I’ve added a new page that makes available several Perseus SDR spectrum recordings from my West Michigan QTH. I will upload more Perseus WAV files in the near future if there’s any interest. In order to “play back” these recordings, you will need the Perseus SDR or equivalent program. A free demonstration version of the Perseus software can be downloaded here (Perseus hardware not required) and this can be used to play back these recordings. WAV files have been compressed using WinRAR to help speed up the downloads.
I was cruising the MW band early this morning and came across something new and interesting on 1710. Instead of the usual Boston pirate, I was hearing a strong signal from a station playing oldies music – Beach Boys, The Temptations, The Big Bopper, etc. I listened for over an hour to this station and heard frequent announcements between songs. This station was calling itself “The Big Q” (or maybe Big Cube?) and had slick liners between songs – all very professional sounding. Was this a pirate broadcaster? The most unusual part of the broadcast were several slightly different ads...
It seems there is always interesting and mysterious stuff taking place in the range of frequencies from 6-7 mhz. Aside from the pirate broadcasts that took place this last weekend, I heard some other interesting things: 6953 khz USB – UTC 0200 – Conversation between two fisherman, both with heavy New England accents. The talk was about fishing, weather conditions, etc. Both were heard very well here. Very informal conversation with much colorful language, and of course no legal IDs! 6835 khz USB – UTC 0300 – Two shrimpers “Candyman” and “Bubba” conversing tonight, both strong signals with southern accents...
I made the effort this year to spend some time at the dials during the Halloween weekend to judge the current state of pirate activity on the shortwave bands. This is the first Halloween weekend in many years that I’ve done this, and there was no disappointment in the amount of activity taking place! Below are some of the stations that I noted. I had the Perseus recording the whole 6.9 mhz band during various times of high activity and will be reviewing these files for some time to come. After reading reports from others, this is only a fraction...
