Thursday, June 30, 2016

More European pirate loggings via Twente: 6/30/16

Another night & I didn't hear any pirates on the receiver, but I heard a few stations on the computer via Twente. One positive was fixing the antenna mast, which had broken in two places and was hanging at half mast (literally).

Oh, tomorrow is Canada Day. Some Canadian pirates in the past have made special broadcasts for the holiday, so maybe we'll have something to listen to.

1635, 6/30, 1800-1806* Dutch folk music. One song sung by woman about "Santo Domingo." Two announcements in Dutch by male announcer.

1640, 6/30, 1806+ Noticed this one after 1635 signed off. Male announcer into light music. Weak signal, much weaker than most MW stations on the Twente receiver.

A-ha, 1635 came back on after 1640 signed off, so these two are evidently in QSO. The QSO ended around 1825.

6255.5, 6/30, 1927+ Old pop & country music Don Williams "You're My Best Friend," Freddie Fender "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights," Sam Sham "Wooly Bully," Barry Sadler "Ballad of the Green Berets" Came back to the computer & heard Sonny & Cher "Little Man" and The Drifters "Saturday Night at the Movies" Per UKDxer, this is Radio Free Victoria

6369, 6/30, 1845+ Sounds like Dutch folk music & polkas. Fair/good to start but really faded within a few min. "Beer Barrel Polka" song in Dutch at 1850. Barely audible by 1855.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

European Pirate Logs via Twente: 6/29/16

Well, I had hoped to start logging North American pirates in the blog again, but I haven't heard any over the past few days. But at least I have a few more loggings from the Twente web receiver:

unid: 1640, 6/29, 1602-1604* Instrumental song & off with no talk.

Radio Merlin International: 6280, 6/29, 1833+ New wavish music. Started good, but fading out. ID per Iann's chat

Hit Mix Radio: 6285, 6/29, 1719+ Sounded like shoutouts in Dutch over an instrumental polka at 1722. Telephonic-sounding canned ID at 1730. At 1731, I think DJ said "Hit Mix Radio live 6-2-8-5!" Off by 1830 check

6320, 6/29, 1833 Lots of polkas

Marconi Radio International: 7700U, 6/29, 2001+ music, sign on announcement with IDs and talk in a few different languages. Star Wars theme. E-mail address as marconiradiointernational@gmail.com. DJ came on in English with talk about the upcoming show. I think he said the show was via IBC? Hi to a number of listeners including David Baroni & a few from Japan. Into a shortwave DX information program at 2006. MRI reminds me a lot of some of the smaller SWBC stations from a few decades ago that would combine news, DX, and something cultural almost seamlessly into a 30-min. program. Hope MRI shifts the times occasionally so that we can hear it in North America directly.

Monday, June 27, 2016

European Pirate Logs via Twente: 6/27/16

I listened just a bit this past weekend via my own receiver & managed to hear Girl Scout Radio & Pirate Radio Boston. Those logs were so spread out, though, that I just didn't put a weekend log post up. But I listened a bit on the web today . . . most of these stations were playing Dutch music and announcing in Dutch, so these are light on details:

1620, 6/27, 1423+ Dutch MW pirate with old instrumental accordion music (maybe from the 1940s?). A few min later, a song with vocals. Still sounds like it’s from the ‘30s or ‘40s. Gone when I tuned back through 30 min. later

1629, 6/27, 1931+ Woman singing disco Schlager, Good signal

1639.9, 6/27, 1931+ Schlager & polkas, VG signal

1645, 6/27, 1454-1455* Instrumental polka & gone

1650.5, 6/27, 1605+ Schlager, etc. Sounds like mostly from the ‘60s, possibly from the same album. From the web display, it looks like all of the modulation is on the lower sideband. Talk & ID by man with heavy echo at 1635. Still on at 1931

6260, 6/27, 1935+ Peter Frampton “Show Me the Way” Fair

Friday, June 24, 2016

European Logs via Twente Webreceiver

No European pirates audible early on the Twente receiver, so I was listening to BBC coverage of the UK opting out of the EU on 837 kHz. Interesting stuff.

1620, 6/24, 1640+ Nice signal with polkas, schlager, old country, and at least one '50s rock song. Male announcer with light echo said "testing" early on. All other talk in Dutch. Peggy March "Memories of Heidelberg" I looked up the song & see it hit #5 in Germany in 1967. Also thought it interested that Peggy March was from Lansdale, but had a lot of success in Germany, so started singing in German.


1646, 6/24, 1831-1839* A number of old, patriotic marches, brief in Dutch talk at 1839 by an enthusiastic-sounding man & off.

6265, 6/24, 1824-1830* Bryan Adams "Summer of '69," another rock song "Here's to You" & off with no talk or IDs.

SWBC via TwenteRadio Mi Amigo: 3985, 6/24, 1745+ Rolling Stones "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" Went into a German-language show & started to fade out

Monday, June 20, 2016

Now Taking Orders for 2015-2016 Pirate Radio Annual



The 2015-16 Pirate Radio Annual is now nearly finished and I'm taking advance orders for copies of the book. I've had the CD ready for a while now (although I need to start burning copies). I started laying out the PRA about a month ago, then realized last week that my column margins were too narrow, so I re-set it. Just finished the cover tonight and the files are going to the printer tomorrow. From there, the finished books should be ready in 4-6 weeks.

In case you are wondering what the Pirate Radio Annual is, it's a paperback book with an 5.5" x 8.5" trim size. This is the 6th edition. Each are divided into two parts: the first is pirate radio "articles" and the second part of the book is a listing of entries on North American shortwave pirate stations that were reported in the past year (and also European pirates that were reported in a large portion of North America). The book contains images from dozens of stations + contact information, URLs of websites, etc. Because this year's edition is running long, I cut back on the "articles" in this year's edition . . . WGM: World's Greatest Mistake and the updates for next two Global HF Pirate weekends.


This year's edition is 230 pages (34 pages longer than the last edition) and contains an audio CD-R with sample tracks of audio from pirates from the past year. 92 different stations (up 20 from last year) are represented on the CD....although the recording is on a CD-R, it is an audio CD that can be played in standard CD players, computers, etc. BTW, after creating hundreds of these CDs, I heard from one reader that the CD wouldn't fit properly in his slot-loading Mac computer. If you want to use it in one of these computers or device with a narrow slot, let me know and I can send your CD without a label.

If you want an advance copy, the price until August 7 is $16 + $3 shipping ($19) to the United States. I'm not yet sure if the extra 34 pages will affect the shipping cost to the rest of the world. I should probably wait until the copies arrive so that I can check the shipping cost/weight to Europe/Australia/Canada/etc., rather than guessing and posting an amount that's totally inaccurate, so I appreciate your patience while I get it figured out.


Also, I found a less-expensive printer for this edition. When I was offering advance copies at the Winterfest, I thought it'd be more expensive than it wound up being. So, if you advance ordered at the Winterfest, I'll be returning $1 with your copy.

You can either send a check or money order in US funds to:

Cabinet Communications
PO Box 109
Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214

 or  you can send the $ via PayPal to info /at/ hobbybroadcasting.com