1629 1753 RTI Telefunken. Heard briefly calling other Dutch stations, co-channel QRM from Greek station. SINPO 23332.
1647 1700 Radio Friese Piraat. Shocking Blue song, greeting David in England, Dutch song. SINPO 34333.
1647 1733 Radio Digital. Shadows "Apache," ID, talk in DT. SINPO 34333.
1656 1745 Radio Nachtzwerver. Instrumental music, ID, greets. SINPO 34333.
(via Kiwi SDR, SW England)
6 comments:
Good haul of medium wave pirates there.
Heard in Bristol today, Tuesday 14th November:
Privately run shortwave stations:
Channel 292 on 6070 kHz.
Radio Mi Amigo on 6085 kHz.
Radio Marabu via Europe 24 on 6150 kHz. Programming in English.
Test Broadcast for new pan-European station on 6160 kHz. 3pm newscast from Feature Story News and programme on hits of November 1967.
Pirates:
Laser Hot Hits on 6205 kHz, after 2pm. Good signal.
UNID medium wave Dutch station on 1628 kHz at midnight. Strong signal and domestic AM set.
Are privately run shortwave stations relevant to this blog? They're hardly taking risks every time they broadcast...
No, they don't take the risks, and I have thought long and hard over whether to include them or not. However, the person who runs this excellent blog does regularly include press releases from Channel 292 and Radio Mi Amigo and KBC. This is because they are mostly ex-pirates. KBC ran illegally in the 1980's from Dutch soil, in around 1984-5, for example.
Radio Marabu was for decades an indie music station run via numerous land based pirate relays. The new European station on 6160 kHz features a number of recognisable shortwave pirate voices on its tests, including Andy Walker (ex-WFRL, WNKR).
As one of the shortwave DX groups puts it, the lines between true pirates and privately run shortwavers are increasingly blurred as countries like Germany grant licenses to ex-pirates to broadcast legally. I doubt that Britain will follow suit, but you never know! Other stations, like Radio Mi Amigo, make use of former Soviet era propaganda transmitters in countries like Azerbaijan to make their high power broadcasts to Europe.
Another link is that privates like Channel 292 frequently transmit tapes of offshore radio stations of the past, which is of interest to pirate listeners. Just recently, they have been putting out tapes of David Lee Stone, who you may recall worked for Laser 558, Laser 576 and of course, Radio Luxembourg.
:)
Yes, many of the stations relayed via legal transmitters might not be pirates but are "free radio" in spirit.
Another station is European Music Radio, who started life as a pirate and was raided in the 1980s but now is heard via relays.
What about Radio Caroline? Should we ignore them now they're legal?
As a purist I don't agree with the last two comments but there is freedom of choice; I will therefore beg to differ and continue to filter my listening accordingly...
Personally, I shall be listening to Caroline when it opens on 648 kHz, as UK Dxer suggests. I tentatively heard a signal at the weekend playing rock music, which was very exciting. I did not expect to hear 648 at this distance. I understand that some Caroline supporters are disappointed that the station is not working to re-establish a signal from the North Sea, but the draconian measures contained in the 1990 Broadcasting Act seem to preclude any further offshore radio off the British coast. Totally illegal measure under international maritime law, and I have never forgiven the late 80's government for it, but I think that the Caroline organisation have done the next best thing to preserve the station and its spirit.
I can respect the fact that there are people who are purist about pirate radio. My preferred stations are pirate, and having grown up in a large city where there were many FM free radio stations, ranging from black/African-Caribbean music stations to activist political stations and everything in between, the bulk of my FM listening growing up was with the pirates. Today, all those pirate broadcasters are legal, so I would have nothing to tune to locally if it weren't for the now legalised community broadcasters. ;) I myself had the pleasure of broadcasting on several pirates, but at my age, would not like to be a top of a hilltop with a transmitter anymore. Heh!
One thing that we can all agree on is that the continuation of pirate radio is important. I have been interviewed on legal community radio about the pirate past, and have always maintained that it is important that we have transmitters that are outside government control. I believe that it is good for democracy.
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