Radio Exterior de España Leaving Shortwave

Well, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but according to various sources,
Spain's shortwave broadcasts will cease as of October 1st of this year. Radio
Exterior de España is only the latest international shortwave broadcaster to
leave shortwave, following other nations such as Holland, Canada and Taiwan.
Over the last few years, I was able to enjoy REE's shows on 9535 khz, transmitted
from Noblejas, Spain. The reason for the shutdown is likely to be the oft-cited
budget cuts which have stricken so many international broadcasters as of late.
REE is expected to continue on the Internet, but of course that won't be the
same, and probably won't have the same audience. SWLs and DX'ers aren't
the only ones upset over the news: the Spanish labor union Union Sindical
Obrera calls the decision "surrealist, dantesque, contradictory, and above
all, pathetic". I would have to agree with that assessment. 

With one more national broadcaster shutting down, I will now be left with
Radio Habana, CRI, Radio Nacional Amazonia and religious crazies as my 
only easy SWL listening options. Yipee.

QSL cards from Croatia, Germany and Cuba

Back in July, I heard Voice of Croatia on 9925 khz, and sent
them a reception report by email (several times and to several
addresses over several weeks, as it turned out), but they finally
responded with an e-QSL on September 13th. This was followed
a couple of weeks later by the same QSL letter that I received by
email, but this time by postal mail from Croatia. Wasn't expecting
that! But then, even more unexpectedly, a couple of weeks after
that, I received a Voice of Croatia QSL card by mail! It is
pictured below (top). Damn, VOC, you really came through in
the end. Huzzah!

In other QSL news,  I heard Germany's Deutsche Welle, trans-
mitted from Kigali, Rwanda, in East Africa, on October 21st
(as logged here). I sent them a reception report by email to
info@dw-world.de, and about 3 weeks later I received a QSL
card (pictured below, under the V. of Croatia card), mailed
from DW Customer Service in Bonn, Germany. The back of
the card can be seen in the second picture.

 

Finally, on September 15, I heard Cuba's Radio Rebelde on 5025
khz, and I sent them a reception report to web@radiorebelde.icrt.cu
two days later,  including an mp3 recording of my reception (they
apparently require this for QSL requests). On November 8th, I
received an email from Radio Rebelde with an e-QSL ( :-/ )
attached. It is displayed below. A big thanks to these three
shortwave broadcasters who took the time to acknowledge my
reports!