Monday, February 16, 2015

Special QSL of the Week: SQOTW28



Short Term Jamming Transmission

Thomas Drescher in Rosrath, Germany, tells us that he also has received a QSL card from a jamming transmission.  Back in the 1970s, there were several pirate radio stations operating aboard ships anchored in open waters in the North Sea with programming beamed to various countries in islandic and continental Europe.  One of these ships was the Mebo 2 with on air programming under the identification RNI, Radio Nordsee International, beamed to England and Holland, though their programming at that stage was in English and German.
  
The 10 kW shortwave channel for RNI was 6210 kHz though for a few days this transmitter channel was adjusted slightly to 6215 kHz.  The Maritime Radio Station, Radio Rogaland, located towards the southern tip of Norway, claimed that RNI was broadcasting on a Radio Rogaland channel and so they jammed the programming from the pirate radio ship. The continuous loop tape message in English from Radio Rogaland stated:
  
This is a transmission from the Norwegian coast station Rogaland Radio operating in  single side band mode, upper side band, with a carrier frequency of 6215.0 kHz. The purpose of this transmission is to clear the channel of unauthorized and out of band  broadcasting, to improve reception conditions for ships wishing to communicate with  coast stations on this frequency or on adjacent maritime channels.

Thomas Drescher sent a reception report regarding the jamming transmission to Radio Rogaland in Norway, and he received a QSL in response.  The handwritten QSL text was inscribed on the back of a photograph depicting two radio officers on duty at the control panels of Radio Rogaland.  The QSL text verified the reception of Radio Rogaland on July 8, 1970. 
 (AWR-Wavescan/NWS 312)