I have received a letter (you know, paper, ink, stamp, envelope, an actual letter, like they used to send in the 50s) from someone in The Netherlands who says he heard me talk to Rotterdam Approach last Sunday and wants me to fill out a form with my aircraft details, details of the flight etc. He encloses a return envelope and a €1 coin.
This is a first in 46 years of flying. Has anyone else had such a thing?
It just seems so weird. I mean, I can sort of get the joy in the challenge of picking up HF bouncing round the world from Nepal trapped by the ionosphere, but what is the benefit of listening to an airband scanner, digging up the details of the owner and then asking them their details?
Genuinely confused. Or is it a scam?
At first sight, it sounds like a scam. Radio amateurs ought not to be interested in “aviatic” details. OTOH, the return envelope AND cash seem to bode well.
I’ll enquire elsewhere, stay tuned. Could you post the form to be filled out? [[edit for afterthought: was there a station identifier mentioned? Ought to start with Papa Alpha Zero then two more [Alpha-Zulu], I think. ]]
BTW wasn’t it illegal to send cash by surface mail? Coins, especially?
And I’m not sure this 1 € coin is going to be much use to you anyway – probably even less when Brexit has been implemented 
But it could be a nice gesture.
If you send me the coin I will happily spend it to check if it is genuine.
Never heard of such a scam before though.
Interesting… I was a radio ham in the late 1960s (OK1OFA) but AFAIK the activity is way down nowadays. But there is no limit to hobbies where info is being collected, e.g. plane spotting where you want to get not just tail numbers but also airframe serial numbers.
Presumably no personal info was requested.
I am a radio amateur as well. As radio amateur it is quite common when you had a contact with a station to send a post card (QSL Card) to conform the contact. Amateur radio operators typically send these using their club.
You have also radio amateurs which haven listening to other station as hobby (amateur, marine, aviation, broadcast stations) and then send them a card (SWL card) to indicated that have heard your transmission. Typically they want the station they have heard to conform that contact, e.g. that they have actually heard you. When they have listend to other transmissions then radio amateurs, they typically collect cards from these stations by send their SWL card directly by post. I know lots of long wave stations do answer these reports, and also use them to see their range / propagation. Then they usely send an return envelope and a stamp or money to cover postal fees, so that their hobby doesn’t cost you money.
In the club I am a member of, is for example one member who has received many NDB’s. It is part of the their hobby to collect card, or improve their equipment to get a better range.
I have received the same, possibly the same guy as also for overflying the Netherlands.
Can’t see how it would be a scam.
Just to give you an idea, this is my QSL card, this card is to conform a contact between me and with PD7MAR, which is also a Dutch station, details are normally on the back.
I mainly like making contacts on HF all over the world, as such you will send and receive card from these stations all over the world. Sometimes there can be special ones as well, as exotic Island, or a space station for example. Never had contact with ISS, but got a confirmed contact with one of the members or the former MIR spacestation on VHF.
On ISS they also operate amateur radio as a way to spend some private time. Amateur radio on International Space Station
Others I really enjoyed where contacts with Midway (small staff), Antartic, and Pitcairn Island. I find it always enjoyable to receive a QSL card from these stations, typically they take a couple of years, as this postal service between radio clubs is a free service, where cards are passed on from country to country.
Timothy,
this is probably an SWL request. Unusual to send it to the owner of an airplane but quite genuine.
I used to do this years and years ago trying to listen to Shanwick e.t.c. (as a boy) and did send out cards to airlines describing which station I had received. Some sent them back, others did not. But i see no harm in it sending it back. Doesn’t look like a scam to me.
There is no station identifier, but the guy’s name is JJ Balneger (Joop).
He also sends me details of his Austrian wife, his 26 year old daughter and 23 year old son and his hobbies. WGAF?
The whole thing just seems so, so weird.
But I’ll send it back if it makes him happy.
Annoyingly, the postage is more tha €1, and if I do it online the minimum payment is £3.50 so I have to go to a Post Office and the Post Office in my home town has just closed down so, one way and another, Joop is being a true pain in the posterior.
But thanks for the help and advice 
He is a radio guy of some sort, he wrote a book in the eighties:
For a complete listing of WEFAX and news photo stations, refer to the Shortwave Facsimile Frequency Guide, by Joop Balneger and Michiel Schaay. It is available for $14.95 from Universal Electronics, Inc., 4555 Groves Road, Suite 13, Columbus, OH 43232. (6l4) 886-4605.
Both dutch names, Balneger is a very rare name I would say.
