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Author Topic: Radio Hooligans log  (Read 1404 times)

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Radio Hooligans log
« on: September 30, 2022, 2005 UTC »
Radio Hooligans (радиохулиганы in Russian) are a type of pirate radio station found in Russia and Ukraine. The vast majority of stations engage in two-way communications (like radio amateurs or CBers) making them radio bootleggers, not pirate radio stations. Topics of conversation can be about almost anything (except politics) and are usually in Russian. Others like to broadcast by playing music like other pirate radio stations. They operate on frequencies from 2.9-3.2 MHz (also sometimes producing strong harmonics in the 48 meter Europirate band). Most stations use homemade transmitters or WW2 surplus transmitters. They often drift very large amounts while transmitting and have poor audio quality. They can be heard across Europe and many are active nightly. They originated in the USSR when obtaining an amateur radio license was time consuming and difficult and western music was banned. Similar to modern times they played western music or communicated with other stations within the USSR. While very little information is available on them in English searching in Russian and translating the results to English can find much more information.

I have created this thread to post logs of these stations. Anyone is welcome to post there logs here in this thread. I had asked the question if these stations should be logged in European Pirates and Private Stations and the vast majority of people said no (that thread is here: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,101259). As a result, they should be logged in this thread instead of European Pirates and Private Stations.
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: Radio Hooligans log
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2022, 2007 UTC »
UNID 3072v AM 2000 UTC 19 SEP 2022

2000 UTC-Unknown Russian Music
2035 UTC-Still going

Recording: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bGfpPN0_n_Y&t=520s
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline kris

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RU? FB 2990 AM 1958 UTC 30 Sep 2022
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2022, 2125 UTC »
1958 S9+30  Ru song
2001 Raising my family  Precious Wilson
2006 Ring me honey '99  A la Carte
2012 piece of song  In for a Penny, in for a Poud  Arabesque next TX off no talking
RX888 ( SDR-FE-PLAY, HRD-747, Sony XDR-F1HD),
Ant. Sky Loop 180m 15m AGL, Sky Loop 120m 35m AGL
       + QRM X-phase eliminator
QTH: Gdańsk N.Poland  Ru/Sp/Gr/Sb=Russian,Spanish,Greek,Serbien
eQSL appreciated to: 13krzycho@gmail.com

Offline kris

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UA FB 3052 AM 1945 UTC 30 Sep 2022
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2022, 2130 UTC »
1945 3051,8  S9+25 faded  playing tchastuschki  Traktor w pole
1950 M Ru he said "Slava Ukraine" next TX off
  - The other 100m FB stations don't talk about politics
RX888 ( SDR-FE-PLAY, HRD-747, Sony XDR-F1HD),
Ant. Sky Loop 180m 15m AGL, Sky Loop 120m 35m AGL
       + QRM X-phase eliminator
QTH: Gdańsk N.Poland  Ru/Sp/Gr/Sb=Russian,Spanish,Greek,Serbien
eQSL appreciated to: 13krzycho@gmail.com

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: Radio Hooligans log
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2022, 1932 UTC »
I did some research on these stations and their transmitters when a group of us were setting up "The Homebrew Pirate Radio Group" on Yahoo. There was some English info in the first decade of the century on them and their transmitters going back to Soviet times.

I was somewhat surprised they were able to do so much with so little. Most of the rigs were built with parts salvaged from radios and TV sets, used a VFO and a single tetrode tube for the oscillator and the PA, with little or no filtering. They couldn't have been very frequency stable. I suspect some of them are still using the old schematics and techniques for building transmitters based on reception reports.

Heck, they had to make do with what they could scrounge. It was impossible to buy imported radio equipment in the Soviet Union unless you were an important Party official, or anything else from the West or Japan for that matter. Young people from the U.S. and Canada would take cheap Aeroflot flights from Toronto to Leningrad with a healthy supply of Levi jeans knowing they could get 200 dollars a pair once they arrived in the USSR. They used the money to finance a summers worth of travel in Western Europe.

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: Radio Hooligans log
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2022, 2003 UTC »
Yes, they use extremely low quality homebrew equipment. They usually drift a lot, have no audio filtering (their bandwidth can be up to 40 kHz), and some have such poor equipment it appears more like SSB on the waterfall (but is in fact terrible AM). They also seem to use separate transmitters and receivers, I often hear them have feedback in their audio. Some time I will make a recording with the waterfall zoomed in and upload it here so you can see how bad the drift is.
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 2057 UTC by Shortwave_listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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UNID 3128 AM 1954 UTC 1 OCT 2022
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2022, 2007 UTC »
S7 with the Kouvola, Finland KiwiSDR. Very bad QRM from nearby QSO’s. Not sure what he’s trying to do but the program is a total mess.

1954 UTC-Unknown Ru/Ua music, sounds like a microphone up to a headset
1955 UTC-Prerecorded dialog between a YL and OM
1957 UTC-Unknown music
1959 UTC-House of Horrors by Merv Griffin
2000 UTC-Moved to 3137 kHz, prerecorded dialog between a YL and OM
2002 UTC-Unknown music then back to prerecorded dialog between a YL and OM
2004 UTC-Prerecorded talk by OM
2005 UTC-Unknown music
2006 UTC-Prerecorded dialog between a YL and OM
2007 UTC-Unknown music
2007 UTC-A few words said by the station op over the music
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 2013 UTC by Shortwave_listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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UNID 2990 AM 2009 UTC 1 OCT 2022
« Reply #7 on: October 01, 2022, 2013 UTC »
S7 with the Kouvola, Finland KiwiSDR. Very poor (distorted) sound quality on some stations, others much better.

2009 UTC-Кукушка by Zheka
2010 UTC-Talk by op over the music
2010 UTC-off then back on
2011 UTC-Одиночество-сука by Slava
2011 UTC-off then back on
2011 UTC-Talk by op over the music
2012 UTC-On and off many times, talking over music, talking to other stations
2013 UTC-QSO’s now on the frequency
2044 UTC-Playing music again, then QSO
2045 UTC-Приходите в мой дом (feat. Михаил Круг) by Irina Krug
2046 UTC-QSO’s again
2048 UTC-Любимая by Yuriy Antonov & Григорий Лепс (different station than the one that aired the last song)
2049 UTC-Не забывай by Yuriy Antonov
2053 UTC-Back to QSO’s, talking about the music?
2120 UTC-Still going, playing music and talking about it, one station singing along to the music being played by another
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 2119 UTC by Shortwave_listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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UNID 3005 AM 2013 UTC 1 OCT 2022
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2022, 2014 UTC »
S5 with the Kouvola, Finland KiwiSDR.

2013 UTC-The Power of Love by Céline Dion
2017 UTC-OFF
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 2017 UTC by Shortwave_listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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UNID 3015 AM 2013 UTC 1 OCT 2022
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2022, 2019 UTC »
S7 with the Kouvola, Finland KiwiSDR but sounding weak.

2017 UTC-Девочка из детства by Sergei Orlov
2021 UTC-OFF
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 2021 UTC by Shortwave_listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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UNID 3131 AM 1538 UTC 6 OCT 2022
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2022, 1540 UTC »
S5 with the Joensuu, Finland KiwiSDR. Incredibly drifty signal.

1538 UTC-Ваше благородие, госпожа удача (Из к/ф "Белое солнце пустыни") by Павел Луспекаев
1541 UTC-Unknown music
« Last Edit: October 06, 2022, 1542 UTC by Shortwave_listener »
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline kris

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Re: Radio Hooligans log
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2022, 1739 UTC »
1704 3039v AM S9+25 second catch this UA music station, Night is moonlight  Folk Song Band Riabinushka
1706 M Ru/Ua count test MIC, next Ua song, gone?

  1729 3035,8 QSY or new UA , tchastuschka
  1731 W Ua ..Ja rodilaś w Ukrainu
RX888 ( SDR-FE-PLAY, HRD-747, Sony XDR-F1HD),
Ant. Sky Loop 180m 15m AGL, Sky Loop 120m 35m AGL
       + QRM X-phase eliminator
QTH: Gdańsk N.Poland  Ru/Sp/Gr/Sb=Russian,Spanish,Greek,Serbien
eQSL appreciated to: 13krzycho@gmail.com

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: Radio Hooligans log
« Reply #12 on: November 01, 2022, 1518 UTC »
Topic now locked, all further loggings of these stations should go in European MW Pirates.
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive