Messages

1

European MW Pirate Radio / UNID (RU) 1713 AM 1451 UTC 12 DEC 2022

« on: December 12, 2022, 1501 UTC »

Poor signal (fair at peaks) on KiwiSDR in South Norway. (Fair-good signal on the Tambov KiwiSDR.)

Unstable frequency + drifting slowly upwards (1713.9a at 1528 UTC).

Non-stop Russian pop music.

First time I've heard a Russian music pirate on medium wave in Norway! (I've noticed before that the particular KiwiSDR I'm listening on now is quite good for receiving medium-wave 'QSO hooligans' - but I've never received a 'sharmanshchik' here before!)

2

European Pirates and Private Stations / Re: UNID 6290 AM 1035 UTC 12 DEC 2022

« on: December 12, 2022, 1149 UTC »

Still on. (I'm listening via Twente.)

Seems to be a relay of a web station called Fun Tower Radio: https://www.funtowerradio.com/

3

European MW Pirate Radio / Boerenzwaluw 1635 AM 1345 UTC 07 DEC 2022

« on: December 07, 2022, 1354 UTC »

Weak-fair on SDR in South Norway, still day here. Good signal on SDR in North NL.

Polka, hi to people, asks for a report, off at 1355.

Back at 1403 with a report for Vliegende Drent (Vliegende Drent was on 1630 kHz and was very weak in South Norway).

Lovely station name!

4

European MW Pirate Radio / Drukstroomjager (NL) 1655 AM 1718 UTC 06 DEC 2022

« on: December 06, 2022, 1730 UTC »

S9 on Julussdalen, Norway Kiwi SDR

Instrumental tunes, ID, greetings to listeners. 1732 UTC: 'Edelweis (hoog tussen sneeuw en ijs)', then yodeling song and more greetings

5

European MW Pirate Radio / UNID (NL) 1636 AM 1634 UTC 06 DEC 2022

« on: December 06, 2022, 1655 UTC »

S7-8 on Julussdalen, Norway Kiwi SDR, S9+20 on the Twente SDR

Older country music: 'Folsom Prison Blues' (J. Cash), 'Driving Nails in My Coffin', 'Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette', 'The Deck of Cards', 'Deep in the Heart of Texas', Blue Moon of Kentucky', etc. Still no ID at 1711 (but I've been listening on and off)

6

European MW Pirate Radio / Zwarte Boekanier (NL) 1625-1620 AM 1614 UTC 06 DEC 2022

« on: December 06, 2022, 1621 UTC »

S9+15 dB via Hoogeveen Kiwi SDR, S9 on Julussdalen, Norway Kiwi SDR

'Man of Action' (Les Reed Orchestra), polka, ID, asking for a report, instrumental tune, greetings to people, telephone number ...

Off at 1628 - but back again at 1632, now on 1620

7

General Radio Discussion / Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates

« on: October 21, 2022, 0652 UTC »

Yes, this thread is getting very interesting indeed, Kris!

Thanks to you and Shortwave_listener (and the web SDRs!) we're finally getting to know the Russian music pirates a bit better. I think they will remain partly a mystery, though (I like mysteries!), because I have a feeling it will be very difficult to contact them. (But who knows, perhaps it's possible via this forum: https://6p3s.ru/forum/index.php)

8

General Radio Discussion / Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates

« on: October 20, 2022, 1610 UTC »

Yes, who knows, perhaps they have an audience of some kind. At least I suppose they listen to each other.

I'm not sure how common the term Шарманщик/sharmanshchik (plural: sharmanshchikov/шарманщиков) is. But I've seen it here and there. I have no idea if these stations would call themselves that.

Good to see that many of them play a lot of Vladimir Vysotsky, but the way! A great singer-songwriter!

9

General Radio Discussion / Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates

« on: October 20, 2022, 0747 UTC »

Hi Shortwave_listener

I just wanted to say that I’ve been enjoying your logs of Russian/Ukrainian and Indonesian music pirates over the past months. I love the mystique surrounding these stations! (Why do they broadcast? Do they have listeners?)

I logged and IDed quite a few 3MHz hooligans (both music stations and QSOers) around 2010 with the help of Alex (ULX2) in Kyiv. Most of the hooligans I heard were from oblasts in the west of Russia and the east of Ukraine. (They usually gave out the name of a big city, but I suspect most of them were actually located in more rural areas.)

I agree that the music stations in the 1600–1650/1700 kHz range are different from the 'QSO hooligans' on 1.7 and 3MHz. I suppose they fall into the category of 'organ grinders' (шарманщиков) (low-powered stations broadcasting to a local audience). The term for high-powered QSO stations seems to have been дальнобойщиков – 'truckers'. (I suppose you’ve read the same articles as I via Google Translate.)

I did a bit of listening to these stations in January and February this year via the Kiwi SDR in Tambov. I only listened during local daytime in Tambov, and there were usually one or two (weak or strong) stations on. I guess the fact that these stations were audible via this SDR during local daytime says something about where these stations are generally located.

The Russian/Ukrainian music stations on 1.6MHz seem to have been more or less unknown to Western DXers until around 2006. At least I don’t remember hearing about them before Harri Kujala began listening to them in late 2006:

http://www.harriku.com/russia.htm

https://hkdx2.blogspot.com/2008/02/weekend-16-1722008-russian-pirates.html

73

Kai in Oslo

10

European MW Pirate Radio / UNID Russian pirate 1660 AM 0954 UTC 10 Mar 2022

« on: March 10, 2022, 0958 UTC »

Russian pop music. Good reception on Kiwi SDR in Tambov, Russia.

