RADIO DELLEN

Radio Dellen from Delsbo is on the air on MW 1602 kHz 24 hours a day with relay of Radio Ljusdal live programmes 06-15 UTC (08-17 SST) daily. Power is estimated at 100 W ERP and we will be un the air until 22.00 UTC (00.00 SST) on Monday, July 14.

Reception report can be sent to this address:

Radio Dellen
Light Valley Media
Box 90
SE-82723 Ljusdal
Sweden

You can also mail us at radiodellen2003@hotmail.com but if you would like a QSL card, please send sufficient return postage (Swedish stamps, IRC or a $ bill). E-mail reports will be verified by e-mail if we don't receive any return postage.

73 & GOOD DX
Radio Dellen / Ronny Forslund

What happened the first week? Read our diary.

JULY 7, 2003

Tonight we made our first DX-test live from the studio, starting at 00.00 UTC. We were on the air for until 02.30 UTC and good reception was reported by POS in Jakobstad, Finland. We also got an e-mail from Johan Letterstål in Stockholm where we could be heard loud and clear. However, we were a bit surprised that nobody except POS phoned in. Hopefully, some of you reported the programme. We will make another attempt tomorrow Tuesday July 8th and we will then start at 18.00 UTC (20.00 UTC). From 16-18 UTC (18-20 SST) there will be the Lions Hour on behalf of the Lions Club, Färila and "From Ed to Memphis" - a programme with a wide variety of music you don't hear every day. The absolute contrast to Rix and NRJ, you could say... Both shows are presented by yours truly.
Just a reminder about our musical contest, which is presented in cooperation with the Swedish Nostalgia magazine. During the programme our "MagicalMysteryMedley" will be played now and then. The medley consists of intros of five different songs (all classic hits) and we would like to know the name of the songs and the artists. You can phone us directly during the show at +46 651 15519 (0651 15519 within Sweden) or mail your answers to radiodellen2003@hotmail.com . Five winners will be drawn among the correct entries and you can win a one year subscription to Nostalgia magazine, baseball caps or a wristwatch - all sponsored by Nostalgia magazine.
That's it for now - keep on listening and have a real nice summer out there.

JULY 8, 15.00 UTC

Now we have actually been heard in Germany! Hartmut Wolff of Dortmund reports hearing us around midnight 6-7 July and according to the soundclips he sent in, the reception was fair. Also, a new report from Finland sent in by Jussi Soukas in Joensuu, North Carelia. He also mailed us a soundclip showing quite a good signal until it was drowned by other stations.
In a few hours, our second DX-test will go on the air. As usual, we have guests in the studio and we will also talk to a very famous artist who also has an interesting background in radio. For several decades he has been known as one of the foremost musicians in his particular field. Who he is? Tune in and you'll see... He even backed Edith Piaf in Paris once and has also worked together with one of the Marx Brothers.
And don't forget our musical quiz: we will play our MagicalMysteryMedley some times during the show and you can win various prizes by identifying the artists and the songtitles (five different song intros will be played in the medley).
All in all, I think that this will be an interesting evening. Do tune in!

JULY 9-10

On Tuesday, July 8, we were on the air with a DX-test from 18 to 20 UTC. At the end of the test, Peter Stillberg of Delsbo Radioclub presented a programme of contemporary Christian music. We also talked to Magnus Wiberg at Teracom - the company responsible for the transmitters used by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Sweden - and he had a lot to tell about the DRM technique and the future of SW broadcasting in general.
We also had a living musical legend on the show: piano boogie man Charlie Norman, who's been rollin' the boogie since 1937! It's interesting to note that just two years before he started, another famous piano man was born in Ferriday, Louisiana. This man was forever going to change the history of rock music together with his colleagues at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. Yes, that's the Killer himself... Jerry Lee Lewis!
Charlie Norman has been constantly touring and recording ever since 1937. This gentleman will be 83 in October this year, but he is still very active. He participated in one of the first television broadcasts from Paris, appearing with Edith Piaf, and he also worked with Chico Marx - the piano man of the Marx Brothers. At one time, Charlie asked Chico if his brother Harpo really was unable to talk. "No, at least not when he's missed a putt at the golf course" Chico answered.
Charlie Norman also has had an interesting career in radio. During most of the 50s he had his own radio shows on Sweden's state radio Radiotjänst, which only had one channel at the time. He was on the air both in the mornings as "Early Bird" and in the evenings as "Night Owl". In 1952, Charlie became involved in the first experiment with commercial radio beamed at Sweden which was made by the Swedish radio factory Dux Radio, who bought air time on Radio Africa in Tangier, North Africa. Programmes in Swedish were broadcasted over a 10 kW SW transmitter in the 41 mb (7.126 kHz) and on the first day on the air, Dux Radio was jammed by furious hams who saw the new station as an intruder of the amateur bands. However, during the late 50s Charlie's programmes on Dux Radio became very popular with the Swedish audience and continued until the international territory of Tangier was taken over by Morocco and all private stations had to close.
Charlie Norman is still very active today and in the programme he told about his recent appearance at a Finnish music festival. He is also working on a new CD and has just bought a Pontiac Trans AM.
"Nice to hear that V8 sound again" he commented.
This was a very inspiring interview, where we got many interesting stories from a living music legend - just 82 years young. There's still hope, folks...

