Topics

61

European Pirates and Private Stations / Radio Experience 6240 KHz AM 5/9/2014 2326+ UTC

« on: May 09, 2014, 2350 UTC »

Thanks to Dimbulb for the tip and ID. Radio Experience on 6240 KHz AM. Eclectic mix of music. "A Horse with No Name" at 2347 UTC. Good S8 signal.

62

General Radio Discussion / Pirate radio stations are 'lifeline' for immigrant communities

« on: May 09, 2014, 1336 UTC »

There have been several posts here over the last few weeks about the recent raids in the Boston area, but I came across this article which I hadn't seen before. It gives some pretty good insight into how these stations serve certain communities. There's even a picture of a seized transmitter. The transmitter looks like one of the Veronica designs from about 15 years ago or so.

BROCKTON – For thousands of Brockton residents, tuning in to a pirate radio station is a connecting them to home.

http://dennis.wickedlocal.com/article/20140422/News/140428919/?Start=1

63

General Radio Discussion / High profile Boston FM pirate busted (again)

« on: April 18, 2014, 1138 UTC »

Touch 106.1 FM has openly flaunted the FCC for years, and had a huge audience. Yesterday they had all of their gear seized in a raid by US Marshals. I thought I heard there may have been a couple of other FM busts in Boston yesterday, but haven't found that information yet.

There is some video footage of the bust here:

http://wgbhnews.org/post/fcc-shuts-down-touch-1061-fm

64

General Radio Discussion / How To Make Music (And Money) From Shortwave Radio

« on: April 02, 2014, 1234 UTC »

"Fire up a shortwave radio and you won’t hear Beyonce or Britney, because these bandwidths are rarely used to transmit the hits. Favored by spies, radio hams and secretive political groups, the transmissions in the shortwave frequencies tend to be resolutely noncommercial, not to mention unmusical. But Russell Hoffman, an engineer from Pittsburgh who runs a firm called Evaton Technologies, doesn’t agree. He is just about to release the world’s first instrument designed to allow adventurous musicians to add the odd and often eerie sound of shortwave radio to their aural palette. To Hoffman and his fellow explorers,  music doesn’t just have to be about vibrating strings."

Read the entire story:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasperhamill/2014/03/31/how-to-make-music-and-money-from-shortwave-radio/

65

General Radio Discussion / Pirates Take Over WBGO Radio

« on: March 28, 2014, 1040 UTC »

"Commercial free, jazz radio station, WBGO has been attacked by pirates. Their broadcast signal has been over ridden by a rogue unlicensed pirate radio station. Where that signal is coming from, no one seems to know."

http://news.hamlethub.com/swyonkers/neighbors/357-pirates-take-over-wbgo-radio

66

North American Shortwave Pirate / KAOS 6930 KHz USB 2328 UTC 3/22/2014

« on: March 22, 2014, 2329 UTC »

Voice of KAOS on 6930 KHz USB with a nice S9 signal.

67

HF Beacons / L 6917.5 KHz 2229 UTC 3/21/2014

« on: March 21, 2014, 2229 UTC »

The L beacon that has been noticed before is back again tonight on 6917.5 KHz, CW mode. About S3 signal at 2229 UTC.

68

European Pirates and Private Stations / Radio Tango Italia 6265 KHz AM 2257 UTC 3/14/2014

« on: March 14, 2014, 2258 UTC »

Radio Tango Italia is on 6265 KHz AM with an S2 signal here in the Boston area. ID around 2257 UTC. Thanks to Gino in Italy for help on ID.

69

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6954.6 KHz AM 0001 UTC 3/14/2014

« on: March 14, 2014, 0001 UTC »

Carrier was on for a bit, went off, now is back on 6954.6 KHz AM again with low modulation. Possibly an ID of some kind. Then into an old time kind of tune at 0003 UTC. Carrier is S8 but audio is extremely low.

70

North American Shortwave Pirate / The Crystal Ship 6876 KHz AM 2323 UTC 3/13/2014

« on: March 13, 2014, 2323 UTC »

Someone just fired up on 6876 KHz. Some pop song "hello little boys, hello little girls". Nice S9+20 signal. TCS relay ID at 2333 UTC.

71

General Radio Discussion / Pirate radio activity alert, 3/14-3/15 (SWL Fest)!

« on: March 13, 2014, 2027 UTC »

If you are new to pirate radio listening on shortwave, or an old hat just not keeping track, this weekend (Friday through Saturday night) is the annual SWL Fest gathering. In years past, this has resulted in an uptick in shortwave pirate activity, plus there are some stations that only come out during SWL Fest. This is a good time to be listening. 6925 KHz is a good place to start.

As always, you can read and post loggings in our Shortwave Pirate forum, and the IRC chat should also be quite busy too. Using the IRC chat is very easy. Log in to the HFU forums with your username and password, and then up at the top of the page you'll see a link to "Try the #pirateradio IRC chat". Your nickname will automatically be filled out, so you can just click CONNECT and end up in the chat room. It's easy!

Stay tuned, stay classy.

72

General Radio Discussion / That Doorbell Looks Innocent, But It May Be a Federal Offender

« on: March 12, 2014, 1411 UTC »

From the Wall Street Journal today:

"FCC Agents Track Rogue Radio Waves To Aquariums, Bulbs, Blankets; $16,000 Fines"

http://tinyurl.com/k95vlpd

73

General Radio Discussion / Raspberry Pirate Radio (Raspberry Pi)

« on: March 11, 2014, 1308 UTC »

"This simple hack turns your Raspberry Pi into a powerful FM transmitter! It has enough range to cover your home, DIY drive-in movie, a high school ball game, or even a bike parade (depending on the stragglers)."

http://makezine.com/projects/make-38-cameras-and-av/raspberry-pirate-radio/

Perhaps one of the more intriguing aspects of this is: "The Raspberry Pi’s broadcast frequency can range between 1Mhz and 250Mhz, which may interfere with government bands."

74

General Radio Discussion / "Radios are not safe" (Malaysian 777 loss)

« on: March 09, 2014, 2259 UTC »

So dominating the news over the last few days has been the missing Malaysian 777 airliner. I just happened upon a blog post buy some guy who is apparently well known (it made it onto Digg as the top story for the last few hours, if that means anything). In it, he argues that the communications used by airlines is outdated.

Some quotes... "all they have to connect with ground is old style radios"... "radios that sound awful"... "radios are not safe"... "radio which has poor sound quality"... "primitive". I could go on.

His post is kind of rambling, but he argues that all pilots need sat phones and data recorders and ipads connected to the internet and a bunch of other new stuff. When the sh*t hits the fan in a cockpit, I'm not sure what all of this additional technology adds other than more work load. When Swissair 111 slowly burned in the sky, incapacitating one pilot and taking away all of the cockpit electronics, it surely wouldn't have helped. There is nothing simpler and more reliable to build than a radio with a PTT switch.

You can read his argument here:

http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/general/aviation-is-stuck-in-the-60s-a-reflection-on-mh-370.html

75

European Pirates and Private Stations / Radio Marabu 6304 KHz AM 2258 UTC 3/8/2014

« on: March 08, 2014, 2258 UTC »

Thanks to Gino in Italy for the tip and ID. S5 signal, playing music.