For your listening pleasure: over one hour of the pirate radio station, MAC Shortwave. I recorded this broadcast on April 27, 2014 starting around 00:05 UTC, on 6,950 kHz AM.
MAC Shortwave features host “Jimmy Stewart” and some excellent big band music.
The first SWLing Post reader to identify this MAC Shortwave interval signal gets extra credit!
Simply click here to download an MP3 of the recording, or listen via the embedded player below:
Last month, I was interviewed by NK News regarding the possibility of using inexpensive SDR dongles
While not yet as portable as an SDR dongle, Anonymous is developing a tool called AirChat which will allow long-distance communications via radio. AirChat borrows from Fldigi: a free application that decodes a variety of digital modes and has been used by amateur radio operators for years. Indeed, Fldigi is the same software you’ve used to decode broadcasts from VOA Radiogram and the new STF Radio.
Many thanks to the excellent Southgate ARC news site for this article about AirChat:
(Source: Southgate ARC)
The International Business Times reports that the online hacktivist collective Anonymous has announced that it is working on a new tool called Airchat which could allow people to communicate without the need for a phone or an internet connection – it uses radio waves instead
Initially the data mode software AirChat used code from ‘minimodem’ and then from ‘soundmodem’ sources but they say after suggestions from radio amateurs involved in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), they decided to make it modular to use the Fldigi software, a broadly deployed solution for use with ham radios.
They say “So far we have played interactive chess games with people at 180 miles away. we have shared pictures and established encrypted low bandwidth digital voice chats. We have 3D printed over distances of 80 miles and transmitted medical orders at distances of over 100 miles.”
So far Yaesu FT-897D’s amateur transceivers have been used and the developers are also looking at using low-cost ($40) VHF/UHF handheld transceivers.
Read the International Business Times story
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-airchat-aims-allow-
communication-without-needing-phone-internet-access-1445888
LulzLabs AirChat
https://github.com/lulzlabs/AirChat/
You can read about the goals of AirChat on their Github site and follow AirChat on Twitter with the hash tags #lulzlabs and #AirChat.
Anonymous has also posted the following video–a demo of AirChat:
For your listening pleasure: a short 20 minute broadcast from the pirate radio station, Chairman of the Board Radio–recorded Saturday, April 12, 2014 starting around 3:30 UTC.
Chairman of the Board Radio was broadcasting on 6,935 kHz in the upper side band. As you’ll hear, the signal was quite strong, with just a little compression noise.
I really enjoyed this short set of Frank Sinatra tunes. You’ll hear the station ID at the end with a shout out to listeners in Chicago.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3 or simply listen via the embedded player below:
The MV Mi Amigo, c. 1974, which had been used as the home of Radio Caroline South from 1964-1967 (Photo: Albertoke from NL)
I wish my schedule and travel funds would have allowed me to attend Offshore Radio Day 2014, held in the Netherlands last week. Fortunately for those of us who couldn’t attend, Jonathan Marks posted an excellent set of photos and commentary from the event.
Of course, Radio Caroline dominated the show–after all, she turned 50 this year. Yesterday morning, I noticed an article from ITV, whose first paragraph sums up the impact of the offshore radio movement created by Radio Caroline:
“Precisely 50 years ago this Friday, test transmissions began for a radio station that would help to change the face of broadcasting across the UK. It would shape the laws of our land, and make superstars of the people on air. That radio station was Caroline – an unlicensed, “pirate” broadcaster, transmitting from a ship anchored just outside British waters.”
If you’ve been an SWLing Post reader for long, you’ll know how much I dig pirate radio. Not only are pirate stations great fun to hunt down and listen to on the radio, but these stations are still movers, shakers, and innovators in a world where large media conglomerates buy up and attempt to control local radio markets. Pirates prevent the homogenization of our radio landscape, with offerings of genuine musical diversity. Indeed, I’d wager that I’ve purchased over a dozen highly varied songs and/or albums on iTunes and Amazon, truly unique music, all brought to my attention by shortwave pirates.
So raise your glass to Radio Caroline this week! Long may she sail. If you’d like to learn a little more about RC‘s history, check out some of these links:
Two weeks ago, Make Magazine published a simple hack that turns your Raspberry Pi
into a low-powered and portable FM transmitter/radio station.
For those of you not familiar, the Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The RasPi is a cleverly-designed, useful device–especially if you like tinkering with mobile computing. Best yet, the Raspberry Pi is very inexpensive; the basic computer costs a mere $40 US, though there are starter kits that include common accessories for $70-80
One of the first things I did upon returning home, following nearly two weeks of US east-coast travel (which included the Winter SWL Fest), was to build my own Rasberry Pirate Radio. I had hoped to make the radio before my trip, but thought I wouldn’t have enough time. Had I known what I know now–that the Raspberry Pirate Radio is a super simple and easy hack–I would have made it anyhow and taken it along for the ride.
My antenna wire connected to pin 4. (Click to enlarge)
To be fair, what makes this project so simple is the fact that Make Magazine so beautifully documents the procedure on their website. It also helped that I have a little familiarity with creating disk images–still, I’m certain that if I were a total newbie, I could have done all of this within 30 minutes…Which is just what I did. And I’ll bet you can, too.
There are really only three steps required to make your own Raspberry Pirate Radio:
After I finished these steps, I simply plugged in my Raspberry Pi and tuned one of my radios to 89.9 MHz (the frequency I chose and saved to the config file). The Pi booted and started the Raspberry Pirate Radio script automatically. Brilliant!
It’s alive!
Being a shortwave radio nut, of course I loaded my Raspberry Pirate Radio with a few gigabytes of my off-air recordings that are a heavy on music (all of which you, too, can pull from our Shortwave Radio Audio Archive). It’s kind of fun tuning my bedside Tivoli Audio Model One
I’ve kept the Raspberry Pirate Radio running nearly 24/7 here at home. I’ve also had excellent luck running the radio mobile by using my Eton Rechargeable Battery Pack
If you want to take your Raspberry Pirate Radio in the car, it’s a simple matter to power it with a 5VDC USB power plug. You probably already have what you need, especially if you charge your mobile phone in the car.
If you’ve never experimented with the Raspberry Pi, this is a perfect first project for you. Just think about it: for under $50, you can make a simple-yet-effective FM radio station which shuffles your favorite music or recordings from any source–from obscure radio pirates to far more distant stations. Besides, once you have a Raspberry Pi, you’ll find there are thousands of other radio projects to occupy your rainy weekends. Enjoy!
Many thanks to Make Magazine for posting this simple project!
Update: Several people have written concerned that the Raspberry Pirate Radio has no output filtering of its RF signal. This is true. Though I have not tested it, I would have to assume that it could radiate on harmonic frequencies and potentially interfere with other radios. Though the broadcast footprint is very small, if you live in a high-density neighborhood, you will need to keep this in mind. I live in a very rural area and my nearest neighbor couldn’t possibly hear my Raspberry Pirate Radio.
I’m very curious if there’s a simple mod to filter the output RF. If you can think of one, please comment!
Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic SSTV QSL (Click to enlarge)
Last night, after returning from nearly two weeks of travel, I recorded pirate station, Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic. It was great to hear their strong USB signal on the air.
RGI appeared on 6,930 kHz USB around 2:45 UTC (or so) and started their broadcast with a set of audio sweeps and then straight into the Dr. Who theme. At the end of the broadcast, I captured RGI‘s SSTV QSL via the CQ SSTV iOS app.
Click here to download their broadcast as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the urge to make a Raspberry Pi-rate graphic.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Paul, for this article on Make Magazine that teaches you how to turn your Raspberry Pi
What a simple hack:
(If the embedded video above doesn’t appear, simply click here to watch at Makezine.com.)
Raspberry Pi’s are very inexpensive (less than $40 US on Amazon)