This past weekend I was doing some SDR listening to Europirates and came across
Radio Northern Star, on 5,895 khz. A reception report, sent via their Facebook
page, brought a very quick and fully comprehensive response as follows. The
sender, Svenn Martinsen, said the station is indeed licensed and not a pirate,
saying: "We have very good relations with Norwegian Media Authorities. Much in
Norway radio-wide is focused on DAB+broadcasting. We have the AM field entirely
to ourselves. We hope to create a large international station. In November 2013
LLE-3 5895 was heard [in] Murray Harbour North, Prince Edward Island, Canada by
a dxexpedition there and a tentative in Victoria, BC shortly after. Also same
year in December at KD2OM, Victor NY, USA. We already have done a special dx
transmission for the Swedish DX-Alliansen. Would be fun to do a transmission
aimed at NA!"
Thanks so much for your reception report and your note on
Messenger. It is entirely correct!
We hereby verify your reception report
of LLE-3 Radio Northern Star 5895 kHz October 21st, 2017, at 1800 UTC.
We
were broadcasting with a converted Yaesu FT-950 50 Watts USB remotely controlled
transmitter capable of 100 watts.
This is connected to an inverted «V»
antenna.
The transmitting system is designed and constructed by LA7CFA
Øystein Ask, our Chief Engineer, and the streaming one by Olav Hardang of
Hardang Data.
On Radio Northern Star we run an Adult Contemporary
Standards and Variety format with a special section on Gospel Music and
Ministries one hour daily plus weekend mornings.
We are a licensed AM
station and we copy the web radio station there.
We also have a new
station that is currently testing. It is called The Ferry and may be found at www.theferry.cc. It runs Beautiful Music with
some variations in the weekends.
We broadcast from the site of the former
NRK AM broadcasting stations for Bergen that closed 1966 and 1978, they had the
callsigns LLE and LKB on 1115(1 KW) and 890 kHz(10 kW)
respectively.
Foreningen Bergen Kringkaster has a long-term lease on the
site, and run a club station on 1314 kHz there with a 1kW transmitter and the
callsign LLE-2.
On our 1611 frequency we have been heard in the Shetland
Islands, England, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, The Czech
Republic, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.
The listening record on 1611 at
this moment is held by a listener in Kongsfjord, Norway, 1574 kms from our
tx-QTH Grensedalen 59, Erdal, in Askøy Municipality, Northwest of Bergen, the
capital of Western Norway.
The frequency of 1611.0 is now a Norwegian
broadcasting frequency as the spectrum was formerly used by LGQ/LGB for its
LGF(1609.5/1611.5) transmissions from Bore and later Vigrestad. As you may know,
1611.0 was also used by Vatican Radio. We hope unlicensed transmissions on this
channel will move away, although we recognize the skills and talents of many
such operators, and wish them well. We are in favour of "The X-band" being used
for small-scale legal broadcasting.
On our 5895 frequency we have been
heard in 22 countries on transmissions from both Sala, Sweden and at LKB LLE:
New Zealand, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria,
Italy, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, England, Spain, France, Belgium, The
Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Most reports
indicate good signal strength and many of our listeners point out they like our
format very much!
Radio Northern Star has simple studio facilities in the
town of Straume, situated West of Bergen , Norway’s second largest and booming
city on the Norwegian Mid-Western coast.
This is a great place to be for
an international radio station. The municipalities here, such as Øygarden("The
Islands")Fjell("The Rock"),Sund("The Sound") and Askøy("Ash(tree) Island") are
often called "Region Vest", have about 50000 citizens combined and form with
Austevoll and the Sunnhordland municipalities to the South as well as with
Meland and the other Nordhordland municipalities to the North a great region for
innovation, development and growth.
The entire county of Hordaland, has
beautiful nature varying from flat, windy areas at the seafront, to wooden areas
and higher mountains inland.
Bergen, our large neighbour, has 278000
citizens. On the map, you will find the city on about 60 degrees N and 5 degrees
E. We are connected to Bergen by means of the large Sotra bridge. Bergen is well
known for musicians and composers like Ole Bull, Edvard Grieg and Harald
Sæverud, the spring music festival Festspillene, but also for many attractions
like the Fløibanen Funicular and the old King Hall of Håkonshallen.
International ferry routes and the famous coast steamer route Hurtigruten starts
there, and many cruise ships visit Bergen in the summer months.
