Sunlite Radio E-QSL Letter Verification - The Dutch Connection

Back in Jan 2022, I came to know about a brand new radio station (in DX forums) broadcasting from The Nederlands on shortwave. The very mention of the Dutch nation took me back to the golden era of shortwave broadcasting and more specifically to my forever memories of listening to Radio Nederlands! Yes, there was a time when my evenings would begin with listening to the signature tune of Radio Nederlands Worldwide shortwave transmission from Hilversum in Holland beamed to Asia. 

I still remember tuning in my radio to listen to RNW's last transmission on shortwave on 11 May 2012, the Dutch service signed off at the end of a 24-hour 'radio marathon broadcast'. This included several emotional interviews with past staff members of the station. Here's a lookback to my recording (audio clip) of the historic transmission as logged from Kolkata.

Rajdeep Das · Radio Nederlands 5955 kHz Wertachtal (Radio Marathon) 1945 UTC, May 11, 2012

Now coming back to the main topic of this post. I came to learn about this new station broadcasting from The Nederlands called Sunlite Radio. The Station is part of RadioCorp, a Dutch media company. RadioCorp (and thus also Sunlite) is based at the Hofstede in Naarden, the Netherlands. In the early 70s this was the home of the offshore radio station Radio Noordzee Internationaal. Back then, the very building hosted the offices and land-based studio’s of RNI which was at that time broadcasting from a vessel called MEBO II off the coast of Scheveningen.

Sunlite is on the air in the Netherlands on DAB+, online, IPTV and cable as well as shortwave and is aimed at a Dutch domestic audience. 

I logged Sunlite Radio via University of Twente WebSDR on 5955kHz on 27th Jan, 2022, broadcasting in Dutch. Programming format was soft adult contemporary music and at the top of the hour each hour there’s the news from the Dutch national press agency ANP.

ref. HOL Sunlite; photo source - uTwente

Reception was fair/ audible. At times signal suffered slight fading with static interference. Reception report was sent to qsl@sunlite.nl on the same day. E-QSL Letter signed by Herbert Visser on behalf of Sunlite Radio was received in reply verifying my report on the same day.

E-QSL Letter Verification - Sunlite Radio

Here's an extract from the station information shared by Herbert Visser in his email reply - "Sunlite is broadcasting at this stage with only 75 watts carrier power using a borrowed transmitter manufactured in Greece. As you have noticed; the frequency is 5955 khz. The signal is emanating from the Dutch village of Overslag near the Belgian town of Zelzate (southwest Netherlands). The tower is 100 metres high but the inverted V-antenna has been mounted on a height of 17 meters and consists of a Teflon 1:1 RF choke. It’s situated right at the border between Belgium and the Netherlands but the transmitter site is completely within the Netherlands. Sunlite on 5955 has been licensed by the Telecommunication Agency of the Netherlands. The audio is being fed via a fiberglass landline connection in lineair quality (1048 kb/s which is exactly CD-quality) from our premises in Naarden (just outside Amsterdam) to the shortwave transmitter in Overslag. The audioprocessor in use is an AM-Optimod 9400."

If you're interested in listening to Sunlite Radio, tune in 👈

Happy Listening!

73