I've checked this part of the band from time to time recently, and it turns out there are fairly many music stations here. The Tambov SDR is one of the best for these stations.

OK modulation.

(In addition, there are strong voice (QSO) stations on 1685 and 1729 right now.)

11

Peskies / Re: UNID stations 3 MHz-3.2 MHz in Europe

« on: March 09, 2022, 0844 UTC »

Hi Shortwave_listener,

Under normal circumstances I think ULX2 in Kyiv would have replied to you. This is what I know:

These stations are called radio hooligans (радиохулиганы) and are from Russia and (mainly) Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine.

According to some (ref. https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,35949.0.html), there is also a phenomenon called 'village radio' in this frequency range in Siberia, but I've never seen any evidence that anyone has actually logged a Siberian 'village station'.

There are Russian and Ukrainian hooligans on 3MHz (mainly AM, but also SSB), on 1.7MHz (AM) and several other places (including 6.6MHz USB). Most of them just talk, but some play music. A commenter on the Shortwave DX Blog sometimes reports hearing music stations on 3MHz: https://draft.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28488709&postID=1883659107878631456

Here's a site dedicated to radio hooligans past and present:

https://6p3s.ru/

73

Kai

12

European MW Pirate Radio / Re: UNID 1642 AM 0958 UTC 18 FEB 2022

« on: February 18, 2022, 1039 UTC »

Not sure if it's still the same station

1022 polka
1024 Shiny Happy People (R.E.M.)
1028 polka
(...)
1137 ID Professor Sikbok

(Listening via Twente)

13

General Radio Discussion / Pirate radio as intangible cultural heritage

« on: December 20, 2018, 1532 UTC »

Some of the readers of this forum might be interested in knowing that efforts are being made to have the pirate culture of the east and north of the Netherlands recognised as part of the intangible cultural heritage of the Netherlands. The man behind the initiative is Peter Zwiers, a local politician from the Dutch workers’ party.

Milestones so far: A page about the pirate culture has been created on the web site of Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage:

https://www.immaterieelerfgoed.nl/nl/page/3579/piratencultuur

A party celebrating the pirate culture was held in the house of the provincial government of Drenthe on December 15. TV news report (in Dutch):

https://www.rtvdrenthe.nl/nieuws/142000/Zendpiraten-feesten-in-het-provinciehuis

The pirate scene in the east and north of the Netherlands dates back to at least 1932, when a guy in Almelo set up what appears to have been the first pirate station in that part of the country. Today's 'pirate culture' comprises not only illegal radio stations (of which there are still many), but also legal stations and a music scene ('piratenmuziek'). The piratenmuziek festivals appear to be particularly popular.

It'll be interesting to see if Mr. Zwiers succeeds. (You can follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piratencultuuriscultureelerfgoed)

73

Kai in Oslo, Norway

14

General Radio Discussion / Re: Echo Charlie, fact or fiction

« on: September 18, 2014, 0732 UTC »

He (blueglow807 on the Foxtrot Bravo Discussion Forums) also claims that “most of the early operators were ex-forces (…).” I don’t know how likely that is. But perhaps it’s not totally unfounded. I put “Delta Oscar” and “5330” into Google and found this interesting site:

http://www.reocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hall/8701/ham/ccf1.htm

No solution to the Echo Charlie mystery, though. I guess it could mean anything (considering the “J-Band” was named after a van!).

It’s interesting to see, by the way, how people often try to link pirate radio (Echo Charlie, Russian radio hooliganism, Dutch pirate radio) to the war (I don’t know about Echo Charlie and Russian hooliganism, but Dutch pirate radio has at least got nothing to do with the war). Perhaps it’s an attempt to make something that is essentially petty crime sound more noble?

Echo Charlie – like CB or pirate radio in general – is essentially a post-war phenomenon linked to the technological and social change that took place then – whether or not there’s some sort of military/WW2 connection.

15

General Radio Discussion / Re: Echo Charlie, fact or fiction

« on: September 17, 2014, 1117 UTC »

This guy here has a slightly different theory:

https://bfreebandingtalktheplanet.runboard.com/t454

He claims Echo Charlie was a military calling channel – “just as 'Delta Oscar' (about 5.3 MHz) was another.”

I did a quick newspaper search in the Guardian and Observer archive (it cost me a few £, but it was fun!) and found out a few interesting things:

There were very few reported cases of illegal hams before the war (I found one article from 1928 and one from 1934).

The first post-war court case against an unlicensed ham in Britain was held on July 15, 1946. The ham, a former army radio mechanic in Bury had been active on the official ham bands using the call sign G7NN and a home-made 250-watt TX (he got a £5 fine + £5 costs). The prosecutor said: “There is a considerable amount of this unlicensed transmitting taking place and the Post Office authorities have taken a very serious view.”

The second court case was held the next day, against a ham in Stockport, who had been caught talking to amateurs in Romania and Brazil.

In September 1961, The Observer reported that the GPO had “uncovered a huge illegal network of private radio operators, centered on the Midlands.” The core of the network had been smashed, while the hunt was still on for the rest of the 200 ops – many of them teens. The ops were transmitting on the “J-Band”, which had spread throughout the country. The band was so called because the ring leaders used Morris J2 vans. The £2-3 ex-Army sets used “had a range of only 10 miles until it was found that by operating on a different wavelength this could be extended to 150 miles.”

Nothing more of relevance found!