From the initial feedback to longwave@dxlc.com, we've learned that the special broadcast on the 6th was received as far as 1500 km away on the Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea and on New Foundland, Canada, around 4500 km away! In the next few weeks we expect to receive further reception reports via regular mail, and a summary will be published here by the end of the month. QSLs will be printed and returned to all of you who provide us with a correct reception report. Please allow us 2 months to do so!
Your feedback is still wanted to longwave@dxlc.com. We have already presented some of the comments we received during the broadcast, but will update this site with further comments!
Ingøy Kringkaster (The Ingøy transmitter station) has been equipped with a new 100 kW Telefunken transmitter remotely controlled from Norway's AM control center at Kvitsøy. The antenna mast is among the tallest manmade constructions in Europe, and definitely the tallest on Norwegian soil. It is a 362 meter high steel construction.
Including stays it weighs more than
300 tons. Surrounding the mast, 44 km of copper cables have been spread to form the best
possible earthing. The station has its own 600 kW generator to provide sufficient power to
both the station and all the homes on Ingøy during power failures from the mainland. In
rough winters this is not uncommon. The total cost of Ingøy Kringkaster is estimated
around 25 million NOK (2.75 million USD). Ingøy Kringkaster, like the rest of the Norwegian AM-transmitters will carry the NRK Europakanalen programme. This is a mixture of domestic channels P1, P2 and P3, a daily hour of Radio Norway International, and some exclusive weather forecasts. Apart from Kvitsøy, the other AM'ers in addition to Europakanalen relay regional programmes from their area. Ingøy Kringkaster will include programmes from NRK Finnmark in Vadsø. The old mediumwave transmitter in Vadsø on 702 kHz (20 kW) will be closed by the end of the year.
Ingøy is located at 71°06'N, 23°50'E. It is almost as far north as North Cape, which is 65 km to the east of Ingøy. Ingøy was an important trading port in the 16th century and is home to the world's northernmost manned lighthouse, Fruholmen Fyr. This is also an important meteorological station. It holds the Norwegian record with 257 days in a year with gale force winds or stronger. Ingøy is part of Måsøy Kommune (Community of Måsøy). The total population of Ingøy is only 40-50 persons. Up to WWII, Ingøy had its own coastal radio station, Ingøy Radio, located not far from the current LW-site. Ingøy Radio was destroyed during the war and not repaired.
The building of a new high powered AM-station in northern Norway is the result of
decades of lobbying from pressure groups. The 1978 Geneva frequency plan brought changes
to the usage of medium and longwave in Norway. Until then a few highpowered transmitters
and a large number of low powered fillers were used to cover the country. By the mid 70s
the network of VHF- transmitters basically had replaced AM for domestic broadcasting, and
the new frequency plan eliminated all the AM fillers and boosted power of a few remaining
allocations, which were primarily intended for reaching remote parts of the country,
neighbouring countries and the oceans surrounding the country.
The first superpowerstation was built,
Kvitsøy with its 1.2 megawatt transmitter on 1314 kHz. Then NRK decided not to persue
their usage of AM, and gradually closed 216 kHz in Oslo and 153 kHz in Tromsø without
replacing them with the proposed new high power plants. Pressure for a better radio
coverage of the Arctic oceans where Norwegian fishery is still an important industry have
never ended, and eventually NRK, together with the Ministry of Fisheries, entered a long
term agreement with Norwegian transmission facilities provider Norkring to rent
transmission time on a new longwave transmitter in the county of Finnmark. Stage one
of this plan was completed last spring with the old 675 kHz transmitter at Bodø being
replaced by a new 20 kW unit on the island of Røst improving reception along the
northwestern coast, and now Ingøy will improve the coverage of the Barents Sea
immensely. Ingøy Kringkaster will provide a daytime signal almost reaching
Spitsbergen. (Spitsbergen has its own mediumwave transmitter on 1485 kHz).
The usage of 153 kHz elsewhere in Europe and Asia will naturally affect reception possibilities of Ingøy in these areas, but a good antenna and a fair portion of luck could bring unexpected results! The lack of longwave broadcasting in North America should make it possible to receive the signal at least along the east coast of Canada and the USA.
According to WRTH-2000 the following stations transmit on 153 kHz:
Bechar, Algeria 1.000 kW
Bod, Romania 1.200 kW
Donebach, Germany 500 kW
Taldom, Russia 300 kW
Ufa, Russia 300 kW
Komsomolsk, Russia 1.200 kW
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 500 kW
The reactivation of Taldom on August 28 means all are likely to be operational, so we are interested to learn how these stations interfere with Ingøy. Also your observations concerning sign ons and sign offs for those not operating 24 hours are useful to us. We know Taldom close around 2100.
Pictures captured this week by Otto Jan Waage, Norkring.
Although Radio Norway International normally do not QSL, this one-off broadcast from Ingøy Kringkaster will entitle you to a special QSL-card provided you send us a detailed reception report. Reports may be sent by ordinary mail or electronically. Please allow 2 months handling of your report (we will print QSLs when we know how many reports we got!) Return postage is appreciated. For those of you collecting stamps, we can reveal that we plan to mail the QSLs postmarked 9672 Ingøy.
Reports should be adressed to Radio Norway International, N-0340 Oslo, Norway
or to DX Listeners' Club, P.O.Box 7080 Vestheiene, N-4674 Kristiansand, Norway
by e-mail to: radionorway@nrk.no or:longwave@dxlc.com
Useful links (pages mainly in norwegian):
Homepage of Måsøy Kommune: http://www.masoy.kommune.no/
Norsk radiohistorisk forening : http://www.nrhf.no/
NRK: http://www.nrk.no/radionorway/
Norkring: http://www.norkring.no
This is how NRK
Finnmark presents the new transmitter
And nrk.no