Tag Archives: Halloween

Halloween is a Pirate Radio Playground!

Halloween is typically the most active day of the year for shortwave pirates. Spend some time on the HF bands tonight and you’ll easily tune in to numerous stations. Expect pirates to emerge like The Great Pumpkin!

Here are two things you’ll want to do this Halloween weekend:

HF Underground

hfunderground

Follow real-time pirate radio spots and loggings on the HF Underground discussion forum. If you’ve never tuned to a pirate in the past, these real-time loggings will help you find pirates while they’re on the air and also help you ID them!

Listen!

Listen for pirate radio stations tonight!  Turn on your radio anytime today, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,920 – 6,980 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re bound to hear a few. If you’re brand new to pirate radio listening, you might read my pirate radio primer by clicking here.

Happy Halloween to all! 

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The Halloween Storm of 2003

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who shares the following item from Spaceweather.com:


20 YEARS LATER, THE HALLOWEEN STORMS

A CME heading straight for Earth on Oct. 28, 2003. The source was an X17-flare in the magnetic canopy of giant sunspot 486. Image credit: SOHO. Movie

Imagine waking up to this headline: “Half of Earth’s Satellites Lost!” Impossible? It actually happened during the Great Halloween Storms of 2003.

Turn back the clock 20 years. Solar Cycle 23 was winding down, and space weather forecasters were talking about how quiet things would soon become. Suddenly, the sun unleashed two of the strongest solar flares of the Space Age–an X17 flare on Oct. 28 followed by an X10 on Oct 29, 2003. Both hurled fast CMEs directly toward Earth.

Traveling 2125 km/s and 1948 km/s, respectively, each CME reached Earth in less than a day, sparking extreme (G5) geomagnetic storms on Oct. 29, 30, and 31, 2003. Auroras descended as far south as Georgia, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma: photo gallery.

Onboard the International Space Station, astronauts took shelter in the hardened Zvezda service module to protect themselves from high energy particles. Meanwhile, airline pilots were frantically changing course. Almost every flight over Earth’s poles detoured to lower latitudes to avoid radiation, costing as much as $100,000 per flight. Many Earth-orbiting satellites experienced data outages, reboots and even unwanted thruster firings. Some operators simply gave up and turned their instruments off. [Continue reading at Spaceweather.com…]

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Halloween weekend will offer up excellent SW pirate listening!

Halloween is typically the most active day of the year for shortwave pirates. This year, Halloween falls on Sunday, October 31st which essentially opens up a Friday through Sunday Halloween Piratefest. Expect pirates to emerge like The Great Pumpkin!

Here are two things you’ll want to do this Halloween weekend:

HF Underground

hfunderground

Follow real-time pirate radio spots and loggings on the HF Underground discussion forum. Chris Smolinski at HFU typically posts post-Halloween pirate stats on the SWLing Post as well–always a fascinating overview.

You might also venture over to Andrew Yoder’s pirate radio blog, the Hobby Broadcasting blog. Although he doesn’t log frequently, he usually makes time on Halloween (no pressure, Andy! Ha ha!)

Listen!

Photo by Bill Patalon

Listen for pirate radio stations today and throughout the weekend!  Turn on your radio anytime today, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,920 – 6,980 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re bound to hear a few. If you’re brand new to pirate radio listening, you might read my pirate radio primer by clicking here. I will be listening until late in the evening.

Happy Halloween to all! 

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Fred suggests a Halloween Spooktacular!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fred Waterer, who writes:

This is going to meander a bit from shortwave, but I’ll give you a heads up in case it’s of interest.

October 31 is a Sunday this year and lines up with Michael Godin’s Treasure Island Oldies show

But…

This year there is a cool bonus!

Michael’s Annual Halloween Spooktacular, features four hours of great spooky and Halloween themed tunes. As usual, the show runs from 9pm EDT to 1am EDT (6pm PDT, 0100 UTC)

However if you tune in earlier at 6pm EDT (3pm PDT 2200 UTC) he will present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre with their notorious 1938 edition of War of the Worlds. This will be followed by Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, a musical version narrated by Sir Richard Burton and vocals by The Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward.

You can listen online via Michael’s website Treasure Island Oldies Radio Show, The Home Of Lost Treasures or some of the affiliates that carry him. My go to station in this regard is WTND.org, operated by former WBCQ broadcasters Tom and Darryl who had the Tom and Darryl Show.

It’s just not Halloween for me until I hear Orson Welles’ famous radio play.

Fred Waterer

PS Treasure Island Oldies is one of the longest running internet radio shows ever; broadcasting since 1997.

Thank you for the ip, Fred! And, yes, War of the Worlds is a must!

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Halloween: A playground for shortwave pirates!

Halloween is typically the most active day of the year for shortwave pirates. Halloween falls on Thursday, October 31st, and although this is the middle of the week, expect pirates to emerge like The Great Pumpkin!

Here are three things you’ll want to do Halloween night:

1. Hobby Broadcasting Blog

Check out Andrew Yoder’s pirate radio blog ,the Hobby Broadcasting blog.

Andrew is the author of the Pirate Radio Annual and a guru on shortwave pirate radio. Andrew has already logged some Halloween stations this weekend.

2. HF Underground

hfunderground

Follow real-time pirate radio spots and loggings on the HF Underground discussion forum. Chris Smolinski at HFU typically posts post-Halloween pirate stats on the SWLing Post as well–always a fascinating overview.

3. Listen!

Photo by Bill Patalon

Listen for pirate radio stations today and throughout the weekend!  Turn on your radio anytime today, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,920 – 6,980 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re bound to hear a few. If you’re brand new to pirate radio listening, you might read my pirate radio primer by clicking here. I will be listening until late in the evening.

Happy Halloween to all! 

Spread the radio love

Halloween: Listen for shortwave pirates!

Halloween is typically the most active day of the year for shortwave pirates. Halloween falls on Wednesday, October 31st, and although this is the middle of the week, expect pirates to emerge like The Great Pumpkin!

Here are three things you’ll want to do Halloween night:

1. Hobby Broadcasting Blog

Check out Andrew Yoder’s pirate radio blog ,the Hobby Broadcasting blog.

Andrew is the author of the Pirate Radio Annual and a guru on shortwave pirate radio. Andrew has already logged some Halloween stations this weekend.

2. HF Underground

hfunderground

Follow real-time pirate radio spots and loggings on the HF Underground discussion forum. Chris Smolinski at HFU typically posts post-Halloween pirate stats on the SWLing Post as well–always a fascinating overview.

3. Listen!

Photo by Bill Patalon

Listen for pirate radio stations today and throughout the weekend!  Turn on your radio anytime today, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,920 – 6,980 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re bound to hear a few. If you’re brand new to pirate radio listening, you might read my pirate radio primer by clicking here. I will be listening until late in the evening.

Happy Halloween to all! 

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