To the
Northwest we face the North Atlantic Ocean, and to the West the equally open,
and often rough North Sea. On the horizon large tankers are going to the Stura
and Mongstad oil terminals. Through Hjeltefjorden and Korsfjorden a lot of
interesting ship traffic is passing each day. Right off the shore are also many
fish farms. Øygarden has 3 large industrial plants, Kollsnes, Stura and
Naturgassparken. Further south at Ågotnes is CCB, Coast Center Base, having
frequent visits by oil drilling rigs and supply vessels. Across the fjord is the
Hanøytangen wharf. In this area is also a lot of oil and gas-related business.
Ågotnes was also the home of the large 136 metres antenna mast of the Decca
longwave chain that our project had hoped to take over some years ago as we saw
it as a great opportunity for AM transmissions. (Unfortunately, we lost that
battle to the bureaucrats!)
Quite often, the helicopter flights of CHC
and Bristow pass over us to and from the North Sea oil fields. Bergen Airport at
Flesland has much air traffic and many routes going to and from Norwegian,
Scandinavian, European and North American destinations, flown by Norwegian, SAS
and many others. A lot of international flights towards and from North America
are passing us daily.
From some higher locations in our area we are on
clear days able to see the Troll oil and gas fields about 60 kms offshore. In
the South the snow-covered mountains of Kvinnherad may be seen, and to the north
of Gulen, in Southern Sogn. To the East we can see the lights from Bergen at
night, and in the daytime we can see the glacier Folgefonna in Hardanger, the
highest mountain of the Bergen area, the Gulfjellet, plus nearer mountains with
the Rogaland Radio(Coast radio station) VHF mast at Rundemanen, plus Ulriken
with the Norkring DAB+ and TV mast, carrying the NRK National networks, two
national commercial radio stations, our national commercial television channel
TV2(with its main center and studios in Bergen)as well as the regional programs
of NRK Hordaland(radio) and Vestlandsrevyen(TV). Also many local radio channels,
some still using the FM band are broadcasting to our area.
Please
follow
http://northernstar.cc/pdf/radio_northernstar_presentation.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/radionorthernstar/and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bergenkringkaster/
for
more pictures and information.
Please publish your reception and our
information on as many boards and lists as possible! Further signal reports are
welcomed.
We're on the air to provide good radio-so thank you for your
kind comments. Keep tuned to your no.1 entertainment!
Many thanks for
your interest in Bergen Kringkaster and Radio Northern Star!
73s and Good
DX!
Svenn Martinsen
Chief Editor/Broadcasting
Coordinator
Radio Northern Star/Northern Lights VFG 24/7
"Adult
Contemporary Standards"
Classic Melodic Pop and Rock from both sides of
the Atlantic
Ministry Programming@Voice of the Free
Gospel
www.northernstar.cc
AM 1611 AM
5895
http://radio.garden/live/bergen/radio-northern-star/
Also
TuneIn, Streema, vtuner, etc, http://www.wifiradio-frontier.com(WiFI),
and two Android apps.
The Ferry(Test transmissions)
"Beautiful
Music"
Your Beautiful Music Connection
www.theferry.cc
http://radio.garden/live/bergen/the-ferry/
Radiopresten
www.northernstar.cc/radiopresten.pdf
Northern
Star Media Services AS
Org.nr.: 912204278
Bergen
Kringkaster
LKB LLE 1314 AM 5895 FM 103,8
LA1ASK 3702+ 3725
kHz
Foreningen Bergen Kringkaster
Org.nr.: 993809055
www.bergenkringkaster.no
Box
100
N5331
RONG
NORWAY
+4756324985
+4795067890
Please
follow
http://northernstar.cc/pdf/radio_northernstar_presentation.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/radionorthernstar/and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bergenkringkaster/
for
more pictures and information.
Transmitter List:
LLE-2 1314
kHz Hercules 1 kW(at the moment 300 watts) License 1 kW
LLE-4 1611 kHz
Skanti TRP-8250 HF 250 Watts 250/70 watts License 1 kW
LLE-3 5895 kHz
Yaesu FT-950 modified 100/25 watts License 1 kW
LLE-FM/LKBN 103,8 Mhz
Omnidirectional
—
LLE-5 630 kHz Skanti Marinetta TRP1 10 watts
License 1 kW
In addition several MW and SW transmitters from 20 kW
down left on site not in operational order.
An amateur station is also
regularly in use on the site with various antennas and the call sign LA1ASK, on
3702+-/3725 kHz etc.
Antenna List:
LLE-2 1314 kHz
Comrod/Tjøstheim
LLE-4 1611 kHz Inverted V
LLE-3 5895 kHz Inverted
V
LLE-FM/LKBN 103,8 Mhz Omnidirectional
—
LLE-5
Undecided
(via Dan Robinson, Oct 23, DXLD)
