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.
980 kHz is an interesting frequency with many possibilities in our hunting for North American radio stations. One of those possibilities is WAAV “The Wave” licensed to Leland, North Carolina. Although by no means a regular, we have caught WAAV on a few occasions.
“The Wave” is a conservative talk station broadcasting with a power of 5 kilowatts. Barry Fox, Program Director & Opearations Manager confirmed my recording of the station with a short e-mail. This for a recording made in October 2020.
The Todo Notocias network of Radio Nacional de España has three transmitters on 1314 kHz. The strongest transmitter is located in Reus near Tarragona in Cataluña and has a power of 25 kilowatts. This transmitter is easily recognized as it has a strange “growling” audio indicating that the transmitter might have seen its better days.
José Antonio García Merino, ND Ingenieria Area emisión, redes y comunicaciones, at RNE in Madrid nevertheless confirmed my audio recording with a fully detailed electronic QSL card pictured above. This was for a recording made of their local news bulletin at 06.25 UTC one morning last February.
Although the UK stations Greatest Hits Radio and Premier Radio usually occupies the frequency of 1305 kHz, it is not uncommon to hear Spanish either. RNE R5 has several transmitters also on this frequency. The most common of these, RNE R5 Bilbao was easily heard on our southern antenna in February with a local news bulletin. José Antonio Garcia Moreno also confirmed this audio recording with an electronic QSL card. The power of the transmitter in Bilbao is 10 kilowatts.
Moray Firth Radio in Scotland usually “owns” the frequency of 1107 kHz at Lista, at least when our usual antenna is used. In February we also had an antenna pointing southwards, making reception of Spain possible on nearly every possible mediumwave frequency. On this southern antenna RNE R5 completely wiped out Moray Firth Radio.
RNE R5 has several transmitters on 1107 kHz too. As always the transmitters in Northern Spain have the most powerful signals. The most common one on 1107 kHz is RNE R5 Santander which had a very good signal on several occasions in February. This transmitter has a power of 20 kilowatts and is co-located with the mediumwave transmitter of RNE on 855 kHz (another blowtorch Spanish transmitter). José Antonio Garcia Moreno again confirmed my audio clip with an electronic QSL card.
RNE R5 is a regular on 1098 kHz too, along with Slovakia. RNE has 4 different transmitters on the frequency so several possibilities here. In February we heard the transmitter in Ávila north west of Madrid with local news one morning. José Antonio Garcia Moreno again confirmed my audio clip with another electronic QSL card.
The transmitter in Ávila transmits with a power of 10 kilowatts and is not the most powerful transmitter on the frequency.
Another frequency vacated by almost all stations is 1017 kHz. Spain now dominates this frequency completely. RNE R5 has 2 transmitters on 1017 kHz, located in Burgos and Granada respectively each with a transmitter output of 10 kilowatts. Of these, the transmitter in Burgos is by far the most common at our listening post.
José Antonio Garcia Moreno confirmed my reception of the morning news for Burgos with an electronic QSL card.
936 kHz is a frequency usually covered by Italy, Iran or UK stations at our QTH, but an antenna in the right direction certainly helped hearing Spain on the frequency too! We heard both Spanish transmitters on the frequency, from Zaragoza and Valladolid respectively, last February.
Local news for Zaragoza from the Todo Notocias network was heard one morning on the frequency. The transmitter in Zaragoza uses a power of 25 kilowatts. The friendly José Antonio Garcia Moreno listened to my recording and also confirmed this station with an electronic QSL card.
Another RNE Radio 5 station heard last February was the transmitter in Palencia on 603 kHz. Admittedly not the best signal quality, as this transmitter only has an output power of 5 kilowatts. Still, the signal came through quite well one morning with a local identification and local news.
José Antonio García Merino also confirmed this reception with a full detailed electronic QSL card.
567 kHz is a frequency vacated by many stations. Currently, Romania and RNE are the only Europeans broadcasting on 567 kHz. RNE has only got one transmitter on the frequency carrying the Todo Notocias network. This transmitter is located in Murcia and was heard at Lista last February with local news for the region. The transmitter is listed with a power of 50 kilowatts.
José Antonio García Merino, ND Ingenieria Area emisión, redes y comunicaciones, confirmed my reception with a full detailed electronic QSL card.
Transmitters located in Northern Spain are often heard with strong signals at Lista, especially if we have an antenna in that direction or during auroral conditions. The transmitter of the Todo Notocias network of Radio Nacional de España in Oviedo was one of the stations heard at Lista last February, easily beating the signal of the dominant station from the Faroe Islands on several occastions.
José Antonio García Merino, ND Ingenieria Area emisión, redes y comunicaciones, at RNE kindly confirmed my reception with a full detailed electronic QSL card and a long e-mail.
I didn’t have any luck with getting a reply from the station many years ago, but this time Antonio Catalán Serra, Resp. Técnico at RNE Cataluña, replied with a nice electronic QSL card (pictured above) for a report on the regional news carried on this channel. All regional news are of course in Catalán and not in Spanish.
There are not many AM stations left in Nova Scotia in Canada. Most of the AM transmitters there have been switched off in favour of FM. One of the few stations remaining is CKAD using a daytime power of 1 kilowatt and a night time power of a mere 400 watts. The station was heard on 1350 kHz last February, after an absence of several years. CKAD was quite common some 10 years ago, but has become much less common lately.
I had no luck obtaining a reply 10 years back, but this time Andrew Johnson, General Manager, promply confirmed my reception with an e-mail. He also mentioned that their sister station CKDY on 1420 kHz has now left the AM band and is now only found FM. CKDY used to be an easy catch at Lista. Both CKAD as well as CKDY belongs to the AVR Network and have a country format. I wouldn’t be surprised if CKAD also moved to FM quite soon.
Radio Cóndor made a brief and surprising appearance identyfing simply as “Radio Cóndor – 15-40 AM” one morning at Lista last winter. Receiving a reply from the stations was even more surprising as replies from Colombian stations are scarce. Radio Condór, however, replied with a full data QSL letter signed by their Gerente Claudia Maria Agudelo Vélez.
This station broadcasts with a power of just 1 kilowatt and is certainly not a common guest here. Radio Cóndor is primarily a cultural and educational station affiliated to one of several universities in the city of Manizales, the Universidad Autónoma de Manizales. Manizales itself is a city with about 500,000 inhabitants located in the coffee region of Colombia, a region known as “el eje cafetero“.
One of the most powerful mediumwave transmitters of Radio Nacional de España is the transmitter in Sevilla on 684 kHz. With a power of 300 kilowatts, this transmitter is easily heard in Scandinavia (and throughout Europe and North Africa, I presume).
864 kHz is a pretty empty frequency with Radio Nacional’s transmitter in Socuéllamos being the only transmitter left in Europe on this frequency. As there is little competition, Radio Nacional is easily heard on this frequency despite a relatively modest transmitting power (5 kilowatts).
Radio Nacional de España’s regional programmes can be heard on many mediumwave frequencies. Many of these are much easier to hear now than they used to be, thanks to most other European countries abandoing mediumwave. Spain, including Radio Nacional, still maintains a large presence on mediumwave, at least for the time being.
Last February we noted the regional programme for Castilla y León on both 774, 801 and 855 kHz with 801 kHz providing best reception. José Antonio García Merino at Radio Nacional in Madrid confirmed my reception with a full detailed QSL card. Radio Nacional has 2 two transmitters located in Castilla y León on 801 kHz, located in Burgos and Zamora respectively. Both are listed with a power of 10 kilowatts.
Last week I received a surprising reply from the head office of Legião da Boa Vontade confirming my reception of Super Rádio Boa Vontade in Salvador on 1350 kHz. In their reply they use former name Rádio Cristal of the station so may be the station is still better known under the name Cristal?
Whatever the name of the station may be, it is one of the most common Brazilian stations here, no doubt helped by a coastal location and a transmitting power of 50 kilowatts. This station is easily recognized as it consistantly broadcasts on a low offset frequency, noted at 1349,894 kHz last time at Lista.
Super Rádio Boa Vontade (or Rádio Cristal) broadcasts religious networking programming only originating from their headquarter in São Paulo.
We heard many Colombian station during our latest DX-pedition at Lista, especially during the first days of our stay. One of the stations heard was Radio Vida Nueva in Barranquilla on 1490 kHz. Although noted on previous visits at Lista too, this station is not a very common guest here.
I received a friendly e-mail confirming my reception of the station after a couple of weeks. Radio Vida Nueva is, as the logo above shows, a station broadcasting Christian programming. The station is listed with a power of 5 kilowatts.
The Radio 5 Todo Notocias network of Radio Nacional de España maintains an extensive presence on mediumwave. The stations are a nice DX target as all stations carries local and regional programmes at certain times. We have heard many of these stations over the years. Some of them are easily heard, others are a real challenge.
One of the easiest stations is their 100 kilowatt transmitter in Majadahonda outside Madrid on 657 kHz which carries local news for the city of Madrid at certain times. This transmitter site is also used for broadcasting RNE Radio 1 on 585 kHz as well as COPE on 999 kHz.
José Antonio García Merino, ND Ingenieria Area emisión, redes y comunicaciones, at RNE kindly confirmed my reception made last February with a full detailed electronic QSL card and a long e-mail.
Radio Monique has been a common guest on 918 kHz after they started broadcasting on mediumwave in November 2020. It is by far the most commonly heard Dutch station on this frequency now. Broadcasting from Velsen-Noord north of the city of Haarlem, Radio Monique was heard with a good signal many times at Lista in February.
The station confirmed my reception with an e-mail and the above electronic QSL-card. Radio Monique station traces it roots to the 1980s when Radio Monique had programmes on Radio Caroline’s ship “Ross Revenge” in international waters. Since then Radio Monique has appeared on shortwave occasionally as an unofficial (or pirate) station. The station still broadcasts on shortwave, apparently still without a licence.
Romania is one of very few European countries still having a large presence on mediumwave. In addition to the national channels Radio România Actualităţia and Antena Satelor, which can be heard on many mediumwave frequencies, some of the regional stations can also be heard.
One of these regional stations, Radio Târgu Mureș, can be heard quite easily on all of their 3 frequencies 1197, 1323 and 1593 kHz. The easiest frequency is probably 1323 kHz, a frequency with few other stations. In addition to Romanian, Radio Târgu Mureș also broadcasts in the minority languages Hungarian and German. Their German programme – Radio Neumarkt – is aired every weekday in at 19.00 UTC and is fascinating to listen to. Neumarkt is the German name for Târgu Mureș. According to Wikipedia, there are about 36.000 Romanians who consider themselves as Germans. The most prominent of those is without doubt Klaus Iohannis, the incumbent Romanian president.
My previous attempts of getting a reply from Radio Târgu Mureș have been unsuccessfull, but this time Virgil Natea, Producer at the station sent a nice reply and also an electronic QSL card. This was for a recording made in January 2020 on 1197 kHz. This transmitter is located in Brașov(or Kronstadt in German) while the transmitter on 1323 kHz is in Târgu Mureș and the transmitter on 1593 kHz is in Miercurea Ciuc (Szeklerburg in German). All 3 transmitters have a listed power of 15 kilowatts. Miercurea Ciuc, by the way, is populated mainly by ethnic Hungarians who make up 81% of the population in the city.
Portugal is still broadcasting on mediumwave, albeit not on many frequencies. Their state broadcaster RDP can sometimes be heard on mediumwave 630, 666 and 720 kHz with their Antena 1 programming.
Paula Carvalho, Engenharia, Sistemas e Tecnologia confirmed my reception of Antena 1 with an e-mail and an old QSL card (shown above). My report was made last February on 720 kHz when the signal of Antena 1 at times was better than the signal of the usual dominant station BBC Radio 4. Antena 1 is listed with 4 different transmitters on 720 kHz, each with a power of 10 kilowatts, but I suspect most are running at lower power.
Radio Seerah in Leicester started broadcasting on mediumwave 1575 kHz in February 2019. Their signal is usually rather weak at our listening post, but thanks to using a frequency which is not by many others the signal reaches Lista at times too. The station is using a power of just 30 watts, so no wonder the signal is weak.
Radio Seerah is a community radio station broadcasting to the Islamic community in and around Leicester. Their signal is pretty distinct too with many Islamic programmes, including a lot of recitations from The Quran. I received a short e-mail confirming my reception of the station from January 2020.
Italian mediumwave radio stations come and often disappear again after a few years on the air. One of the stations which popped up some years ago is Radio Diffusione Europea in Trieste on the border to Slovenia. This station has been operating on both 819 and 1584 kHz for a couple of years with the latter frequency clearly giving best reception here. Despite several British stations also broadcasting on 1584 kHz, the signal of Radio Diffusione Europea often comes through fairly well. The station is listed with a power of 1 kilowatt.
Wellknown Italian DX-er Roberto Scaglione confirmed my reception made in January 2020 with the electronic QSL card pictured above.
Cuban provincial station Radio Artemisa can occasionally be heard on 1020 kHz at my listening post. Radio Artemisa also uses 1000 and 1320 kHz in addition to 1020 kHz, but I have only been able to catch their signal on 1020 kHz. This transmitter is located in Bahía Honda using a power of 5 kilowatts. The province of Artemisa is located just East of the capital Havana.
Radio Artemisa has been heard a number of times on 1020 kHz here, last time in October last year. My attempts contacting the station by e-mail were unsuccessfull. A letter by postal mail, however, resulted in a nice e-mail from the station signed by its director, Lic. Isnail Albiza Borrego.
Very pleased about catching the Dutch low power station Columbia AM on 1395 kHz back in February. 1395 kHz is a difficult frequency as the frequency is nearly always blocked by another Dutch station, SeaBreeze AM.
The station confirmed my reception with the nice electronic QSL-card seen above. Columbia AM broadcasts from the small village of Aalst in the province of Gelderland. According to Wikipedia, Aalst has a population of 1950 inhabitants so indeed quite small. The power of the station was just 50 watts at the time when I received Columbia AM.
A beverage antenna directed towards Spain (and South America) gave good results at our DX-pedition to Lista in February. No less than 76 different Spanish stations made it to our logs – a record number by far and a number which is going to be hard to beat as Spanish stations have also started closing their mediumwave transmitters.
One of the many stations heard was COPE Mallorca on 1224 kHz, a frequency shared with several other COPE outlets. My e-mail to the station resulted in a reply from Cristina de Ahumada at the station. A not so perfect verification admittedly, but I still count this as a QSL. The station broadcasts with a power of 5 kilowatts from a transmitter located close to the Mallorcan capital Palma.
This cool QSL card, signed by Chief Operator Ben Downs arrived in my inbox last week, 7 months after I sent a reception report to WTAW in College Station, Texas. My recording was made in January 2019, when stations in the X band came through with good signal levels.
WTAW is not a frequent guest on 1620 kHz, but their signal can occasionally pop up if the signal of co-channel Radio Rebelde is weaker than normal. WTAW is a news talk station transmitting with a night power of 1 kilowatt.
I have recorded the 49 metre band on some of our last DX-peditions, hoping to catch some of the new hobby stations which have popped up in Europe over the past decade.
One of these stations is Radio Onda in Belgium which was noted on 5940 kHz both in January and in October 2020. My reception from October 2020 was answered with a nice e-mail and later also a real paper QSL-card (see above), signed by Julio Roth.
Radio Onda started broadcasting on shortwave in January 2020 using a 500 watt transmitter located not in Belgium, but rather in Borculo in neighbouring The Netherlands. Julio says it was impossible to receive a licence to operate on shortwave in Belgium so instead he opted for The Netherlands, eventually becoming the first private legal shortwave station in the country. As everybody know, The Netherlands is a paradise for illegal pirate shortwave stations though so certainly not the first shortwave station in the country! 🙂
Julio says he hopes to get a DAB+ licence to operate in their home city Brussels too. For now, Radio Onda only operates on shortwave and by streaming. The shortwave frequency has now changed from 5940 to 6140 kHz. Radio Onda is run by the nonprofit association ASBL Onda, catering to the Brazilian population in Brussels. In addition to Brazilian music, the station also plays other pop music.
Signals from the most populous US state, California, only reach Lista on very rare occasions. On all our DXpeditions, we have only heard less than a handful of Californians.
One of the most regular ones, i.e. one of the stations which have been heard on more than one occasion, is KFBK in Sacramento. This 50 kilowatt news station can on certain occasions be heard on 1530 kHz, overriding the British stations and WCKY in Cincinnati.
My recording made in October 2020 was confirmed with an e-mail by Mike Murray. At the time of my reception, KFBK only mentioned their 93.1 FM frequency, no mention of 1530 AM at all!
I have seen many reports on WLIS being heard on 1420 kHz lately. WLIS came up very well one morning at our latest trip to Lista, a station we have never had any trace of at all during all our previous trips. WLIS is a small local station located in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, broadcasting with a night time power of 500 watts. The station simulcasts on 1150 kHz with the call sign WMRD.
Don DeCesare, President and General Manager, confirmed my recording of WLIS with a nice e-mail. When asked if they had done anything with their antenna or transmitter which could explain the improved reception of the station, he said that they hadn’t done anything beyond regular maintenance.
