Category Archives: Music

Pirate Radio Recordings: Wolverine Radio

“It’s time for some Wolverine Radio!”

Wolverine Radio was the strongest of the pirate radio stations I heard last night.

Wolverine was broadcasting on 6.935 MHz in the upper side band. Very good signal and excellent fidelity for SSB. Typical of Wolverine, lots of music variety and no commentary other than station ID throughout.

Wolverine Radio–at least each time I’ve heard them–sends an SSTV image at the end of the broadcast. Last night was no exception, though I had a difficult time decoding, and no time to tinker.

UPDATE: Thanks, Ragnar of Pirates Week, for both of the Wolverine images.

Ragnar decoded both SSTV graphics using using MMSTV in Scottie1 mode.

Click here to download an MP3 of Wolverine Radio’s broadcast, or stream via the embedded player below:

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Radio Australia’s Jazz Notes

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Jazz Notes presenter, Ivan Lloyd (Photo: Radio Australia)

One Radio Australia music program I make a point of listening to each week– besides Saturday Night Country–is a wonderful show called Jazz Notes.

Jazz Notes showcases the best in Australian jazz, often featuring new and original recordings made in ABC’s studios. The show is hosted by Ivan Lloyd and has been offered on Radio Australia for several years. I listen to the show every Wednesday morning at 8:30 am EST. If you’ve never heard of Jazz Notes, I can understand why, since it’s only a 30 minute show and begins at the half hour–but it’s certainly worth hearing.

Next week, make a point to tune your shortwave radio to 5940, 9580 or 11945 kHz on Wednesday at 13:30 UTC. As you will hear in the following recording, listeners in North America will be most impressed by the strong signal out of Shepparton, Australia, on 9,580 kHz. Even an inexpensive portable receiver can pick up this robust broadcast.

Click here to download the full recording of Jazz Notes as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: The Giant Jukebox and Kim Elliott’s digital text on The Mighty KBC

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wurlitzerJukebox The Mighty KBC’s broadcast from Bulgaria was mighty strong last night into North America. I recorded the full 2 hour show of The Giant Jukebox on 9,450 kHz beginning at 00:00 UTC.

As I’ve come to expect from The Mighty KBC, this show has an marvelous mix of rock-n-roll through the decades along with Eric’s professional DJing. The Mighty KBC has real people behind the music mix, a refreshing alternative to the iHeart Radio and Pandoras of the world.

Click here to download an MP3 of the entire show, or simply listen via the embedded Archive.org player below:

Of course, this recording includes Kim Elliott’s digital text modes. For those of you who would like to decode it, here are the details:

At about 01:30 into the recording, 4xPSK63R is centered on 1000 Hz and MFSK64 centered on 2000 Hz. (For 4XPSK63R, use Fldigi 3.21.65 or newer: OpMode > PSKR > MultiCarrier > 4XPSK63R.)

At just before the end of the transmission, an image will be transmitted in the MFSK16 mode. Also, MT63-2000 (long interleave) will be centered on 1500 Hz. This will be an Flmsg formatted transmission, with html. Fldigi and Flmsg can be downloaded from www.w1hkj.com.

Please comment if you were able to decode.

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Red Mercury Labs

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electromagneticradiowaves Last Saturday night, I caught the shortwave radio pirate, Red Mercury Labs, on 6.9251 MHz in the upper side band.

This broadcast, which started around 1:57 UTC, contains a great mix of rock music with some commentary throughout.

You can download the full recording as an MP3 file by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy:

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: All India Radio – Ravi Shankar

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Ravi Shankar passed away December 11, 2012. Like many people, Shankar was a complicated fellow, but no one can deny his talent on the Sitar. His music will live with us forever, not to mention through the musical talents of his children, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones.

I recorded this clip of him on All India Radio some weeks ago. Click here to download or enjoy below:

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Firedrake?

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“Mum, this sounds like Firedrake. Quick, make a note of it in the logs!”

I’ve noticed a broadcaster that routinely transmits weekends at 11:00 UTC on 6,970 kHz. Some mornings, it’s much stronger than others. Saturday morning, my time, I managed to record it in its typical format: music. Specifically, Chinese folk music, at least so it sounds to my untrained ear.

I searched through logs and in the WRTH, and I could find no mention of a broadcaster on 6970 kHz. It doesn’t help that the 27 minute broadcast contained no audible IDs.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that my initial hunch is correct–that this is the Chinese jamming service, Firedrake. Using Firedrake, the Chinese government transmits music on top of broadcasts they wish to block. It’s fairly effective (and annoying). While I’ve heard Firedrake a number of times over the bands, I can’t say I’ve ever tried to listen to the one-hour production.

The following recording contains a 27 minute broadcast of what I believe may be Firedrake on 6,970 kHz, starting around 11:00 UTC, Saturday January 26, 2013. Click here to download the MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Note that the first two minutes have some digital noises (in the lower side band) that affected my receiver’s AGC.

If you can confirm or correct my supposition, please comment!

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Voice of Greece music

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For your listening pleasure: 193 minutes of music, and a little Greek commentary, from the Voice of Greece. Recorded on Friday, January 18th–starting around 22:30 UTC–on 9.42 MHz.