July 2003 Transmission

 

Time again for the yearly event of MW (AM) broadcasting by Delsbo Radioklubb.

Since the year 2000 we have been broadcasting on 1602 kHz on a temporary license, normally during two weeks. Last year we were even on the air one full month using the name of Radio Dellen.

We went on the air for the first time from Thunvalls Fäx in Färila  in the summer of 2000 and made another special broadcast from the same location in 2001. Last year the transmitter – an old marine transmitter with an output power of about 50 W – was moved to the vicarage of Fredshammar in Delsbo, near the lake of Ava. An 18 m. vertical mast was erected at the site.

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JUNE 30, 2003

This year we will be using a new solid state transmitter, designed and built by Lars Molin and Rolf Larsson of Delsbo Radioklubb. The transmitter is not yet operational but we expect it to be on the air this week. Further info will be published on this site as soon as we have any new information. We will start regular transmissions at 22.00 UTC (00.00 SST) on Monday, June 30 on 1602 kHz, using the old 50 W rig and as soon as possible we will switch over to the new transmitter. We expect it to have an output power about 8-10 times that of the old rig. Also, we have added a couple of sections to the aerial mast which is now about 21 m.
Initially, we will relay Radio Ljusdal but in a couple of days we will have our own music mixes from 15.00 to 06.00 UTC . From 06 to 15 UTC (8 to 17 SST) we will carry the live programmes from Radio Ljusdal. We also plan to make a few DX-tests with club members participating and listeners are invited to phone in to the studio. Phone no is 0651 15519 within Sweden and from abroad 0046 651 15519.

Reception report can be sent to this address:

Radio Dellen
Light Valley Media
Box 90
SE-82723 Ljusdal
Sweden

You can also mail us at radiodellen2003@hotmail.com but if you would like a QSL card, please send sufficient return postage (Swedish stamps, IRC or a $ bill). E-mail reports will be verified by e-mail if we don’t receive any return postage.

That’s it for now… more info coming up soon.
73 & GOOD DX
Radio Dellen / Ronny Forslund

JULY 1, 2003

We were heard by Teemu Juurinen at Hollola, Finland at 20.30 UTC. Still using the old marine rig (power about 50 W), we have not yet received any reports from Swedish listeners although we know there are many trying to catch our signal. Keep tryin’ boys and girls!

JULY 2, 2003

If everything works as it should, Radio Dellen will switch over to the new transmitter later today Wednesday. The power output is estimated at 300-400 watts with an effectiveness of probably 50%. This should boost our signal quite a lot so you should be able to note some improvements. The transmitter incorporates a Geosonic exciter and a power amplifier made by Standard Radio. The aerial is a 21 m. vertical with a “top hat” attached to 8 radial cables and there are 14 ground radials as well.
For those of you who can read Swedish, there were two articles published on Radio Dellen today: by Hälsinglands Tidning and Ljusdals-Posten.

You can download the actual pages as pdf-files and print them out or save them on your computer. Here you will also see some pics of the merry Radio Dellen team.

Download article from Hälsinglands Tidning 

Download article from Ljusdals-Posten

JULY 3, 2003

Yes box, we finally made it! Tonight our technical wizzards finally got the new rig on the air. I was listening to Radio Dellen on my car radio last evening while driving around the Dellen area and thought the new transmitter had already been switched on as the ground wave coverage was a lot better than last year. The station temporarily went off the air just after 22.30 UTC (0.30 local time = SST) and around 1 o’clock UTC the new transmitter was switched on. The first thing you noted was the frequency stability – we are now more or less exactly on 1602 kHz as this transmitter is crystal-controlled (although some technically obsessed nitwit would probably argue that when you are 6 Hz above 1602 you’re not EXACTLY on 1602… Still, it is well within the regulations specified by the PTS who licensed the operation).
As for the transmitter it is not run on full power yet. This is because we have been experiencing problems with HF coming into the power amplifier, causing the safety circuits to shut the voltage down. However, we expect to overcome this problem by adding a new filter in a couple of days. At the moment, the power output is estimated at 130-150 watts, resulting in an effective radiated power of somewhere just below 100 watts. But it surely is an improvement from the old “iron horse” so now we are expecting lots of reports from you out there. Just write or mail as soon as you hear us.
As for special programmes, yours truly was on the air for two hours yesterday from 16-18 UTC, first with Radio Lions (produced for Lions Club, Färila) and “From Ed to Memphis” – a programme where you can hear lots of golden oldies and obscure music that you won’t hear anywhere else in the mediumwave band (or any band, for that matter). These programmes will also be on the air next week, but will be moved to another day because of other duties – more details later. I expect to have the first programme schedule of Radio Dellen ready by tomorrow Friday.
Keep listening – and GOOD DX!

JULY 4, 2003

Our transmitter is working well on 1602 kHz and reception reports have sofar been received by e-mail from the following listeners:

Jari Korhonen, Kitee, Finland
Bo Nensén, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
Anders Jonsson, Gimo, Sweden
Johan Letterstål, Stockholm, Sweden
Tore B. Vik, Mysen, Norway

Radio Dellen has also been reported heard by

Björn Fransson, Visby, Sweden
Peter Scherwat, Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
Teemu Juurinen, Hollola, Finland

We hope to receive many more reception reports so keep on listening.

Our first DX-test will go on the air at 0.00 UTC (2.00 SST) on Monday, July 7. During this programme we will also run a contest where you will be able to win various prices. We will run a special song medley with intros from various songs and it’s up to you to identify the songs and the singers. Among the prices are baseball caps, wristwatches and a one year subscription to the Swedish “Nostalgia” magazine.

On Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of July we will carry special reports from musical and touristic events in the Dellen area between 08-13 UTC (10-15 SST). These programmes will also be heard locally over the FM channels of Radio Ljusdal.

JULY 5, 2003

Today, Saturday, Peter Scherwat of Örnsköldsvik reported very good reception in Hanabäcksliden at 10.55 UTC. Obviously our signal reaches very far also in daytime. Ground wave reception in the target area – Dellenbygden – is good and the station can be heard with good quality on a car radio in an area with approx. a 20 km radius. Tomorrow we will have live reports from Delsbostämman, which is Sweden’s oldest folk music festival. Live programmes will be aired at 08-13 UTC. And don’t forget our DX-test starting at 00.00 UTC.

JULY 6, 2003, 21 UTC

Today there have many reports from Delsbostämman – Sweden’s oldest folk music festival – on Radio Dellen. It was nice to hear that so many people I met at the festival actually were listening to Radio Dellen on mediumwave, although they were not radio hobbyists. Obviously you can get people to switch over to AM if there is anything to listen to. When I went out for a meal after having covered the festival for hours, you could hear Radio Dellen loud and clear over the restaurant’s loudspeaker system. So obviously this project is attracting a lot of “ordinary” listeners, too.
In a couple of hours our DX test will go on the air and we hope the reception will be good out there. Per-Johan Nylund of Oxkangar in Finland reports a very good signal on 1602 and says he can hear us around the clock. He also mailed us an audio clip of our station ID and the quality and signal strength was impressive. If conditions are favourable we should be able to reach out very far tonight.

JULY 7, 2003

Tonight we made our first DX-test live from the studio, starting at 00.00 UTC. We were on the air for until 02.30 UTC and good reception was reported by POS in Jakobstad, Finland. We also got an e-mail from Johan Letterstål in Stockholm where we could be heard loud and clear. However, we were a bit surprised that nobody except POS phoned in. Hopefully, some of you reported the programme. We will make another attempt tomorrow Tuesday July 8th and we will then start at 18.00 UTC (20.00 UTC). From 16-18 UTC (18-20 SST) there will be the Lions Hour on behalf of the Lions Club, Färila and “From Ed to Memphis” – a programme with a wide variety of music you don’t hear every day. The absolute contrast to Rix and NRJ, you could say… Both shows are presented by yours truly.
Just a reminder about our musical contest, which is presented in cooperation with the Swedish Nostalgia magazine. During the programme our “MagicalMysteryMedley” will be played now and then. The medley consists of intros of five different songs (all classic hits) and we would like to know the name of the songs and the artists. You can phone us directly during the show at +46 651 15519 (0651 15519 within Sweden) or mail your answers toradiodellen2003@hotmail.com . Five winners will be drawn among the correct entries and you can win a one year subscription to Nostalgia magazine, baseball caps or a wristwatch – all sponsored by Nostalgia magazine.
That’s it for now – keep on listening and have a real nice summer out there.

JULY 8, 15.00 UTC

Now we have actually been heard in Germany! Hartmut Wolff of Dortmund reports hearing us around midnight 6-7 July and according to the soundclips he sent in, the reception was fair. Also, a new report from Finland sent in by Jussi Soukas in Joensuu, North Carelia. He also mailed us a soundclip showing quite a good signal until it was drowned by other stations.
In a few hours, our second DX-test will go on the air. As usual, we have guests in the studio and we will also talk to a very famous artist who also has an interesting background in radio. For several decades he has been known as one of the foremost musicians in his particular field. Who he is? Tune in and you’ll see… He even backed Edith Piaf in Paris once and has also worked together with one of the Marx Brothers.
And don’t forget our musical quiz: we will play our MagicalMysteryMedley some times during the show and you can win various prizes by identifying the artists and the songtitles (five different song intros will be played in the medley).
All in all, I think that this will be an interesting evening. Do tune in!

JULY 9-10

On Tuesday, July 8, we were on the air with a DX-test from 18 to 20 UTC. At the end of the test, Peter Stillberg of Delsbo Radioclub presented a programme of contemporary Christian music. We also talked to Magnus Wiberg at Teracom – the company responsible for the transmitters used by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Sweden – and he had a lot to tell about the DRM technique and the future of SW broadcasting in general.
We also had a living musical legend on the show: piano boogie man Charlie Norman, who’s been rollin’ the boogie since 1937! It’s interesting to note that just two years before he started, another famous piano man was born in Ferriday, Louisiana. This man was forever going to change the history of rock music together with his colleagues at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Yes, that’s the Killer himself… Jerry Lee Lewis!
Charlie Norman has been constantly touring and recording ever since 1937. This gentleman will be 83 in October this year, but he is still very active. He participated in one of the first television broadcasts from Paris, appearing with Edith Piaf, and he also worked with Chico Marx – the piano man of the Marx Brothers. At one time, Charlie asked Chico if his brother Harpo really was unable to talk. “No, at least not when he’s missed a putt at the golf course” Chico answered.
Charlie Norman also has had an interesting career in radio. During most of the 50s he had his own radio shows on Sweden’s state radio Radiotjänst, which only had one channel at the time. He was on the air both in the mornings as “Early Bird” and in the evenings as “Night Owl”. In 1952, Charlie became involved in the first experiment with commercial radio beamed at Sweden which was made by the Swedish radio factory Dux Radio, who bought air time on Radio Africa in Tangier, North Africa. Programmes in Swedish were broadcasted over a 10 kW SW transmitter in the 41 mb (7.126 kHz) and on the first day on the air, Dux Radio was jammed by furious hams who saw the new station as an intruder of the amateur bands. However, during the late 50s Charlie’s programmes on Dux Radio became very popular with the Swedish audience and continued until the international territory of Tangier was taken over by Morocco and all private stations had to close.
Charlie Norman is still very active today and in the programme he told about his recent appearance at a Finnish music festival. He is also working on a new CD and has just bought a Pontiac Trans AM.
“Nice to hear that V8 sound again” he commented.
This was a very inspiring interview, where we got many interesting stories from a living music legend – just 82 years young. There’s still hope, folks…

JULY 14

This evening we will be running our last DX-test, starting at 18.00 UTC (20.00 SST) and it will be four hours long, lasting until 22.00 UTC (midnight SST). Then Radio Dellen will switch off the transmitter for this time.

You are all invited to phone us in the studio (+46 651 15519, within Sweden 0651 15519) and we would be glad to receive your reception reports. If you want to talk with us on the air, you are msot welcome to do so.

As usual, we will have guests in the studio. Many members of Delsbo Radioklubb (DRAK) will be attending and Ulf Olsson will present a selection of many obscure songs from his collection. Also, there will be some prominent guests on the show via telephone.

During the show you can mail us at radiodellen2003@hotmail.com  or fax us at +46 651 16946 (within Sweden 0651 16946).

Be sure to tune in for our final four hours on the air this summer.

JULY 15, 2003

So that’s it for this time. Our last transmission for this summer went on the air last night at 18-22 UTC and in the studio were Ronny Forslund, Ulf Olsson, Erik Olsson, Dan Andersson, Rolf Larsson, Jan Edh and Lars Molin. During the first half of the show, Ulf Olsson (who is the vicar of  Delsbo) presented a very personal programme with reflections on many aspects of life and shared some personal memories with us. He also presented a lot of obscure music, ranging from Spike Jones to Bill Haley & Comets, from military marches to folk songs from the Swedish speaking parts of Finland. One of the guests on the show was Bengt Feldreich – famous Swedish radio and TV personality and also a radio hobbyist since the 1930s. He started as a DX-er and during the interview he told us a lot of his career in broadcasting, starting as an announcer with the Radio Sweden external service in 1950. Perhaps most Swedes remember him as the Swedish voice of Jiminy Cricket, where he also sang a part of ‘When you wish upon a star’ in a key that wasn’t exactly suited to his voice… For several years, most of Sweden were sitting in front of their TV sets waiting to hear ‘Jiminy’ interpreted by Bengt Feldreich. Today, Bengt is retired and an active  ham.
We also had a real radio pioneer on the show: entrepreneur Nils-Eric Svensson of Landskrona, who launched Skånes Radio Mercur in 1958 by buying airtime over Radio Mercur – Europe’s first commercial offshore station, which began broadcasting from the small m/v Cheeta in the Sound between Denmark and Sweden in July that year. NES (as he is generally known) had a lot of interesting memories to tell about setting up the first Swedish offshore station. This he did after returning back from the USA where he had been studying TV production at the UCLA and Pasadena Playhouse for two years. A short spell at the Swedish Television in Stockholm did not prove to be what he had expected and so he left to start his own radio station. He left Radio Mercur (and Sweden) in 1961, as the government was preparing an anti-pirate bill which they hoped would put an end to this form of radio. Incidentally, Radio Mercur was to survive and prosper for another four years, under the name of Radio Syd and run by Britt Wadner – known in Sweden as ‘The Pirate Queen’. NES returned to the USA where he was active in the entertainment industry for several years and later he has been involved in marketing Swedish products. He still visits his native Sweden each summer and this year, one of his early projects, the One O’Clock Jump event celebrated its 50th anniversary (more details on http://www.oneoclockjump.se  ).
NES also told us about his plans to broadcast TV from the high seas and from a couple of Super Constellation aircrafts – a project which never materialized (or, at least, hasn’t done so yet). He is still very active and looking forward to new projects and one of his visions is creating a pure jazz channel. Who knows – maybe we will soon see a pirate ship in the Sound, broadcasting jazz music 24 hours a day. More about Radio Mercur can be found at Göran Carlsson’s excellent radio page at http://home4.swipnet.se/~w-41748/  Here you can also listen to a lot of soundclips from Radio Mercur and other Scandinavian offshore stations.
From Landskrona comes also one of Sweden’s top female performers who has been singing, touring and recording since the mid-1950s. Siw Malmkvist, who also has made a big career on the European continent, especially in Germany, was also to be on the show. An interview was recorded, but due to some imperfection in one of the soundfiles, we decided not to broadcast it. Hopefully, we will be able to broadcast it next time.
A couple of well-known Swedish DX-ers also appeared on the show: Bengt Ericsson, Växjö, who founded the Arctic Radio Club in the early 60s and Bosse Olofsson, well-known MW-DX-er for decades. Bengt told us about his work for the World Radio TV Handbook: members of the Arctic radio Club are doing a great job of compiling frequency lists and correcting information. During the 1960s the club also produced several radio programmes which were broadcasted over foreign radio stations, mainly Spanish mediumwawe stations, but also other stations, such as offshore station Radio Caroline. Arctic Radio Club is specialized in mediumwave-DX-ing and the members today are few but very active. The club is even planning their own event mediumwave station – just like Radio Dellen. We’re definitely looking forward to see that happen.
Bosse Olofsson told us about his experiences in DX-ing and mainly listening to North American AM-stations. Today, he has heard well over 1.500 North American stations on MW and is still very active in the dark time of the year. He also has an excellent website with tons of info for MW-enthusiasts: go tohttp://w1.912.telia.com/~u91202503

That’s it for now. We at Radio Dellen wish to thank you all for your response and we can assure you that it has been great fun broadcasting these two weeks. Next time, we will be on the air at the end of September 2003, as Delsbo Radioklubb celebrates its 30th anniversary.

73 from the Radio Dellen team / Ronny Forslund

Below is our great spiritual leader, Chairman Dan – ready to lead his DRAK troops on the road to new victories on the airwaves…

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