Loggings: 5/29-30/14

Loggings: 5/29-30/14

Old-Time Radio Unid: 6771.2, 5/29, 1430+ Heard again last night around 0400 (after not hearing anything around 0200) UTC. Signal is maybe fair or fair-good with occasional data QRM. EZL music and news again at the top of the hour. The music is mostly what you'd hear on EZL stations from the late '70s and early '80s. Even heard a Muzak version of "Close to You" a few minutes ago.

Old-Time Radio Unid: 5/28/14

Old-Time Radio Unid: 5/28/14

This station has turned into quite the mystery. To the best of my knowledge, it's been on the air for possibly four consecutive days now, approximately 100 or so straight hours. On  HFU, Dick Weed & Chris Smolinski were speculating about its operations and whether it might possibly be military broadcasts of some sort. Chris Lobdell mentioned a pirate on 6250 kHz years ago. The station was on for about a week or two, many hours per day. I believe he was a ham from North Carolina who was using a low-powered transmitter (I think around 5 watts) to relay a local FM station from his house to his ham shack. It does make you wonder if some old ham isn't relaying  programs to his cabin or something. Regardless, I love mystery radio stations like this!

Old-Time Radio Unid: 6771.2, 5/28, 2045+ Nice signal with old EZL music + Louis Armstrong "Hello, Dolly." 2200 is the news from Feature Story News: Edward Snowden, voting for European Commissions President, etc.

Memorial Weekend Logs 2014

Memorial Weekend Logs 2014

I've been behind with work and just starting to catch up, but I had a chance to check the radio (and will hopefully continue to do so throughout the weekend)

Old-Time Radio Unid: 6772, 5/24-25, 2310+ Fair signal with OTR shows. On HFU, Ed Insinger mentioned that he was hearing "Unshackled," but I evidently tuned in later because this show was comedy with a laugh track (or live audience laughter). At 0115, a comedy about a man trying to buy flowers, then an ad for a "stomach sweetener" and, I think, laxative. An orchestra playing "Accentuate the Positive." Sig up to S9+10, but noise is still pretty rough. Ah, heard the advertisers at the end of the show clearly: Sal Hepatica & Vitalis. Into new show with louder, clearer audio: Red Skelton. After the 6920 unid went off, I tuned back to 6772 and caught the end of what sounded like a WWII mystery with a professor. After a long pause, a number of big band songs (kinda EZL big band).

MAC: 6950, 5/24, 2311+ Excellent sig with Jimmy Stewart show & '40s music. Heard one of the singing M-A-C jingles

Unid: 6924.4, 5/25, 0014+ Just a carrier here. I'm assuming it's a pirate, but I don't know who

Renegade Radio: 6935U, 5/25, 0218+ A bit weaker than normal here and some Ute noise. Requesting reports & e-mails to add & HFU. Talking about listening to audio from the Winterfest & he plans to pull some of that up. Also, he hasn't heard back from WEAK Radio, so he said hi to him & said that he hopes he's OK

Unid: 6920U, 5/25, 0333-0343* Decided to check back on the radio & I found a big signal on 6920. The signal is strong and wide. I've opened it up to the 6-kHz bandwidth and it sounds great . . .so good that it reminds me of Wolverine's transmitter. Whatever station this is did a nice job buying, building, or modifying their transmitter. All instrumental ethereal music. Off at about 0343.

Pipeline Radio: 6925, 5/25-265, 2346+ Surfin' theme station. Lotsa Beach Boys & other surf music. Excellent S9+10 signal!

Old-Time Radio Unid: 6771.6, 5/25-26, 2345+ Went into the radio room and the R8 was still tuned to essentially the same frequency Big signal again, but noise is down a bit, making this much easier to listen to. EZL music here, just like last night after 0400. Still strong with EZL music, now light jazz and crooner music at 0142. Tuned back in at 0452 & this one is back to OTR. A dramatic presentation on this time

Voice of Honor: 6930U, 5/26, 0025+ Memorial Day theme station. Military music and IDs. Excellent signal with S9+20 peaks. Reports to voiceofhonor /at/ gmail dot com. "Don't Tread on Me" flag SSTV image at the end of the show

Voice of Honor

The Crystal Ship: 6876, 5/26, 0140+ Excellent S9+10 signal with '80s new wavish pop music

oops, forgot to mention this one on here. I've been hearing this since about 0000 or so:

Metro Radio International: 6974.2, 5/26, 0144+ carrier only, but op verified that it was him on HFU.

Wolverine Radio: 6950U, 5/26, 0145+ Huge signal peaking over S9+20 with The Shirelles "Mama Said"

Wolverine Radio

KCPR: 6925U, 5/26, 0424+ Very weak and tinny-sounding music on frequency. ID per logs from West Coast DXers on HFU. Adjusted the frequency a few Hz & it sounds a bit less tinny now. It still has a really far away sound. My 1st time to hear this one. Looking forward to hopefully logging one or more clear IDs. