Topics

76

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.

77

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.

78

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

79

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."

80

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 In it, he argues that the communications used by airlines is outdated.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

81

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.

82

European Pirates and Private Stations / Premier Radio 6915 KHz AM 2109 UTC 3/8/2014

« on: March 08, 2014, 2111 UTC »

Announcer with "keeping the spirit of free radio alive" and into music. Peaking maybe to S2 so I'm only catching bits and pieces. At 2114 it peaked up to S7 and I heard the announcer talking over "I Will Survive".

83

European Pirates and Private Stations / Black Beard Radio 6950 KHz AM 2055 UTC 3/8/2014

« on: March 08, 2014, 2101 UTC »

I have Black Beard Radio on 6950 KHz AM, announcer playing techno and says "just about 9 o'clock" here in the UK. Peaking to S4.

84

North American Shortwave Pirate / Undercover Radio T-Shirt Update 6925 KHz USB 0102 UTC 3/8/2014

« on: March 08, 2014, 0104 UTC »

Dr. Benway popped up on USB to give an update on t-shirt sales. 90 t-shirts sold. They are on their way to you!

85

Spy Numbers / G06 6982 KHz H3E 2100 UTC 3/7/2014

« on: March 07, 2014, 2107 UTC »

Noted a carrier at 6982 KHz around 2058 and numbers in German at 2100, ending at 2104. S6 signal. H3E modulation according to "linkz" on #wunclub IRC channel.

86

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID SSTV 6925 KHz USB 0226 UTC 3/4/2014

« on: March 04, 2014, 0227 UTC »

Grabbed this:

87

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6925 KHz AM 2329 UTC 3/2/2014

« on: March 02, 2014, 2329 UTC »

Carrier popped up and playing To Live and Die in LA, then Simple Minds. Off without ID at 2339 UTC. Good S9 signal.

88

North American Shortwave Pirate / Radio Gallifrey International 6935 KHz USB 2323 UTC 3/2/2014

« on: March 02, 2014, 2323 UTC »

RGI up with a really nice S9+ signal here in the Boston burbs.

89

North American Shortwave Pirate / Undercover Radio 6925 KHz USB 2336 UTC 2/16/2014

« on: February 16, 2014, 2337 UTC »

Big signal, S9+20. "Is There Anybody Out There".

Black T-shirts are almost at the threshold for production. Buy one if you haven't already! http://www.booster.com/undercoverradio2

90

General Radio Discussion / Cuban spies received secret messages by old-time short-wave (HFU media hit)

« on: February 16, 2014, 2216 UTC »

Our own esteemed numbers expert Chris racks up another media hit, interviewed in this nice piece in the Miami Herald today:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/16/3939953/cuban-spies-received-secret-messages.html

Nice work Chris!