Thursday, March 19, 2015

Special QSL of the Week


Temporary Feeder Link

International radio monitor Andreas Lubnow in Bodenteich Germany tells us the story of his interesting QSL letter from Radio Netherlands.  Back on December 19, 1981, Andreas was listening on his shortwave radio to the communication frequency 24040 kHz.  This station, located near Rambouillet in France, was operated by the French Post Office and at the time it was carrying a program feed on behalf of Radio Netherlands in Hilversum, Holland. 
            For a period of three weeks, the Intelsat downlink equipment that received the normal satellite feed from Radio Netherlands to its then relay station at Antananarivo on the island of Madagascar was undergoing a period of scheduled maintenance.  During this time, Radio Netherlands took out a relay via a 30 kW SSB single side band transmitter at Rambouillet, some 20 miles south west of Paris in order to relay the programming from the studios in Holland to the transmitter in Madagascar.

            The QSL Form Letter received by Andreas Lubnow in Germany verifies the temporary programming relay via the communication transmitter in France, it was signed by Jonathan Marks who was DX Editor at Radio Netherlands at the time, and the letter is numbered in sequence as Limited Edition Verification No 120.     
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 317)