Greek pirates

MONITORAGGIO ONDE MEDIE ZONA COSTIERA TARANTO by F. PATRONO

Ciao! This is a list of all the radio stations that can be received in medium and long waves (mw-lw) in Lama (Taranto) in "La Battaglia" zone and in Marina di Lizzano (Taranto) in "le Conche" zone, in the Apulia region, southern Italy, made by Francesco Patrono from Lama (Taranto).(Coordinate) 40 23' 31" North , 17 26' 54" East.

(this is Francesco's observations of Greek pirates)

1620 Radio Ouranio Toxo (Greek pirate from Larisa)
1626 Radiofonikos Stathmos Delta (unidentified Greek pirate)
1630 Radio Asteras (Greek pirate from Kilkis)

Here were received also, periodically, on a frequency included besides 1800 and 1825 kilohertz, in the amount of time between 0430 and 0500 a.m. Italian time [0330-0400 UT], some Morse signals very fast and looped (probably other beacons?) and sometimes, besides a frequency of circa 1720 kilohertz, at 0315 a.m. local Italian time, some short communications in Greek language; probably these are fishermans.

The stations reported in the list from 1620 kilohertz and beyond are three pirate Greek radio stations that cover without obstacles all the Mediterranean area and the northern Europe. In this list we have mentioned only three of them but there are a lot of stations similar like these and is quite impossible to identify them one by one.

It depends on the fact that these are not the "radio stations" in the classical sense of the word, but are some radio amateurs equipped with high power and high watt transmitters. Moreover, very often these radio amateurs use the QSO technique; it consists in broadcasting on a determinate frequency (for example 1630 kilohertz) for determinate hours (for example from 0100 to 0400) and then they turn off to allow other radio amateur friends of them to activate their transmitters and to start broadcasting with their station on the same frequency.

Some stations broadcast only music and are "no name" stations, some others use a name and some others still give a mobile phone number so that listeners can request their songs or communicate their QSL reports. Usually, the music proposed by these station is common Greek music (e.g. rembetika, sirtaki, laika and so on) but sometimes there are also amazing disco dance mixes and European 80's rock and pop music. It is possible to receive these stations only with a receiver suitable for x-band scanning (range from 1620 to 1750 kilohertz approx.) from dusk until early dawn.

(F. Patrono, via Dario Monferini, playdx yg via DXLD)