Category Archives: Pirate Radio

Remembering radio enthusiast Jay Smilkstein

I’ve only attended the Winter SWLFest for  four years thus far, yet the friends I’ve made there have become like family. It shouldn’t be a surprise, really; we’re all passionate about radio and things related to radio and broadcasting. It’s an event where we can be who we are–no need to explain to these compatriots why you like tuning in shortwave stations, while the internet seems (at least to everyone else) to be so much easier.

Jay had a strong interest in AM DXing, tube gear, amplifiers and, I learned this year, IF filter design.

Jay Smilkstein, 1961-2012.

Our friend Jay was, I believe, at the higher-functioning end of the autism spectrum.  While Jay had some social hang-ups and behaviors that made some uncomfortable, fortunately, at the SWLFest, there were a number of folks who went out of their way to take Jay under a wing, assist him with personal interactions, and generally welcome him back  each year.

I’m pretty sure that he considered the SWLFest, and many he’d interacted with over the airwaves, his radio family, too.

Jay passed away suddenly from a heart attack two days ago, on Monday, March 12th, 2012.

As my friend, David, phrased it:  Long may you ride the radio waves you loved so much.

 

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London pirate radio documentary offers insight

This documentary certainly touches on the motivation behind most pirate radio stations. I should note that while many FM pirate stations are dissapearing with the advent of online sources, shortwave pirates seem to be going strong and they use many of the same remote transmitter tactics that appear in this short film.

If you have trouble watching the embedded video above, please click here for the documentary video page.

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Christmas tunes via pirate radio

Last night–Christmas Eve–I recorded a few minutes of pirate radio station, Wolverine Radio on 6,925 kHz USB. Their signal was very strong here into the shack. Wolverine played a selection of several rockin’ Christmas songs.

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

If media player does not appear above, please click here to listen via Archive.org.

FYI: Receiver – Alinco DX-R8T, Recorder – Zoom H1 recorded in-line, Antenna  – 40 meter vertical delta loop.

 

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11 GB+ of digital pirate radio recordings

(Source: TextFiles.com via Radio Survivor)

Since the 1990s, a fellow named Sealord has been recording pirate radio broadcasts coming across shortwave bands. Without authorization, license, or any sort of oversight, all manner of folks have been broadcasting illegal but probably not overly immoral shows out into the air. This collection, which is over 11 gigabytes and counting, has hours and hours of radio broadcasts, crackling with the sound of distant voices shouting over static and electromagnetic corruption. With names like XYZ Digital Pirate, Wolverine Radio, Whispery ID, Thinking Man Radio, The Voice of the Last DJ…. you’re talking some strange and mysterious personalities out there.

Not only is this collection worth checking out, but the whole of archive.org is an amazing collection of similar digital archives. I have listened to some of Sealord’s collection in the past but never recognized the extent of the total anthology. What an amazing service to us in the radio community who believe in the importance of preserving the sounds of the shortwaves.

On that note, I humbly ask that if you ever record shortwave audio, please consider uploading the uncompressed file to archive.org so that your recording can be shared and properly archived.  I’ve certainly uploaded many hours of shortwave radio recordings on behalf of SWLing.com (though, nowhere near 11GB and counting!).

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Chase some pirates this weekend!

Start your search for pirate radio stations in the watering hole at 6,925 kHz and tune up to 7,000 kHz.

As I sit here in front of my radios this Friday evening, I notice the news on National Geographic that we have one of the largest sun spots to face us since 2005. This sunspot is the size of Jupiter! It’s all a little too coincidental on 11-11-11.

It can only mean one thing…

Turn on your radio and tune in some pirates!

For those of you new to pirate radio, most–but not all–activity can be found between 6,925 – 7,000 kHz (i.e. just below the 40 meter ham radio band). Pirates are not professional broadcasters, thus work  a day job during the week. That’s why you’re most likely to hear pirates Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Pirate signals are often faint–though perhaps old Sol may help a bit, depending on other conditions. For what it’s worth, I just heard a pirate on my tiny Degen DE321 portable (that review out tomorrow). Very good sign, indeed.  Just in case, consider reading our post on using SSB to help dig pirate signals out of the static.