JULY 14

This evening we will be running our last DX-test, starting at 18.00 UTC (20.00 SST) and it will be four hours long, lasting until 22.00 UTC (midnight SST). Then Radio Dellen will switch off the transmitter for this time.

You are all invited to phone us in the studio (+46 651 15519, within Sweden 0651 15519) and we would be glad to receive your reception reports. If you want to talk with us on the air, you are msot welcome to do so.

As usual, we will have guests in the studio. Many members of Delsbo Radioklubb (DRAK) will be attending and Ulf Olsson will present a selection of many obscure songs from his collection. Also, there will be some prominent guests on the show via telephone.

During the show you can mail us at radiodellen2003@hotmail.com  or fax us at +46 651 16946 (within Sweden 0651 16946).

Be sure to tune in for our final four hours on the air this summer.

JULY 15, 2003

So that's it for this time. Our last transmission for this summer went on the air last night at 18-22 UTC and in the studio were Ronny Forslund, Ulf Olsson, Erik Olsson, Dan Andersson, Rolf Larsson, Jan Edh and Lars Molin. During the first half of the show, Ulf Olsson (who is the vicar of  Delsbo) presented a very personal programme with reflections on many aspects of life and shared some personal memories with us. He also presented a lot of obscure music, ranging from Spike Jones to Bill Haley & Comets, from military marches to folk songs from the Swedish speaking parts of Finland. One of the guests on the show was Bengt Feldreich - famous Swedish radio and TV personality and also a radio hobbyist since the 1930s. He started as a DX-er and during the interview he told us a lot of his career in broadcasting, starting as an announcer with the Radio Sweden external service in 1950. Perhaps most Swedes remember him as the Swedish voice of Jiminy Cricket, where he also sang a part of 'When you wish upon a star' in a key that wasn't exactly suited to his voice... For several years, most of Sweden were sitting in front of their TV sets waiting to hear 'Jiminy' interpreted by Bengt Feldreich. Today, Bengt is retired and an active  ham.
We also had a real radio pioneer on the show: entrepreneur Nils-Eric Svensson of Landskrona, who launched Skånes Radio Mercur in 1958 by buying airtime over Radio Mercur - Europe's first commercial offshore station, which began broadcasting from the small m/v Cheeta in the Sound between Denmark and Sweden in July that year. NES (as he is generally known) had a lot of interesting memories to tell about setting up the first Swedish offshore station. This he did after returning back from the USA where he had been studying TV production at the UCLA and Pasadena Playhouse for two years. A short spell at the Swedish Television in Stockholm did not prove to be what he had expected and so he left to start his own radio station. He left Radio Mercur (and Sweden) in 1961, as the government was preparing an anti-pirate bill which they hoped would put an end to this form of radio. Incidentally, Radio Mercur was to survive and prosper for another four years, under the name of Radio Syd and run by Britt Wadner - known in Sweden as 'The Pirate Queen'. NES returned to the USA where he was active in the entertainment industry for several years and later he has been involved in marketing Swedish products. He still visits his native Sweden each summer and this year, one of his early projects, the One O'Clock Jump event celebrated its 50th anniversary (more details on http://www.oneoclockjump.se  ).
NES also told us about his plans to broadcast TV from the high seas and from a couple of Super Constellation aircrafts - a project which never materialized (or, at least, hasn't done so yet). He is still very active and looking forward to new projects and one of his visions is creating a pure jazz channel. Who knows - maybe we will soon see a pirate ship in the Sound, broadcasting jazz music 24 hours a day. More about Radio Mercur can be found at Göran Carlsson's excellent radio page at http://home4.swipnet.se/~w-41748/  Here you can also listen to a lot of soundclips from Radio Mercur and other Scandinavian offshore stations.
From Landskrona comes also one of Sweden's top female performers who has been singing, touring and recording since the mid-1950s. Siw Malmkvist, who also has made a big career on the European continent, especially in Germany, was also to be on the show. An interview was recorded, but due to some imperfection in one of the soundfiles, we decided not to broadcast it. Hopefully, we will be able to broadcast it next time.
A couple of well-known Swedish DX-ers also appeared on the show: Bengt Ericsson, Växjö, who founded the Arctic Radio Club in the early 60s and Bosse Olofsson, well-known MW-DX-er for decades. Bengt told us about his work for the World Radio TV Handbook: members of the Arctic radio Club are doing a great job of compiling frequency lists and correcting information. During the 1960s the club also produced several radio programmes which were broadcasted over foreign radio stations, mainly Spanish mediumwawe stations, but also other stations, such as offshore station Radio Caroline. Arctic Radio Club is specialized in mediumwave-DX-ing and the members today are few but very active. The club is even planning their own event mediumwave station - just like Radio Dellen. We're definitely looking forward to see that happen.
Bosse Olofsson told us about his experiences in DX-ing and mainly listening to North American AM-stations. Today, he has heard well over 1.500 North American stations on MW and is still very active in the dark time of the year. He also has an excellent website with tons of info for MW-enthusiasts: go to http://w1.912.telia.com/~u91202503

