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General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: ChrisLobdell on March 22, 2014, 1714 UTC

Title: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: ChrisLobdell on March 22, 2014, 1714 UTC: When this station first came on the air back in mid-February, there were some European DXers saying that this shortwave transmitter is not in the Canary Islands but
in England/Ireland. A coup[le of European DXers claimed to have DF'd the signal to England/Ireland, but on the other hand
a QSL received said this:

"I can confirm your reception of Horizon FM on Saturday 15th February 2014 on 5780. This signal is from our transmitter site on north Tenerife with a power of 75w carrier feeding an inverted V antenna. We should have some E-QSL designs in a few days. I am building a new output stage to give around 1.1KW PEP and hope to have this finished in 3 weeks time. Kind Regards, Andy. ” It came from andy@horizon.fm . "

Early this morning I woke up around 0700 UTC, and Horizon was putting a good signal on 6245. Checking the sunrise time for Dublin, it was 0623 UTC and Tenerife is 0707 UTC.
The signal remained strong until around 0745 UTC, when it began fading and was very weak but still audible at 0801 when they signed off abruptly. The two sunrises are too close to really use them as evidence either way but on June 21st, I'd expect at least a 90 minutes earlier sunrise in Ireland then the Canary Islands.

Comments welcome.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: jFarley on March 22, 2014, 2219 UTC: Chris;

Prior to any comments, would you know what the classification of Horizon FM is? Is this considered SWBC? Is this considered a pirate?

I have to confess that I am not sure.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: ChrisLobdell on March 22, 2014, 2314 UTC: Well, if the station is in England/Ireland, it would definitely be a pirate..
Andy at Horizon FM is saying this SW station is his hobby. I doubt if he has a license to operate on shortwave.
One could then conclude any unlicensed station is a pirate station.
Sorry but I don't know any more than that.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: jFarley on March 22, 2014, 2337 UTC: Chris; that's good enough for me. I was assuming that Horizon FM has no official SW license, and is a de facto pirate.

My personal feelings are that listeners should enjoy what they are hearing, QSL if they wish, and keep the speculation as to location to minimum in public. True, things are a little different if they are not in NA. There have been other stations whose locations have been questioned recently (Pirate Radio Malta and Radio Totse come to mind) and TBH, I don't really care where they are/were actually located.

Ireland or Tenerife? Don't care, they're both good catches in Chicago!

For me, knowing that you heard a station, and that they have honored you with a QSL is more than enough.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: Beerus Maximus on March 23, 2014, 1139 UTC: There's another somewhat obscure Euro-centric pirate forum where an individual in the UK posted an SDR screenshot of the Horizon FM signal being S9+30 at an hour and a half after London sunrise. That would be an impressive feat if Horizon FM were really located in Tenerife, which is 1800 miles from London. Draw your own conclusions, I guess.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: Skipmuck on March 23, 2014, 1504 UTC: I believe that we should take what we can get in regards to shortwave broadcasters! I was really pleased with the courteous reply from Andy in regards to my report to Horizon. It was prompt and he seemed truly enthusiastic about his endeavor. I treasure the QSL regardless of the alleged retransmission of an internet based stream via a home brew shortwave transmitter possibly located in the British Isles or Ireland.
Horizon and Atlantic FM are both part of "922Media". (The link is http://www.922media.es/page2.html)
If someone wants to send a snail mail report or inquiry to Islas Canarias, here is the address....maybe that might settle the matter, but for me I'm happy with Horizon FM just being on the shortwave band!
Horizon FM
Apartado De Correos 150
38626 Valle San Lorenzo
Tenerife
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: glimmer twin on March 23, 2014, 1709 UTC: This is probably irrelevant to this discussion but on the first day that the station was on air there was along with the Horizon FM signal, God Save the Queen, popping up in the upper & lower side band. I have a recording somewhere but I forget where I put it. I was monitoring it via Twente & it was quite clear & at about the same strength as the Horizon FM signal & it moved from USB to LSB. Not sure what it means but I just thought I would mention it.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: ChrisLobdell on March 23, 2014, 1742 UTC: Great discussion. I've learnt a lot more about this station that I knew beforehand.

One of the reasons the correct location is important is for those you collect countries heard/verified would like to count this as the Canary Islands
as there are no other shortwave outlets there. Also for me, I could apply for a new QRP award with NASWA. My QSL says 75 watts, that would lower my African QRP from 750 watts to 75! :)
Thanks to all. I think I might fire off a letter to the station and see what happens!
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: jFarley on March 23, 2014, 1847 UTC: Quote from: Chris Lobdell on March 23, 2014, 1742 UTC
Great discussion. I've learnt a lot more about this station that I knew beforehand.

One of the reasons the correct location is important is for those you collect countries heard/verified would like to count this as the Canary Islands
as there are no other shortwave outlets there. Also for me, I could apply for a new QRP award with NASWA. My QSL says 75 watts, that would lower my African QRP from 750 watts to 75! :)
Thanks to all. I think I might fire off a letter to the station and see what happens!

Yes Chris, thanks for opening this up. Yours is a valid argument and I buy in to it completely.
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: Skipmuck on March 23, 2014, 1933 UTC: If anyone wants to take a look around Tenerife for the shortwave transmitter, here's a really cool coverage map of Horizon FM. Personally, I would start in the south and work my way north!
Title: Re: Is Horizon FM in Tenerife or in Ireland/England??
Post by: ChrisLobdell on March 29, 2014, 1340 UTC: Some further observations on reception conditions. Tuned in to them just around 2330 on 3-28. They were on 6205, ex-6245, although they have used 6205 in the past.
Signal was "choppy" lots of fading but averaged S-8 on the E1, I had them all the way until 0830 on the 29th when I lost all audio. The "choppiness" might point to the Ireland/England QTH as the signal route is much closer to the polar regions than a Canary Island signal route. There was a peak in signal strength around 0653 for about 5 minutes, then the signal was fairly consistent S-8 until 0800. After that it slowly faded out. Sunrises for Dublin Ireland and Tenerife are 0606, 0657 respectively.