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:
“Wow–those were short!”
I was travelling Saturday night, but had the foresight to set my WinRadio Excalibur to record the pirate spectrum. There were few pirates on the band–less than I would have expected to hear on a holiday weekend in the US–and some of them were plagued by a local broadcaster whose spurious emissions wiped out the whole band at times.
I did catch a couple of interesting unidentified broadcasts, most likely transmitter tests as both were very short. The first broadcast came on around 3:10 UTC (Jan 20) and consisted of two songs, ending with the Tardis sound effect from Dr. Who. Click here to download the MP3 file, or listen in the player below:
The second broadcast came on just after 7:00 UTC and consisted of only one song–no IDs at all. I would suspect this was the same pirate; however, the first broadcast had a tinny sound that this broadcast lacked. Indeed, their USB signal was quite amazing (wish s/he would have broadcast a full show). Click here to download the recording, or listen via the player below:
Please comment if you think you can ID these broadcasts.
Friday night (late) I caught Renegade Radio on 6.93 MHz in the upper side band.
Renegade’s signal was consistently clear for unusually noisy conditions, though the station was occasionally plagued with transmitter problems. I did not edit these out in the recording because dead air never exceeded a few minutes. So, if you hear dead air, simply fast-foward a minute or two. Total broadcast exceeds one hour and, near the end, Renegade informs us that his transmitter was getting hot. I’ll bet: I don’t know Renegade’s set-up, but many pirates use modified ham radio transceivers that were never intended for those 100% duty cycles, often at full power. Keeps a pirate warm on a winter night, though!
Feel free to listen to the recording of Renegade Radio in the embedded player below, or right click and save this link to download the MP3 directly:
(Source: SunSentinel)
It was a mystery no one could solve — until now.
For months, dozens of people could not use their keyless entry systems to unlock or start their cars whenever they parked near the Hollywood Police Department. Once the cars were towed to the dealers, the problem miraculously disappeared.
Police have since cracked the case.
Turns out the problem wasn’t with the cars, the batteries or even user error, but an illegal pirate radio station that was jamming the signal from keyless entry systems of several makes of cars, including Lexus and Toyota. The man behind the bootleg operation likely had no idea it would lock people out of their cars, police say.
Lynn Jacobson, who lives on Van Buren Street a mile west of police headquarters, was frustrated for months trying to get into her car.
“It was happening every day,” Jacobson said. “We were getting desperate. It got to where every time I went out to the car I’d say, ‘Please let it open.'”
Detectives are still searching for the man who set up the bootleg station on the roof of the eight-story Regents bank building at 450 Park Road, a block north of police headquarters. The station was broadcasting Caribbean music around the clock through 104.7 FM, police say.
If found, the man could be arrested on felony charges and face a fine of at least $10,000 from the Federal Communications Commission. [Continue reading…]
Note that it’s not just pirate stations that unintentionally jam keyless entry. I know an AM broadcaster on 1290 kHz that blocks keyless entry on many GM cars for a one mile radius around their tower. Doesn’t seem to bother Toyota, though. Guess they prefer FM pirates.
Santa likes Dit Dah Radio!
Being a fan of Morse code (or CW), I have a special affinity for pirates that use “the sacred language” in their broadcasts.
Last night, around 00:30 UTC (only a few minutes after WKND began broadcasting) I heard Morse Code on 6.935 MHz USB.
If you, too, love Morse code, you’ll love “Dit Dah Radio;” after their preamble in Morse code, they follow with The Capris’ 1960’s hit, Morse Code of Love.
You can download the full recording as an MP3 file by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below:
“Wow, that WKND sounds good!”
The holidays are a great time to listen for pirates on the shortwave spectrum. Since many pirates are on holiday leave from their day jobs, they have a little more time to broadcast.
Last night, the first pirate I heard was WKND on 9,625 kHz AM.
His station was quite clear, but modulation, perhaps, a tad low. Other noises, including Spanish SSB, can be heard in the background.
Click here to download the full MP3 recording of WKND, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Last weekend, I also managed to record the shortwave radio pirate known as Liquid Radio–perhaps best known for their activity on the FM spectrum and on the web.
Liquid Radio’s format couldn’t be more different than our last pirate recording from Radio Casablanca; Liquid Radio plays a trance/techno/dance mix. Their last broadcast was nearly three hours long, and you’ll hear how fickle the propagation was as the signal waxes and wanes. I started recording their AM signal on 6.94 MHz around 4:00 UTC on Dec 16th.
You can click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen in the embedded player below: