Radio Pushka 6920 AM 0519 UTC 7 Jul 2022

[Shortwave_Listener]

Best signal (S9) with the Point Reyes, California KiwiSDR. Not audible on the W3HFU KiwiSDR. Audible on other KiwiSDR’s in and near California.

0519 UTC-SSTV?
0523 UTC-SSTV ends, tone, then another SSTV without the part at the beginning that starts the decoder
0525 UTC-Tone over the SSTV?
0526 UTC-Different SSTV sound
0529 UTC-Regular sounding SSTV
0530 UTC-Tone, next SSTV still without the start
0535 UTC-Modulated RTTY?
0537 UTC-Unknown digital mode then SSTV?
0621 UTC-Music, too weak for Shazam to ID
0623 UTC-Next unknown music
0626 UTC-Unknown Music in a foreign language?
0627 UTC-Next Unknown Music
0631 UTC-Next unknown music, not sure of what genre this is but it is modern
0641 UTC-Next unknown music

1601 UTC-It is still going this morning! More unknown music. Severe ute QRM.
1620 UTC-Station ID? Too weak to understand
1627 UTC-Station ID? Included “an event”
1638 UTC-Station ID?
1657 UTC-Unknown music
1725 UTC-Signal now very poor, fading out
1922 UTC-Still have a weak signal
2349 UTC-Still going

0112 UTC-Gone

Edit: Just listening back to my recording now at 0300 UTC. There is a clear Radio Pushka identification recorded at 1633 UTC.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

Nothing heard at 0015 UTC 08 July.

I suspect that this may be (or is associated with) Radio Pushka, given the frequency, the content, the time of the signal fade and the long duration.

[Shortwave_Listener]

Interesting, I thought they were inactive. I will keep listening to see if they show up again. I might post my recording of the weird SSTV signals to see if anyone can decode it. I wish I had time to have a closer listen for the ID. I originally heard the music soon before I was going to go to sleep and I went somewhere early this morning and it was gone when I got back. I recorded some of the music so I will listen back and see if there was any useful ID.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

Interesting, I thought they were inactive.

Lately it seems that is true but it would not be unheard of for someone to switch on their transmitter out of the blue, for no particular reason.

[Pigmeat]

Interesting, I thought they were inactive.

Lately it seems that is true but it would not be unheard of for someone to switch on their transmitter out of the blue, for no particular reason.

Yep, one minute it's sittin' there doing nothin' and "Wham!" it's on and broadcasting.
 
Transmitters are funny things.

[Shortwave_Listener]

Interesting, I thought they were inactive.

Lately it seems that is true but it would not be unheard of for someone to switch on their transmitter out of the blue, for no particular reason.

Yep, one minute it's sittin' there doing nothin' and "Wham!" it's on and broadcasting.
 
Transmitters are funny things.

I should have been more specific, it has been 3 months since he was last heard until this logging. I have seen longer (Cold Country Canada has gone over a year between broadcasts) but most pirates broadcast more frequently than that. It is especially noteworthy because he operated almost daily from 12 July 2021 until 20 March 2022 so 3 months of nothing is unusual.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

Yep, one minute it's sittin' there doing nothin' and "Wham!" it's on and broadcasting.
 
Transmitters are funny things.

Ahhhh, but that's not what I wrote, Mr. PorkFlesh. Didn't say anything about haunted transmitters.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

I should have been more specific,

No, I think most of us understood (I know that I did) but the extra detail is fine and since you are doing it, I shall too, at the risk of being ridiculously pedantic.

I was actually not joking around with that answer.

There are no rules. (It is supposed to be lawless, not bound by rules, regulations and conventions, after all.) Stations come and go, change their name(s) on a whim (e.g. Zeeky and Outhouse). Many never give an ID and just want to play some music. I personally don't expect a schedule or a fixed format (e.g., Ball Smacker), but if that's what someone wants to do, that's OK too. 

Why was the transmitter on? I don't know. Maybe the guy flipped the transmitter on to show his girlfriend and forgot about it. Maybe he flipped it on to drive around to check the signal in the next state/province over and it took him 12 hours to come home and turn it off. Maybe he was testing his new station operation software and needed 24 hours to do it well. Maybe he left it on because it was a Wednesday night, he felt like getting drunk and fell asleep.

So the fact a signal was heard that bears some resemblance to an entity once known as "Radio Pushka" (and might be called "Radio Mildred's Tattoo and Dog Wash Emporium International" when it resurfaces next week/month/year/decade) is, as you say, notable, but we can also speculate for months about what it was and never find out too. Maybe I'm completely wrong and it was not Radio Pushka. I'm not going to get too hung up on what it was that you heard other than to note what it seemed like to me and that is where I will leave it.

Cheers

[Shortwave_Listener]

I have listened back to a recording I made and edited my original post and wrote
“Edit: Just listening back to my recording now at 0300 UTC. There is a clear Radio Pushka identification recorded at 1633 UTC.” So now I know for certain it is Radio Pushka

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

So now I know for certain it is Radio Pushka

(Insert thumbs up emoji.)

[Shortwave_Listener]

I should have been more specific,

No, I think most of us understood (I know that I did) but the extra detail is fine and since you are doing it, I shall too, at the risk of being ridiculously pedantic.

I was actually not joking around with that answer.

There are no rules. (It is supposed to be lawless, not bound by rules, regulations and conventions, after all.) Stations come and go, change their name(s) on a whim (e.g. Zeeky and Outhouse). Many never give an ID and just want to play some music. I personally don't expect a schedule or a fixed format (e.g., Ball Smacker), but if that's what someone wants to do, that's OK too. 

Why was the transmitter on? I don't know. Maybe the guy flipped the transmitter on to show his girlfriend and forgot about it. Maybe he flipped it on to drive around to check the signal in the next state/province over and it took him 12 hours to come home and turn it off. Maybe he was testing his new station operation software and needed 24 hours to do it well. Maybe he left it on because it was a Wednesday night, he felt like getting drunk and fell asleep.

So the fact a signal was heard that bears some resemblance to an entity once known as "Radio Pushka" (and might be called "Radio Mildred's Tattoo and Dog Wash Emporium International" when it resurfaces next week/month/year/decade) is, as you say, notable, but we can also speculate for months about what it was and never find out too. Maybe I'm completely wrong and it was not Radio Pushka. I'm not going to get too hung up on what it was that you heard other than to note what it seemed like to me and that is where I will leave it.

Cheers

I know you understood. I shouldn’t have included that quote from you as I was talking to Pigmeat.

[Pigmeat]

Talking to? Don't you mean typing at? All of this is bits of information being sent along an electronic network and therefore not a "real life" interaction. I could be a bot.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

I could be a bot.

Yes and I could be Brittany Spears.

[Pigmeat]

I think she prefers "Britney."

Almost all pirates have several station names at once, it's part of the game. I can't count or recall all the stations I had in my ten years as a pirate, not counting relays for other pirates,SWL. The biggest tell is the announcers voice. Pitch, phrasing, and accent are hard to change w/o professional voice training.

Don't sweat the stuff like who it is, just find some programming you like, and the "Hey,it's those guys again" when you run across some other stuff they're doing will fall into place.   

[Shortwave_Listener]

I have now got my sound card working and I can decode SSTV images. I recorded about 30 minuets of the SSTV images sent on July 7 and today I played the recording back through the SSTV decoder. The recorded signal was very weak and most of the images showed almost nothing but static. Regardless, I am posting the best (least static) images in case anyone is interested or can tell what any of the things in the pictures are.