What are you waiting for? Go chase some pirates!

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Using exalted carrier reception to tune in pirate radio

I’ve found that one side benefit of installing a 40 meter delta loop this past weekend is that I now have an antenna which is practically ideal for listening to pirate radio stations in and around the 6925 kHz “watering hole.” So, I’ve been spent a lot of evenings recently listening for pirates with the new antenna.

Shortwave Pirate MAC Shortwave featured DJ Ultraman

Shortwave Pirate MAC Shortwave featured DJ Ultraman

But Sunday night was a noisy night on the 40 meter band–I was hearing active static crashes probably associated with hurricane Irene. I did pick up a relatively strong signal from pirate station MAC Shortwave with DJ Ultraman at around 20:40 EST (00:40 UTC)–listen to the end of the broadcast here:

Note that I start the recording using the Alinco DX-R8T, but find the bandwidth too wide (hence the adjacent broadcaster you hear), so I switch to my Palstar R30C. One bonus in this recording: Commander Bunny’s parody of “I Shot the Monkey” originally recorded from WBNY studios. 

At the top of the hour I heard Renegade Radio start a broadcast, but the signal was very weak here in the southeastern US. In fact, I couldn’t even ID the station. So, I turned to a trick I’ve used on tabletop and portable shortwave radios alike–namely, Exalted Carrier Reception (ECR) also known as Exalted Carrier Single Sideband (ECSS) reception.

What is ECR or ECSS?

Simply put, it’s when you tune in an AM broadcast using the SSB mode on your radio. In my case, I turned on the USB  (upper side band) mode on my Palstar and zero-beat the frequency–meaning, I tuned out the hetrodyne whine until the audio sounded as natural as possible.

This is sort of a “poor man’s version” of synchronous detection (and, frankly, a little inferior to sync detection on most radios).  Still, in this case, it made a huge difference in the intelligibility of the broadcast.

Why does it work?  Well, as my ham buddy Mike recently explained it:”You are removing any selective fading problems by filtering away one of the sidebands and injecting a carrier of steady amplitude which eliminates the ‘tearing’ heard when a broadcast carrier is varying in amplitude.”  Got that?

The Palstar R30 in USB mode tuned to Renegade Radio

At any rate, one of the reasons it works so well on my Palstar is because I can keep the bandwidth set rather wide while listening in SSB, thus helping a bit with the loss of fidelity that happens when moving off of the AM mode. If your radio automatically switches to a narrow filter in SSB mode, the audio fidelity may take a bigger hit, and degrade further.

Though I don’t have a comparison without using the ECR/ECSS method, I can tell you that the AM signal was barely audible. After tuning in using ECR, it became armchair listening.

Listen to almost one hour of Renegade Radio for yourself:

Those of you who have old radios with a very stable variable BFO (beat frequency oscillator) instead of a product detector might try using your BFO tuning to inject the BFO directly over the fading broadcast carrier to accomplish same kind of reception as ECR.

So, next time you have difficulty hearing a weak shortwave station, consider turning on the SSB mode and using the ECR/ECSS method. You may like what you hear!  Ahoy, there…

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Pirate Radio and Hurricane Irene

Last night, I tuned to the pirate radio watering hole of 6,925 kHz shortwave. I caught a bit of the Southern Relay Network as they played several hurricane and storm themed songs.

I recorded a bit of the end of the show for you. Note that there was a lot of noise on the frequency–many of the static crashes were attributed to Hurricane Irene herself.

Click here to download/play the mp3 file, use the archive.org flash player below (if visible) or simply visit the archive.org audio page. Enjoy!

Radio used, by the way, was the Alinco DX-R8T. We will be posting a review of this receiver, so check back soon!

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