Tag Archives: Shortwave Pirates

Pirate Radio Station BOCHF (Boards of Canada HF) back on air

QSL from BOCHF

QSL from BOCHF

Again this morning at 2:20 UTC–and last night, during a very active night of pirate radio activity–BOCHF crept onto the airwaves, this time on 6,920 kHz USB.

Yesterday, BOCHF played the Boards of Canada album Tomorrow’s Harvest; this morning, they played their album In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country.

And how did it sound?  Combining the music of the Boards of Canada with the sonic texture of the shortwave ether is a winning combination, in my opinion. Thanks, BOCHF!  But don’t take my word for it: take a listen yourself.

Click here to download the full broadcast as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

By the way, I recorded several other pirate stations last night–look for them in upcoming posts!

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Pirate Radio Recordings: BOCHF Radio (Boards of Canada HF)

(Source: HF Underground)

(Source: HF Underground)

Just last night, I came across a new shortwave pirate radio station: BOCHF.

BOCHF started broadcasting around 23:10 UTC on 6,925 kHz USB, and after about a twenty-five minute set, took a five minute break, then returned with a  forty-two minute set, ending with an SSTV QSL. The signal, as you can hear below, is fairly strong, but interference was also strong at times; especially from SSB pescadores (fishermen) and the usual summer static crashes.

The entire mix consisted of Boards of Canada music from Tomorrow’s Harvest. There were no vocal ID’s, but there were messages in CW (Morse code) which clearly identifies this pirate as BOCHF.

The artists Boards of Canada have always had an affinity with shortwave radio, so I find a shortwave pirate station playing their music to be an appropriate tribute. Due to sound card problems, I was unable to decode the SSTV QSL, but thankfully a great copy was posted on HF Underground’s pirate radio forum (see above) by forum contributor, Chris Smolinski.

Click here to download MP3s of Part One and Part Two from the full broadcast last night or simply listen via the embedded audio players below:

BOCHF Part One:

BOCHF Part Two:

As I mentioned yesterday, Labor Day weekend is a great weekend to catch a few pirate stations on shortwave. Happy listening!

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Free Whatever

1924VintageTorontoLast night, I caught pirate radio station Radio Free Whatever; a new one for me.

Pirate radio listening has been difficult this summer between travels and thunderstorms, so I was happy to hear a carrier on 6,945 kHz AM, starting around 01:55 UTC.

Though a tad weak, with AM sync detection enabled, the signal to noise ratio tilted in my favor and made for pleasant listening through the turbulent summer ether.

Click here to download the entire broadcast of Radio Free Whatever, or simply listen via the embedded player below:


Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer: This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include colorful language. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Strange Outpost 7 and Shrunken Head Radio

"Timmy, quick!  That's Radio Strange Outpost 7!  Get your decoder ring!"

“Timmy, that’s Radio Strange Outpost 7! Get your decoder ring!”

While attending the Winter SWL Fest this year in Plymouth Meeting, PA, I left my WinRadio Excalibur running day and night back home, recording spectrum in the pirate radio watering hole. I always find that while shortwave pirate activity is slightly lower during the SWL Fest (because many pirates are in attendance), there are always some interesting stations I miss.

This year, I was chatting with famed Pirate Radio enthusiast/author, Andrew Yoder and mentioned how I love rare pirates like Radio Strange Outpost 7. He then told me that he’d just noticed a logging of RSO7 on a pirate radio forum. I quickly logged into my home computer (via smart phone) and could see that my receiver had been capturing the right frequencies at the right time. When I returned home, I dug through the spectrum and found the broadcasts of RSO7 and Shrunken Head Radio (possibly the same pirate?) via the WBNY relay service. Woo hoo!

RSO7 is semi-cryptic, quirky and always fun (check out my off-air recording from last year). Though this broadcast contains no real music content from RSO7, Shrunken Head radio does.

Click here to download the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Cinco De Mayo

"Dad, what better way could we celebrate this day than listening to Radio Cinco De Mayo?"

“What better way could we celebrate this day than listening to Radio Cinco De Mayo?”

Radio Cinco De Mayo made its annual broadcast on (you guessed it!) May 5th, 2013, starting around 00:17 UTC on 6925 kHz USB.

Early Saturday morning, the band’s condition sounded like that of summer, with atmospheric noises (a few static crashes, produced by local thunderstorms), but propagation was steady and the overall quality very respectable.

You can download an MP3 of the full recording by clicking here, or by listening via the embedded player below:

Check out Ragnar’s off-air recording of Radio Cinco De Mayo (and more!) on his PiratesWeek podcast.

UPDATE (May 08): Just received my Radio Cinco De Mayo QSL:

radiocincodemayo 2013-2 qsl

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Shrimp Boat Radio, WSBR (a.k.a. Freakin’ Awesome Radio, WFAR)

(Original source: Wikimedia Commons)

“No shrimp? No problem!” Pirates on board! (Original source: Wikimedia Commons)

“We’re shrimpin,’ but they’re not bitin’!”

Last night, a very unique pirate radio station emerged from the static on 6,925 kHz USB: Shrimp Boat Radio. It seems a shrimp boat radio pirate found himself bored on board, due to a lack of shrimp–but his boredom became our gain with an offer to talk shrimpin,’ fishin,’ or just take music requests…live.

This is the stuff great pirate radio is made of.  He started with a request for the Rolling Stones; next Black Cat Radio‘s Greaser Bob chimed in with a request for GNR.  And there began an evening of pirate radio with live on-air requests.

You can tell that this was a completely impromptu production–and it was all the better for it.  Not too long into the show, he took on the alternate name Freakin’ Awesome Radio (WFAR).

Hearing a live pirate radio request show was a first for me, and the sort of thing that gets this “content DXer” enthused. I’m glad I had the tape rolling!  I hope he reappears on the band in the future.

Note that I start the recording at the very first announcement from WSBR. If you want to skip to the first music request, fast-forward to about 11 minutes into the recording (you’ll miss some great banter, though). There are a few long breaks of static in the recording where this pirate scrambled to find and play music requests, but this just adds to the authenticity.

Click here to download the full recording of Shrimp Boat Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy!

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Ronin Shortwave

Ronin's mix starts with the Sex Pistols (Photo: 45cat.com)|

Ronin’s mix starts with the Sex Pistols (Photo: 45cat.com)|

If you can’t tell from the number of recordings I posted today, last night was a busy night for pirate radio.

I heard no less than five pirates: AATW Radio, Red Mercury Labs Radio, Rave On Radio, Black Cat Radio and Radio Ronin Shortwave.

Though many had great signals, the strongest was Radio Ronin Shortwave on 6.925 MHz (AM). Ronin’s broadcast started around  22:15 UTC (March 22, 2013) and lasted for more than an hour. Near the end, you will hear some interference from maritime mobile stations in the upper side band of 6.925–that just ads character in my book.

Click here to download the full recording by clicking here, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer: This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

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