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General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: Kai on November 09, 2012, 2113 UTC
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Hi!
I’ve been listening a bit to Serbian and Croatian pirates recently, and I just discovered that a film mentioned by Harri Kujala on his web site (http://www.harriku.com/serbia.htm) is now on Youtube! (It wasn’t when I checked a couple of years ago.)
I thought that maybe some people here would find it interesting. Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqc2m7HVTec
The pirates on the film are all from Croatia. Most of today’s medium wave pirates in the former Yugoslavia seem to be from the north/northeast of Central Serbia and the south of Vojvodina (I don’t know why they haven’t kept up with this cool tradition elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia!). (Much more about pirates from Ex-Yu here: http://www.hkdx2.blogspot.com/).
Here’s a description of the film taken from Harri’s page (written by DXer and pirate historian Björn Quäck):
'As far as balkan pirates are concerned I know of a film documentary called "We want our voices to be heard" from the year 1970 about illegal radios in Yougoslavia. It was produced by Zagreb Film, the author is Krsto Papic.
Obviously there were plenty of pirates in the Tito age, quite similar to the situation as it is still in Holland. I hadn't seen that film myself but I have a description out of a documentary movie directory I can quote from.
The 15 minute film shows several pirates from the rural mountain areas of Croatia and in the Drau river valley where the radio stations were operating with very simple equipment but got very popular among their local audiences.
Authorities were hunting the pirates and there were severe punishments but as soon as a station was gone a new one appeared. 5 stations were shown in the documentary, Radio Cerje, Radio Stanica, Radio Ladanje, Radio Stef and Radio Podravini. Programmes not only contained music but also some political views and even a language lesson for workers who intended to emigrate to western Europe.'
73
Kai in Norway
PS: Here’s an interesting documentary about a very similar pirate scene on the other side of Europe from roughly the same time (1967):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZwIaM5U4R4&feature=related
:)
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Thanks for posting this. Enjoyed the Croatian film, but wish I could speak Croatian.
Last winter & spring, I had connected to remote receivers over in the region and found a bunch of pirates (no idea which ones) and enjoyed the broadcasts.
Hearing a bunch of them now from a remote in Italy. One of the pirates that I remember is currently on 1690 kHz. Has a distinctive voice & usually background noise when he's talking. Mostly plays music, but seems to talk over it a lot and cut it off so he can talk.
Last winter, he was talking with another guy on the air and it sounded like the other guy was on the other end of an FM two-way radio with the op was putting the mic near the speaker. Couldn't tell if the other guy was listening to the MW signal or they were both chatting via the two-way radio.
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I wish I could speak Croatian too! :) But even though I don’t understand a word I find the film very interesting – and funny! (I wonder if the filmmaker can have exaggerated a bit in some respects?)
Interesting to know that you enjoy listening to Euros on MW. I think you’re most likely to have heard mainly Greek stations. 1690 seems to be occupied by Greeks most of the time. And the Greeks generally use higher power than the Serbs. (If you're lucky you can also hear Russian and Ukrainian stations in this part of the band.)
The Greeks have a forum, by the way (http://anodos.freeforums.org), so they’re pretty easy to get in touch with (although you won’t necessarily get a reply from the particular station you heard). The Serbs (and Croats) are more mysterious (and much fewer), but some of them are actually quite internationally oriented (who knows, some of them might even read this).
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I liked the music from that film. Found interesting that a pirate had a band playing live. Maybe that was some artistic license of the filmmaker, but if real, that was awesome.
Watched that other film you posted at the end... got a good laugh when the one guy was DF'ing the station with a regular portable radio for a few minutes in the middle of the road, then they drove away and nailed the op before that first song was done.
The remotes that I connect to are in Italy, SE Germany, & Austria, which give the best chance of hearing the Croats/Serbs/Greeks. Although as you say, not too hard hearing the Greeks. Was surprised when reading the link of pirates that Radio 811 runs 36kW into a full size 180m dipole.
Greek would seem consistent with what I heard on 1690... lots of Greek music.
With these guys would pop onto SW a bit more so have a chance of hearing them here w/o using a remote, even though the other pirates from the northern part of Europe have a hard time getting here on the upper bands (15 MHz and higher). Never heard any of the guys around 6300.
But, if the signal doesn't come here, then may have to go to the signal... a nice vacation to Croatia would be just what the doctor ordered.
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Not sure if this is of general interest, but I have managed to ID the stations on the film (thanks to my good friend Google Translate!).
Station 1 (with local band outside the window): Radio Stanica Kutnjak, Kutnjak
Station 2 (with DJ talking over an instrumental tune): Radio Cerje, Cerje Nebojse. Op: Dragutin Cerjan (the guy in the yellow shirt), now owner of Radio Max, a local FM station in Cerje Nebojse. Began broadcasting in 1967 or 1968. Raided many times.
Station 3 (guy talking about politics – I guess): Radio Stanica (possible Radio Stanica Something, but sign by the door just says Radio Stanica), unknown location.
Station 4 (young man playing pop music, older man singing): Radio Stanica Kućan, probably from a place called Kućan (several possibilities).
Station 5 (with German lesson): Lokalna Radio Stanica Donje Ladanje, Donje Ladanje.
Station 7 (guy with hat talking): Radio Stanica Stef (?), unknown location.
Station 8 (with radio play): Radio Podravine, Novigrad Podravski. Operator: Ivan Trepotec. The station seems to have been established in 1966. Impressive programme line-up (the schedule was sometimes printed in Glas Podravine, a local newspaper).
Station 9 (school children playing music): Radio Stanica Lopatinec (I think that’s what they girl is saying), Lopatinec
The serious-looking guy behind the desk is said to be a local party official. He’s not too happy with the pirates.
All the stations are from the areas of Hrvatsko Zagorge and Podravina (Drava river basin) in the north of Croatia (some of the locations mentioned above are tiny villages). There appear to have been particularly many pirates in this part of Croatia in the 1970s.
It may all have started with a station called Radio Varaždin, which was established by Varaždin hams in 1945 (Varaždin is a medium-sized town in the Zagorje/Podravina area). Not sure if this station was legal or not – but it must have been tolerated at least, because it seems to have been on the air daily (at least in periods) with an impressive programme line-up (a local newspaper in Varaždin often printed their schedule). The station is still on the air today (with a licence).
Another local station with an impressive programme line-up (its schedule was sometimes printed in Glas Podravine, a local newspaper) was Radio Stanica Koprivnica in Koprivnica. This station seems to have started broadcasting (irregularly) in 1960.
I find this very interesting because one of the Ex-Yu pirates I’ve heard recently (a guy who has had several QSOs in English with Dutch pirates in the past) is from the Zagorje/Podravina area. Perhaps he’s the last remnant of this ancient pirate scene?
More research needed! (The problem is that I don’t speak Croatian…) (Well, at least they don't use the Cyrillic alphabet in Croatia! :))
Sources:
Glas Podravine and Varazdinske Vijesti (local newspapers available at http://library.foi.hr/digi/en/index.php?page=novine)
http://www.radio-varazdin.hr/
http://www.radiomax.hr/onama.php
http://www.ravnododna.com/kako-je-ugusena-prva-piratska-zajednica-u-hrvatskom-zagorju/
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Thanks Kai! That is great.
Yeah, knowing Croatian would be so much easier. :)