Listen Sunday 28th June for SAQ Grimeton VLF long wave transmitter on 17.2 kHz

On Sunday 28th June 09.00 UTC and 12.00 UTC the Unesco world heritage Radio Station Grimeton in Varberg, Sweden - SAQ, will activate the long wave transmitter on 17.2 kHz. This is to celebrate the Alexanderson day.

There are only two regular transmissions each year from this transmitter, so don't miss this occasion.

The transmitter has no vacuum tubes or semi conductors. It's based on the inventor Evert Alexanderson alternator and was used for long distance transatlantic communication to the American continent starting 1924. The communication was made to Radio Central in Long Island, New York, USA. It has also been used for communication to Swedish submarines.  The antenna construction is based on six 127 meter high masts for the vertical antennas. The transmissions are made with morse code generated by the alternator.

The alternator based Alexanderson transmitter became obsolete in 1996 and went out of service. This was due to a more modern vacuum tube transmitter with the call sign SAC. However, because the Alexanderson transmitter was still in good condition it was declared a national monument and also later a Unesco World Heritage site.

How to listen... Since most radios does not cover the low frequency of 17.2 kHz, you can take an alternative route, using a computer with a regular PC sound card to receive VLF. This is called a SDR (Software Defined Radio). Anyone can do this and it is very straight forward.

To receive this low frequency you only need to connect an active antenna or some aerial wire to the sound card (mic-input) of your PC and to install SAQrx, a software defined VLF receiver by SM6LKM for the VLF band. SAQrx is based on a sound card control software by Johan Bodin, SM6LKM, running under Microsoft Windows. It requires a sound card capable of full duplex at 44 kHz sampling rate (can be used by most of the on board PC sound cards).


The Microphone input is connected to an aerial wire. In my case I connected it to my long wire antenna, but any wire should work fine. If you try this already today, there are several navy stations between 18 kHz and 22 kHz transmitting MFSK signal (and CW). 
The picture show the SAQrx tuned for 18.2 kHz to the Indian Naval Station VTX.


More information:

• How to configure VLF Sound Card receiver  SAQrx
• More information: The Grimeton Association - Radio Station SAQ - Society Alexander GVV
• World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station

Nature Reserve Täby Käringsjön-Mörtsjön SMFF-5819

The Nature Reserve Käringsjön-Mörtsjön in Skarpäng, Täby north of Stockholm was visited a very nice Sunday afternoon. The radio activity was from an open area in the woods. My antenna was a long wire to a pine tree and 5W SSB on 40m. It was the first time for me in this area. 





SMFF-5819 Käringsjön-Mörtsjön 
 The area is very nice and the walking path Roslagsleden passes the Natura 2000 area. Many fisher men was visiting the lake with equipment many times my backpack. Mörtsjön is very rich on fish and Mirror Carp (sv. spegelkarp) and wild carp (Cyprinus carpio). You can catch carp of 15kg and the record is 20kg. Tench (sv. Sutare) is also present with 3kg fishes. This is one of the Stockholm area best carp lakes. All is catch and release. 





 Thanks 73 & 44 Information in Swedish: https://smff.sk6ei.se/

Where not to fly - Drone chart from aviation authorities in Sweden

There are certain areas that are control areas for aviation according to Air Traffic Services - LFV. If you have a drone and want to fly, you need to respect these areas. This is a map defining where not to fly a drone / Quadcopter according to the Swedish Aviation Authorities LFV:


This is related to Swedish Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) and Flight Planning Centre (FPC. Each year there are more than 700,000 flights in Swedish airspace, drones uncounted.

Björnö Naturreservat / Nature Reserve SMFF-1037 Flora Fauna

Björnö Nature Reserve at Ingarö 30 km east of Stockholm, is a very nice recreation area by the sea. This area is part of the Stockholm Archipelago and can be reached by car or bus via a bridge. It was raining and very windy, but I had a good shelter. 

Björnö has very good walking paths and near coast tracks. There is a very nice sand beach just a 10 min walk from the parking. If you go a bit further you have a tower to climb for a nice view. Potentially it can be used as one leg for your antenna.


I also visited the inland area Långviksträsk Nature Reserve SMFF-1054 and SMFF-6128 for some radio contacts in the Flora Fauna radio sports activity.  This area is an inland water area with very nice nature.

Using 7 Watt today to the long wire. The radio conditions was good and I had many nice contacts.













Information in Swedish: https://smff.sk6ei.se/

SMFF-1098 Nacka-reservatet, Nacka Swedish Flora Fauna Radio activity

I tried to use the two 299 meter high TV / FM Radio masts in Nacka as deflectors to reach Flora Fauna radio stations. 40m band was this late afternoon reaching mostly German (DL / DF) stations and 20m gave good DX contacts. Transmitting using 5 Watt SSB on 7080 MHz and it gave good results for non Swedish stations.

The Nacka nature reserve is huge in size. I deployed my portable station west the TV transmission station and it was sunny and warm.

The Nacka nature reserve area includes small lakes, with a natural setting typical of the southern Stockholm area. There are pine trees, rocky outcrops, and wetlands with small brooks. The area is used for several outdoor activities like walking and jogging, orienteering, mountain biking, skiing, ice skating and more.

59.29750°N 18.17306°E (north mast)
59.29611°N 18.17639°E (south mast)

The Nacka transmitter was the first Swedish permanent TV transmitter. It was placed on a 56 m height 15 september 1956. The current mast was erected in 1965 and the second one 1984. The transmissions reached miljons of Stockholm inhabitants. They get more than 50 digital tv-channels, 11 analog and 8 digital FM radio channels from here.

All the best!

73 44 SM0MMC / Mikael

More information in Swedish:  https://smff.sk6ei.se/