For a clear channel station broadcasting with a power of 50 kilowatts, KYW in Philadelphia is surprisingly difficult to hear. I guess the reason is that the station restricts their signals going into our direction, as can be seen on their coverage map. This protection obviously works quite well because it is far more common to hear WQOM in Boston and Radio Educación in Mexico City on 1060 kHz here.
Still, “Newsradio KYW” can be heard here too from time to time, last time in October 2020. Alex Silverman, Brand Manager, confirmed my reception with an e-mail.
KYW is one of the oldest radio stations in the world, tracing their origins back to 1921. KYW thus celebrates 100 years of broadcasting this year! KYW started up in Chicago, but moved to Philadelphia (keeping their call letters) in 1934. KYW is one of the few stations east of the Mississippi with a K call, and one of the few stations east of the Mississippi with just a three letter K call.
CJLI “The Light” was heard one night in October 2020 on 700 kHz, a frequency were we usually hear just WLW in Cincinnati at Lista. One night the signal of CJLI in Calgary was sufficiently strong on the northern antenna to beat the signal of WLW at times. CJLI broadcasts a Christian radio format with a night time power of 20 kilowatts.
Les Moore, Assistant Program Director and also a morning host, confirmed my not so perfect audio recording with an e-mail.
A combination of the sunspot minimum and a Covid 19 lockdown took me to Lista for the second time this season. My DX companions Torgeir Nyen and Geir Fredheim, both living under strict corona restrictions in Oslo, arrived already on Saturday February 6. I wasn’t able to escape from work and family commitments untill Wednesday February 10, meaning I could only enjoy 4 nights of DX-ing before taking down out antennas on Sunday February 1
Unlike last October, when heavy rain, grazing cows and noise from wires in the lawn made DXing difficult, our main challenges this time were cold weather and grass fires. Lista enjoys a mild climate, but this time the temperature dropped down to under -10 degrees several nights. This made antenna work particularly laboriously, especially raising the bamboo sticks used for elevating our antenna wires.
Bamboo sticks in frozen ground
The antennas used this time were exactly the same as in October with a 700 metre long beverage antenna at 285 degrees directed towards the US East Coast and a 650 metre long beverage antenna at 320 degrees directed at the prairies and the West Coast of North America. In addition, we also had a shorter 300 metre long antenna aiming primarily at Spain and the UK.
We were prepared for the cold weather, but not for the grass fires. Setting fire to old grass is apparently an annual event at Lista and this time the fires came uncomfortably close to our antennas. Not only did the fires come uncomfortably close, one of them burned our grounding rod on the northern antenna. No damages to our antenna wires luckily, just a scorched grounding rod!
Unfriendly locals II: Burned grounding rod
As usual, we are preparing a DX log as a Google Docs spreadsheet. This log might very well be our most comprehensive log of all time, both thanks to an unusual long DX-pedition (one week) and an unusual spread of loggings from Argentina to the US West Coast. Many stations from Spain and the UK were also noted, so the European part of the log is also unusually large.
We had disturbed conditions during the first days of the DX-pedition. Disturbed conditions doesn’t necessarily mean poor conditions though. These days brought several unusual stations from Peru, Argentina etc., a part of South America where we seldom receive any stations at all as well as a large number of Colombians. Stations heard include 1380 Radio Andina and 1570 Radio Carráviz in Peru, 1290 Radio Murialdo and 1420 Somos Radio in Argentina and 1080 Radio Monumental in Paraguay.
The disturbance eventually disappeared, meaning that North American stations gradually took over the dials. I had hoped for an opening towards the West Coast of North America or the Prairies, but conditions definitely favoured the East Coast all the way from Newfoundland to Florida. Stations from around the Great Lakes and the Midwest were much poorer than they usually are. Very different from the conditions experienced 2 years ago, to mention one other DX-pedition. When examining our recordings, we found several highly unusual East Coast stations, including 800 WLAD Danbury CT, 980 WDDO Perry GA, 1040 WHBO Pinellas Park FL, 1040 WCHR Flemington NJ, 1480 WABF Mobile AL, 1570 WTWB Auburndale FL, 1570 WNCA Siler City NC and 1580 WHPY Clayton NC. A nice bouquet of stations indeed!
