 kHz and WARV on 1590 kHz. WVNE is listed with a daytime power of 25 kilowatts.
One of the very few interesting signals from North America making it to our radios at Lista this February was WWCL on 1440 kHz. WWCL has been noted previously too, but only with a weak signal. This time the signal was good enough to send along an audio recording of my catch to Franklin Mercedes who confirmed my reception of the station.
My first QSL from this winters DX-pedition arrived from low powered Radio Cavell in Oldham in the UK. Hearing low powered LPAM stations not previously heard is great fun and picking up the signal of this low powered hospital radio station on 1350 kHz was certainly one of the highlights of this DX-pedition. Arthur Chorley, Technical Coordinator at the station and also a HAM with call sign G4BKH, confirmed my audio clip with an e-mail.
In addition to the confirmation I also received an e-mail from Alan Gale who was formerly involved in its predecessor Radio Latics. Radio Latics was the radio station of the Oldham Athletic football club and was widely heard on 1386 kHz in the 1990s. Oldham Athletic was, by the way, sadly relegated to level 5 in the English football league just a couple of weeks ago. Alan passed along the picture below showing the aerial used by Radio Latics and subsequently by Radio Cavell. This picture was taken back in 1995. Both the antenna and the transmitter used by Radio Latics is still in use and has served well for more than 20 years. Alan adds that the antenna is intentionally left “bad” to limit the signals according to limitations set by UK regulator Ofcom. Catching the signal of Radio Cavell on mediumwave here in Norway is certainly a challenge, so in that sense the “poor” antenna certainly seems to work 🙂
This season’s annual DX-pedition took place during the first week of February. Just like last year, my DX partners were again fellow Norwegian DXers Torgeir Nyen and Geir Fredheim.
Our DX headquarter
We always strive to find a period with quiet atmosphaeric conditions when planning a DX-pedition. When planning for this DX-pedition, the first week of February looked promising. Unfortunately the sun can be rather unpredictable, especially now when the sunspots are increasing. An increase in sunspots also increases the chances of sudden disturbances. The predicted quiet conditions instead turned into disturbed conditions this time with coronal mass ejections and geomagnetic storms having a significant impact on the once promising propagation forecast.
Disturbed conditions resulted in only a few interesting North American stations in the log. It has been many years since we last experienced so poor conditions towards North America. Conditions towards Central and South Americans weren’t great either, but still acceptable. All in all conditions were not unlike those experienced at the Knollehof DX-pedition in Belgium taking place at the same time.
An impressive number of Europeans made it into our logs though, especially from Spain and the United Kingdom. The most interesting stations heard were 900 COPE Granada and 972 RNE Córdoba from Spain and the low power stations 1350 Radio Cavell and 1386 Radio City from the UK. From the Americas we were pleased about picking up the signals of 1440 Radio Maranatha in Nicaragua, 1470 Radio Maria in Uruguay and 1510 La Voz de La Unión from Colombia. As always, our logs are available in a continously updated Google spreadsheet.
Our experimental KAZ antenna
In addition to our two 600-700 long beverage antennas directed towards the US East Coast and South America, we tried a completely new antenna this time. A Kaz antenna was raised pointing towards East Africa with the hope of hearing Malawi or Mozambique. We didn’t succeed in hearing neither, but still the Kaz performed surprisingly well and almost as well as the beverage antenna. Quite impressive bearing in mind the small size of the antenna (pictured above)!
WKNV was heard briefly one evening at Lista in January 2020 identifying as “Joy FM” as well as mentioning their web address joyfmorg. Very pleased about being able to pick up the signal of WKNV as it is very difficult to hear anything but dominant station WAMG in Boston on 890 kHz.
WKNV is a daytime only station broadcasting with a power of 10 kilowatts. I guess we caught them just before signing off for the day. The station is licenced to Fairlawn, Virginia targeting the nearby city of Blacksburg. As can be seen in the logo above, WKNV airs gospel music. Eddie Baker confirmed my audio recording with a short but friendly e-mail.
A real surprise found when reviewing some recordings from February 2021 was finding an announcement from WPLI on 1390 kHz just before 23.00, presumably just before they powered down from their day time power of 4,7 kilowatts to their night time power of a mere 34 watts.
WPLI is a sports radio station simulcasting programming of 610 WPLY. The stations brand themselves as “Sports Radio Virginia” or just “sportsradiova”. WPLI broadcasts from and to Lynchburg, Virginia.
I received a swift reply from Tony Broom, Director of Infomation Systems and Technology at the station.
The reply rate from the new Dutch low power mediumwave stations is very variable, from 100% to 0%. One of the most reliable is Radio Babylona which I believe replies to all correct reception reports.
My reply came in January (first QSL in 2022) for a report made in February 2021 when Radio Babylona had a good signal one afternoon on 1008 kHz. Radio Babylona transmits with a power of 100 watts from the village of Musselkanaal not far from the German border in the North East of the country.
Radio Babylona has a history going back all the way to 1985, according to the stations informative web page. At the time of writing, Radio Babylona is off air and only broadcasts sporadically on 1008 kHz.
We were very pleased about catching local identifications both for RNE Radio 5 Zamora and RNE Radio 5 Albacete on 1152 kHz at Lista in February 2021. We were especially pleased about Albacete as this is a station and a transmitter which is seldom reported. Like Zamora, RNE Radio 5 Albacete also transmits with a power of 10 kilowatts. Albacete was heard one morning at the start of the local news at 06.25 UTC.
José Antonio García Merino at RTVE in Madrid also confirmed my reception of RNE Radio 5 Albacete with a full data QSL card. The city of Albacete is located in the Castilla la Mancha region about halfway between Madrid and Murcia.
