It was bound to happen at some point with pirates now pushing the technological envelope. First, Red Hat from X-FM Shortwave experimenting with C-QUAM AM Stereo broadcasts on shortwave, and now with Undercover Radio dabbling with Digital Radio Mondiale. Obviously this isn’t practical for a number of reasons as demonstrated in the video below, but it’s great to see pirates experimenting with new modes and proves that DRM isn’t just reserved for the big 100kw broadcasters. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpQtiLEHiWM]
I was tipped off to this experimental station via one of the radio lists that I subscribe to. WG2XFQ was on the air Christmas Eve to commemorate Fessenden’s first wireless transmission of speech and music on the longwave frequency of 486 KHz using Heising AM modulation. The station was on the air again New Year’s Eve with a repeat of the special broadcast. It was during this time that I received the station from my listening location in West Michigan using the Microtelecom Perseus SDR with phased BOG antennas. Using the SDR, it can be seen that the modulation favors...
I’ve started messing around with Navtex decoding again after giving up a couple of years ago. This time around I’m using YaND combined with the Perseus SDR and have been achieving nice results during overnight decoding sessions. Some of the more distant “regulars” are NMQ Cambria (California), NMC San Francisco (Point Reyes), NMW Astoria (Oregon), ZBM Bermuda & NMR San Juan. I received a DXer’s Christmas present on December 24th with the captures shown below of station NMO from Honolulu, HI. at a distance of 4,321 miles – a new distance record for me. Times shown below are UTC. 2012-12-24...
An American classic, Radio Clandestine, recorded off my GE World Monitor (pictured) and random wire antenna, 7425 khz, September 5th, 1988 (video incorrectly labeled as August) I hope you enjoy this classic! [youtube=http://youtu.be/Lq4HWdccflI”>http://youtu.be/Lq4HWdccflI]
More pirate history, preserved for future generations! Here goes: KBFA – 7415 Khz – March 10th, 1990 – 0002 UTC A rough reception, but also my last off-air recording of KBFA from 1990. Radio Free Willy – 7415 Khz – October 30th, 1988 – 0121 UTC 50 minutes of RFW with political humor and music with a nice signal. The Crooked Man – 7416 Khz – October 16th, 1988 – 1947 UTC Crazy rants by the Crooked Man himself in this clip with a good selection of music to balance the program out. The Voice of Free Long Island –...
A couple more additions to the 80s pirate archive have been added: Radio USA – 7475 Khz – October 30th, 1989 – 0003 UTC 12 minutes of classic Mr. Blue Sky punk music and skits in this off-air recording. The Voice of the Purple Pumpkin – 15038 Khz – October 29th, 1989 – 2143 UTC A familiar name in pirate radio history, the operator in this clip claims to be the original VOTPP during this special Halloween broadcast, about 17 minutes in length. Enjoy!
February 9th, 2011 saw nice conditions on the 49 & 41 meter shortwave broadcast bands, so I captured the moment. This recording covers 6000-7600 khz for a duration of about 5 minutes centered at 0300 TOH: Tromp_Michigan_0300_UTC_09FE11_41_Meter_SW_Band.rar
There’s an odd signal coming in here during the evenings audible on 1640 khz, a series of “dashes” at approximately 72 per second. The signal is centered at 1639.7 khz and best heard on 1640 lower sideband when phasing out WKSH. Since the signal fades in and out, I assume that it’s some distance away from me. Here’s what it looks like on the waterfall display: Here’s an audio clip tuned to 1640 khz AM mode: 1640 Khz UNID Dasher 17DE10 0045 UTC.mp3 The “dasher” first came to my attention...
There’s been a buzz going around regarding the mystery oldies station on 1710 calling itself “The Big Q”. See this post for more details. More DXers are reporting reception and it was heard in Oregon as recently as last week on 1710 khz. With all of this recent talk, it has reminded me of some old pirate stations that I remember hearing back in the 80s at the upper end of the dial. I also remember that catching any pirate on medium wave was a big deal back then (to me anyway). Snagging a pirate reception on shortwave was difficult...
Either my antenna is doing a superb job of pulling in European longwave broadcasters, or conditions are real good right now below 530 khz, or maybe a little of both 🙂 For the past few weeks, just about every night, clear reception can be had on most of the Euro channels beginning around 6pm EST or 2200 UTC. New logs this season include hearing Poland on 225 khz and Germany on 153 khz. 162 France, 171 Morocco, 183 Germany, 189 Iceland, 198 BBC, 234 Luxembourg, 252 Ireland & Algeria have been regulars. I still hold out hope for hearing Russia...