We also had a nice chat with Andy Glanning, Chief Engineer at Salem New York, who did an interview with me about DX-ing and my reception of WMCA last year for a feature he wanted to do celebrating World Radio Day on one of his other radio stations, WRHU. WRHU is a student radio station at Hofstra University in New York, but only broadcasting on FM. Andy also gave us a live tour of the station during the interview – looked a very professional radio station indeed.
Despite the many nice loggings, we left with a feeling that conditions could have been even better now at the end of the solar minimum. No Alaskans noted, not even 680 KBRW, for example. Will the solar minimum continue long enough to give interesting stations even next season? Only time will tell…
WHCU is a station which we have picked up on a number of occasions. It’s the second most common station on 870 kHz, but can of course seldom beat the 50 kilowatt transmitter of WWL in New Orleans. The night time power of WHCU is just 1 kilowatt, which is enough to compete and even beat the signal of WWL on certain occasions.
Getting a reply from WHCU has been difficult. This time, however, I received a nice fulldata QSL in PDF format from their Chief Engineer Benjamin VanPatten at Cayuga Group which owns the station. This was for a recording made last October.
WHCU broadcasts from Ithaca, New York, a city which is most known for being the home of world class Cornell University.WHCU was owned and operated by Cornell University (the call letters CU in WHCU stands for Cornell University) untill the university sold the station in 1985.
WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was heard briefly one night in October on 600 kHz. 600 kHz has become an interesting frequency after CBNA in Newfoundland shut down their transmitter on this frequency some years ago. Usually this frequency is occupied by Radio Rebelde in Cuba, but occastionally other stations can also come through.
WICC was a “first” for us in October. This is a news talk station broadcasting with a power of just 500 watts. Alln Lamberti, Program Director at the station, kindly confirmed my reception of WICC.
A surprising find when going through some of the recordings made last October was finding the signal of WCSL from Cherryville, North Carolina, on 1590 kHz. The station came up briefly one morning with a pretty clear announcement as “Carolina Country 92.3 FM 1590 AM” after playing a country song.
WCSL is a pretty rare catch. I doubt I caught them with their listed night time effect of just 30 watts though. More likely they were on their day time power using 10 kilowatts. Calvin Hastings, President of parent company KTC Broadcasting, took just 7 minutes replying to my e-mail.
HCJB is an old acquaintance of mine, a station I heard and QSLed way back when I started DXing in the 1980s. At that time, HCJB broadcast exclusively from Ecuador on shortwave. The times have changed a lot since that time of course. The large shortwave site in Ecuador has been closed, but HCJB still broadcasts on shortwave from Australia
The German branch of HCJB also broadcasts on shortwave, using low power transmitters located at Weenermoor close to the border with the Netherlands. Although transmitting with a low power of 1,5 and 3 kilowatts, the shortwave signals of HCJB from Germany are easily heard here in Norway on both 3995, 5920 and 7365 kHz. All broadcasts are in German and meant for a German audience. One might question the need for broadcasting on shortwave to Germany so I wouldn’t be surprised if the shortwave transmissions ended. HCJB also uses more modern platforms and can be heard on satellite, on an app and streaming on the Internet.
Getting a reply from the German branch of HCJB has been surprisingly difficult. HCJB has a rumour of being a very DX friendly station, but I needed 3 attempts before succeeding in getting a reply. This time, however, I received a nice packet in the mail consisting of a QSL card, a letter signed by Mark-Torsten Wardein, a CD, a mini calendar and some information about the station. This was for a report made at Lista in October 2020.
WASR was heard one evening in January 2019 on the interesting frequency of 1420 kHz. This is the only time which we have been able to catch this station, so it is not a common catch. We caught the station at 22.31 in the evening, when we suppose WASR was still using their day power of 5 kilowatts. Station Manager Eric Scott, however, says they were down to their night time power of just 37 watts at this time. Whatever the power was, we were pleased about this logging.
WASR broadcasts from Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and airs a adult hits format with some local talk programming too.
Radio Calypso is an easy catch and one of the strongest of the many new Dutch low power stations at our location. Their signal can be heard easily on 675 kHz, where it is the most common station. The station plays Dutch music, or “nostalgische piratenhits” as they describe the music played themselves. Radio Calypso has a background as a pirate station, but is now a legal station (like several other of these Dutch low power stations).
Station operator Jan confirmed my reception made last winter with an e-mail and a Word attachment. Radio Calypso has a listed output of 100 watts transmitting from the village of Oostwold near Groningen in the northern part of the country.
Arild's DX Diary 
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