1152 kHz is a frequency usually occupied by UK stations exclusively at our location. Occasionally, Romania can also be heard but usually nothing else. In February 2021, however, RNE Radio 5 was noted even on 1152 kHz. We caught local identifications both for RNE Radio 5 Zamora and RNE Radio 5 Albacete during the days we spent there. I believe Zamora usually has the strongest signal of these stations.
The transmitter in Zamora transmits with a power of 10 kilowatts. The always helpful José Antonio García Merino also confirmed this station with a full data QSL card.
RNE Radio 5 in Vitoria was another RNE station heard in February 2021. Like RNE Radio 5 Soria, this station also broadcast on 1125 kHz. It is the most common local RNE station on this frequency as stations located in the Basque (Euskadi) almost always has a powerful signal at our location.
José Antonio García Merino also confirmed this station with a full data QSL card. The transmitter is listed with a power of 10 kilowatts.
The DX pedition in February 2021 resulted in an impressive number of Spanish stations heard on mediumwave. A station which we had not received previously was RNE Radio 5 in Soria in the Castilla y León province north east of Madrid.
RNE Radio 5 in Soria was heard with good quality one morning on 1125 kHz. José Antonio García Merino again confirmed my audio recording with a full data QSL card. This transmitter has a power of 10 kilowatts and is situated at the Monte Valonsadero mountain outside the city.
RNE has a 20 kilowatt transmitter located in the mountain region of San Mateo on the main island Gran Canaria on this frequency. José Antonio García Merino confirmed my audio recording with a full data QSL card pictured above.
The Spanish Todo Notocias network can be received quite easily on 747 kHz. There are presently two transmitters on this frequency, one located in Cádiz and one on the Canary Islands. Both were heard in February 2021 with local news.
The 10 kilowatt transmitter in Cádiz is definitely the most common of these 2 transmitters. José Antonio García Merino, ND Ingenieria Area emisión, redes y comunicaciones, confirmed my reception of RNE Cádiz with a full detailed electronic QSL card.
1200 kHz is usually occupied by either WXKS in Boston and/or CFGO in Ottawa, but some other stations can also be picked up from time to time. WMUZ, licenced to Taylor, Michigan, is a station which we have heard a number of times on 1200 kHz during the last couple of years.
Chief Engineer Michael Kernen confirmed my reception with an e-mail last week for a recording made in October 2020.
WMUZ broadcasts religious programming to Detroit under the name “The Salt of Detroit”. The station broadcasts with a night time power of 15 kilowatts (day time 50 kilowatts).
Catching the 286 watt night time signal of WLAD was one of the highlights of our DX-pedition in February 2021. 800 kHz is almost always occupied by VOWR in Newfoundland or Trans World Radio in Bonaire so we were quite surprised hearing a clear identification for WLAD one morning when examining our recordings.
Irv Goldstein, President and CEO, confirmed my recording with a nice e-mail. He adds that VOWR is never a problem for them, if there is interference it is coming from the Canadian stations CJAD or CKLW.
WFXJ has popped up on 930 kHz on a few occasions at Lista, last time in February 2021 when the station was heard briefly with gospel music and a clear “Hallelujah 9-30” identification. The gospel format was very short lived: Hallelujah 930 only lasted for 6 months, from January to July 2021. In July 2021 WFXJ switched to a Spanish talk format branded “Acción 930“.
WFXJ broadcasts from Jacksonville, Florida, with a power of 5 kilowatts day and night. WFXJ directs most of its power towards the east at night and this probably explains why the station is a relatively rare guest in Europe. Regional Engineer Andy McDonald confirmed my reception of he station and also promised an electronic QSL-card, when time permits.
During our 2 latest trips to Lista, WCFR has appeared both times in the evening on 1480 kHz, mixing with the signal of dominant talk station WSAR. As WCFR is a music station playing mainly hits from the 1980 and 1990s so it is usually easy to separate the two stations.
WCFR is located in Springfield, Vermont and broadcasts with a daytime power of 5 kilowatts. On both occasions, we caught the station just before switching to their night power of a mere 23 watts. John Landry confirmed my audio clip from last February and adds that WCFR is now branded as “Your Hometown Classic Hits – WCFR” and not “Rewind 106.5” anymore.
Listening to recordings from DX-peditions can be quite tedious. Usually nothing exciting turns up in your headphones. But sometimes gold can be found and completely unexpected stations can be heard. One such moment happened last month when a station playing oldies music was heard on 1300 kHz on a recording made one evening in February 2021. This station was only heard for a few minutes and the identification was not very clear either.
Still, we were quite sure that this was WPNH from Plymouth, New Hampshire. Our suspicions were confirmed by Fred Caruso, the stations Assistant General Manager and Operations Director at the s: This was indeed WPNH! WPNH is a rarity and has not been noted by us previously. We probably heard the station when it was still operating with its daytime effect of 5 kilowatts. Catching the station on their night time power of just 82 watts would have been much harder.
WBNW is a fairly common catch at Lista making it into our logs on nearly every DX-pedition there. Only KMOX in St. Louis is heard more regularly on 1120 kHz. I haven’t got any replies from WBNW untill now though, when Jason Wolfe, Chief Media and Marketing Strategist, confirmed my recording with a short e-mail for a recording made last February.
WBNW carries business news from the Money Matters Radio Network to the Boston area. It is listed with a day time power og 5 kilowatts and a night time power of 1 kilowatt from Concord west of Boston.
Arild's DX Diary 
You must be logged in to post a comment.