History Radio Bloemendaal, the Netherlands

[PA0NVD]

Radio Bloemendaal is a transmitter from a church in the village Bloemendaal and may be the first transmitter as such in the Netherlands
The church got a license 14 June 1924 to transmit with 100 Watts at 200 meter wavelength. But the first transmitter could not do that and was tuned at 600 Meters. The church didn't wait long and the next day the transmitter was located in the church tower and the first official transmission was  done Sunday 15 June The frequency was later adjusted to 300 - 340 meter in order to come "closer" to the frequency in their licence. There is not much known about the type of transmitter. In 1934, the transmitter was substituted by a 100 Watt Bell Telephone transmitter  at 245 meter wavelength. When the war started, the control of the transmitter was taken over by the Germans and they stopped the transmissions in 1943. There were no more radios in he Netherlands, they confiscated and destroyed all (they thought   )
In 1944 the transmitter was confiscated and did disappear for ever.
After he war in 1948, the church got a new licence and bought a Philips KSFH 075 transmitter. that was used up to end 1979 By than, the government of the Netherlands did reorganize the frequencies and the new frequency became  1116 kHz,  269 meter wavelength, which the KSFH 075 could not do. So the church looked for a low cost solution and bought 6 x  50 Watts Philips transmitters SFZ 395/00 transmitters/ Two were modified to transmit at 1116 kHz These transmitter were designed for general purpose and ship use and run from 1.5 - 30 MHz They are very reliable and beautifully constructed transmitters The four non modified transmitters were spare ones. The SFZ 395 did serve well until 1995 when the church got a new licence and installed a Harris Gates One transmitter with 500 Watt carrier power. Unfortunately, some people started wining aout the ugly antenna towers and even went to court. The final outcome is that the towers should be removed in 2019. That will be the end of a historic transmitter, Radio Bloemendaal will not make a full 100 years Why are there so many people wining about little things and destroying someones hobby, life  and more?
When the church didn't use the SFZ 395 no more, They gave one of the spares to me because I helped them out sometimes with some technical problems. That is now my main AM transmitter.

[WA2SQQ]

Very Interesting. Do they broadcast in English? Do you know of any nearby (on line) SDR receivers that can receive it? I'd like to listen.

[PA0NVD]

There is a wide range SDR in the east of the Netherlands, but I think that a little too far. I will investigate and come back to it
They only transmit in Dutch, it is mainly for the older and sick people that are not able to come to the church on Sunday.

[PA0NVD]

Op this site you can listen to the transmissions of several dates. It is if you have missed the transmission but wants to hear it.

http://www.radiobloemendaal.nl/gemist

[WA2SQQ]

Thanks. Someone should document this in photos before it becomes history.

[W2PFY]

Unfortunately, some people started whining about the ugly antenna towers and even went to court

I agree with SQQ, Could you please post pictures of the church and it's towers?  The problem with many tower sites is that when they were first built, the land that they occupied
was way out in the country with no one except farmers using the land. As the population grew, so did the complaints   This is a universal problem no matter what country they are installed in if it's a free country. My guess is that in Russia, there are few complaints about antenne locations?

[N1BCG]

Hartelijk groeten, Nico!

This is one of my favorite topics given my heritage and interest in radio. Here are some Radio Bloemendaal pix (note the two bay FM vertical dipoles):







The station also experienced a failure of their "T" antenna due to severe winter weather:

The Dutch legacy medium wave station Radio Bloemendaal [1116 kHz] is off the air again. On 18 January 2018 a storm destroyed the antenna masts of Radio Bloemendaal. On 23 February the station returned to the air, but due to problems with the antenna matching, they had to use the low power 50 Watt reserve transmitter. On 25 March this transmitter broke. Radio Bloemendaal first went on the air in 1924 to relay religious services from a local church.





In May 2016, it was formally announced that 747, 828, 1035, 1251, and 1395 kHz (previously used by full-power stations) would have a maximum transmission power of 100 watts, while 1485 kHz would have a maximum transmission power of 1 watt. Perhaps they'll apply for and be granted a low power license.

This pretuned SDR link receives Bloemendaal, albeit faintly:

http://kiwi-sdr1-leiden.impactam.nl:8073/?f=1116.00amz10

[PA0NVD]

That are very nice photo's you found, THANKS
Here a few links more. The last one a document from the radio museum with the history of Radio Bloemendaal en some fotos. Fortunately this history has been documented. But it is in Dutch

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/radio-bloemendaal
https://1940-1945.bloemendaal.nl/index.php?id=40
http://www.omroepzendermuseum.nl/images/stories/museum/site/nieuwsbrief/OZM%20Nieuwsbrief%20nr29%20Mrt15.pdf

Here is a WebSDR in the east of the netherlands. Sometimes it is possible to hear Radio Bloemendaal, but not very often, Radio Bloemendaal is at the west part of the Netherlands.
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

[Steve - K4HX]

That three wire T harks back to amateur radio of the 1920s.

[WA2SQQ]

I'm sure that every city has similar stories where local radio played a part of the development in some way. Might make for an interesting discussion.

[PA0NVD]

Indeed so. I did live in Zandvoort in the Netherlands. I have a book where it is stated that Marconi had a two way telephone experiment over radio with the Netherlands, and where the receiver was located in Zandvoort, a historic event. The receiver signals were transferred to Amsterdam via telephone lines.
I looked everywhere, in the history of Zandvoort, talked with many people in Zandvoort, went to the Zandvoort  Museum, but this history is LOST, nobody has any knowledge about that historic event.
I agree with WA2SQQ that these events should be documented so they will not be lost

[KA0HCP]

Thanks for this very interesting radio history!  Bill.