Auds'n'Ends: 2/20/14

Electricity was in the air on Saturday night.

Of course. This is radio. Any time a radio station is on the air, the signals are bouncing around the ionosphere.

But Saturday night, was different because Undercover Radio was on the air and with a lot of power. Again, this isn't anything new. Undercover radio often uses a lot of power and so does Wolverine Radio. Wolverine is often heard all around the world.

The difference is that approximately 40 listeners (from at least 18 different states and two Canadian provinces) reported the broadcast on the pirate forums. Shortwave broadcasting is supposedly dead and buried, but this was a fantastic turnout, just from those active loggers, let alone all of the listeners who heard the broadcast but didn't write about it.

To add to the incredible signal and the number of listeners, the audio was excellent as was the programming.

Dr. Benway took advantage of the excellent signals and captive audience to offer two-sided Undercover Radio t-shirts for sale, with "all funds raised going to the Wounded Warriors."

Good times listening to the radio.

* I'm selling off a few things on eBay to clear some space around here. Everything is starting really low, so I thought I'd mention them here. Ramsey FM-10 (working) starting at $4.99, a Hallicrafters HT-18 low-power CW/NBFM transmitter starting at $49.49, and a WiNRADiO WR-1550E software-defined receiver (SDR) starting at $4.99.

* My recording computer crashed this past weekend and I thought that I lost a few audio recordings + a few SSTV images (I did lose the audio, but the images were saved):

WRR aired a Radio Totse SSTV image

SSTV from Heat Man Radio (although it took me a bit to determine that it wasn't "Meat Man Radio")

* Considering the snow over the past two weeks, this movie should be particularly horrifying for people in some parts of the U.S. (especially in the South)

* Why is called the Winter Olympics when it could be called "4 hours of ice dancing every night for two weeks" ?

* Radio song of the day is Vladimir Ussachevsky "Wireless Fantasy"

* I hate to end this post on a sad note, but I received this e-mail tonight:

FINAL TRANSMISSION of Radio Spaceshuttle! (INFO-Wednesday 19/02/2014): Hello friends everywhere,

We have sad news to tell you dear listeners! Radio Spaceshuttle is making last programes to be aired in near future. We shall use one of our 76 mb frequencies 3900/ 3905 or 3927 kHz to these transmissions.

We do not know yet times or dates of these transmissions- It might be only one or two different sessions in the end of February or start of March 2014. We would like to have few hours to be aired but that is absolutly not sure.

After these transmissions we shall take our antenna masts and antennas down and do not really know shall we ever return to airwaves  again :(
We shall put our equipments to good warehouse waiting for better times (if there ever are such).

Radio Spaceshuttle wish as many listeners as possible to try our frequencies during The Final Countdown. Please try direct or with any remote receiver to catch us! We like to receive your tapes, music wishes or memories of short history of Radio Spaceshuttle. Send your audiofiles and other material as soon as possible to our e-mail : spaceshuttleradio@yahoo.com . Or send link to your audio source, please.

Many thanks all dear listeners! It has been so fun....

Good Bye, this is Radio Spaceshuttle's call for our LAST FINAL transmissions!

Please use our email-address spaceshuttleradio@yahoo.com or send your report to our mail box:

Radio Spaceshuttle International
P.O.Box 2702
6049ZG
Herten The Netherlands

Best greetings- May God Bless You (and us),
Dick of Radio Spaceshuttle

My weekend loggings: 2/15-2/17/14

WRR: 6925U, 2/14, ca2230+ Tuned in, but had to leave, so I hit Record. Layers of pescador QRM here, with WRR somewhere near the top. Easy to pick out the old country music, but tough to copy when he went to talking because everyone was talking at the same time. Copied a Radio Totse SSTV during the broadcast.


Unid: 6867, 2/15, 1433-1441* Devo "Praying Hands," "Shrivel Up," & "Strange Pursuit." Static crashes, but pretty nice signal here. Off with no IDs. Maybe a homebrew transmitter test? If so, the audio sounded great here.

Unid (but Cool AM relay per HFU): 6924.5, 2/15, 1645 I was trying to save some of the accumulation of unsaved pirate recordings currently on the recording laptop when I turned the R-5000 back on & had a carrier near 6925. I punched in a few freqs to try to get it more accurate (the tuning knob is frozen on my R-5000) and the signal disappeared. Per Chris Smolinski on HFU, it was Cool AM.

Cool AM relay: 6925, 2/15, 2027 Here with Golden Earring "Twilight Zone" at 2027. Clear ID at 2035. Fair signal

Heat Man Radio: 6935U, 2/15, 2255+ Good signal with Velvet Underground, into song "Television will Not Be Revolutionized," computer music & now SSTV

CYOT: 6960, 2/15, 2255 Don't have much here aside from the carrier. ID from logs on HFU

WEAK Radio: 6925U, 2/15-16, 2338+ Pretty good signal with music. Clear computer-voiced IDs from when the station was on regularly five years ago. Kraftwerk "Pocket Calculator" and more. Great to hear WEAK back on the 3rd anniversary of its raid!"Sweet Home Alabama," Minor Threat "Small Man, Big Mouth"--interesting mix

Radio Free Whatever: 6925U, 2/16, 0105-0206+ Sign on with USSR national anthem, Dickweed & Stephen talking about progress with the t-shirt campaign. Super signal here. Reel Big Fish "Sell Out" and more

X-FM: 6925, 2/16 Tuned in during Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody"Good signal

Bangalore Poacher: 6925U, 2/16, 2026+ Numbers station parody with an Indian-sounding numbers announcer. fair signal

Undercover Radio: 6925U, 2/16, ca2340+ Incredible signal, with stories about Dr. Benway's 1st broadcast in 1977, setting his Viking II on fire. Into old shows, such as New Year's 2003/2004, etc. More than 30 people logged this one on HFU, and it was well heard in Europe!