That's it for now. We at Radio Dellen wish to thank you all for your response and we can assure you that it has been great fun broadcasting these two weeks. Next time, we will be on the air at the end of September 2003, as Delsbo Radioklubb celebrates its 30th anniversary. For further info about this and about the club: check our our clubs website at http://hem.passagen.se/drak  (sorry about the silly pop-ups - this is the disadvantage of using 'free' web hosting services... If you have some comments, suggestions or whatever for coming broadcasts of Radio Dellen, please mail me at info@rock.x.se  The temporary Radio Dellen account will be closed down soon (I have no intention of upgrading the account: Bill Gates is already rich enough as it is... :-) )

73 from the Radio Dellen team / Ronny Forslund

Below is our great spiritual leader, Chairman Dan - ready to lead his DRAK troops on the road to new victories on the airwaves...





P.S. As music and DX-ing often goes hand in hand, why not check out my vinyl pages? Here you find thousands of vinyl records for sale. Prices are in Swedish Crowns (SEK). Just click on the links below and mark the titles you want, copy them and paste them into a separate document or a mail which you then mail to info@rock.x.se  You can also download the complete list as an rtf file (works with both PC and Mac) from http://www.rock.x.se/SKIVLISTA.rtf 

You will be able to hear a lot of music from these pages on Radio Dellen. The following categories are available:

50's/60's singles, Instrumental singles, Scandinavian singles, Swedish singles, 70's-90's singles, heavy singles, EP:s, unplayed EP:s, 12" maxi singles, ABBA & related, Beach Boys, Beatles & related, David Bowie, Cliff & Shadows, Elvis, Eurovision Song Contest, Rolling Stones & related, Roxette & Related, 50's-60's albums, 70's-90's albums, heavy albums, country albums, soul & blues albums, instrumental albums, Swedish albums, jazz albums, soundtracks & compilation albums, Frank Zappa, bargain section (cheapies) Magazines

Payment: The best method is actually sending cash in reg. letter. Bank drafts or any cheques are too expensive to cash here for amounts under SEK 1000 (US$150).Another possibility is sending the money to my postal giro account no. 475 78 84 - 4 (Ronny Forslund). In this case, please add SEK40/$6 to cover the giro charges. You can also send an International Money Order which you buy at your local post office, but please avoid bank drafts and cheques for amounts under SEK1000/$150 (or, better still, order together with some friends to get a larger order). You can also pay by credit card through PayPal - just state my mail info@rock.x.se when submitting your details.


Foreign customers please send a mail and I will tell you what's still available. Don't send any money in advance. Svenska kunder kan som vanligt beställa per telefon 0176/93259 eller mobil 070/558 0661. Skivorna sänds mot postförskott om inget annat överenskommes.

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