Tag Archives: Pirate Radio Halloween

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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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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Chris’ summary of Halloween pirate radio activity

excalibur-screen-grab

I had hoped this Halloween weekend would bring out a lot of shortwave pirates and it surely did! At one point Monday evening, I noted no less than five pirate radio stations broadcasting simultaneously between 6910 – 7000 kHz. You can see the four SSB and one AM signal in the spectrum display above.

Chris Smolinski, once again, has posted a Summary of Halloween 2016 Shortwave Pirate Radio Activity in North America where he lists all of the pirates logged on the HF Underground for the full weekend. Check out the post on RadioHobbyist.org.

I was busy with family activities much of the weekend, but fortunately captured a lot of pirate spectrum to review and listen to later!

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A Great Pirate QSL Card!

XFM927

Here’s a great example of a QSL report from Pirate Station X-FM Stereo Shortwave monitored Halloween 2015. Not only is it a beautiful card, Redhat (the Deejay) also included the playlist as a .txt attachment.

As I recall he also made live announcements of who had left reception reports/comments on the HF Underground forum as well as for those who sent him emails directly.

I sent a short recording as part of my reception report, and it was an added bonus to see that mentioned in his QSL card.

I am quite impressed with all the effort made to turn out a quality QSL card, but a Pirate transmitting in stereo obviously appreciates quality!!

Pirate Radio receptions are memorable events on their own, but the QSL cards really make them special! Happy Pirate hunting!

Robert Gulley, AK3Q, is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Robert also blogs at All Things Radio.

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Halloween 2015: Chris charts pirate radio activity

SX-99-Dial-Nar

Many thanks to Chris Smolinski, from the HF Underground, who has crunched some numbers from North American pirate radio loggings on Halloween. The number of pirates (and his charts with times and frequencies) are most impressive and informative.

Chris posted the following on the HF Underground and has kindly allowed me to share them here as well. Chris notes:

Here are two charts showing who-was-on-when-and-where this Halloween.

The first one is for Friday night:

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

And the second is Halloween (Saturday) night:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

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Tune in: Halloween weekend is a pirate radio playground!

Haloween-Pirate-Radio

Halloween is typically the most active day of the year for shortwave pirates…so, here are three things you’ll want to do this Halloween:

  1. Listen for pirate radio stations this weekend!  Turn on your radio anytime this weekend, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,800 – 6,990 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re bound to hear a few. For a comprehensive primer on pirate radio listening, check out this post.
  2. Note what pirate stations are being logged–in real time–on the HF Underground pirate radio forum. This is a very active community of pirate radio listeners; I often check the latest loggings to discover frequencies where stations have surfaced. Click here to view the HF Underground pirate radio forum. Posting to the forum requires registration and approval by the moderator (so do this in advance!).
  3. Check out Andrew Yoder’s pirate radio blog with its deceptively simple title, the Hobby Broadcasting blog. Andrew is the author of the Pirate Radio Annual and a guru on shortwave pirate radio. He’s already logged a few mid-week, pre-Halloween pirates. Bookmark his site while you’re at it!

Happy Halloween to all! 

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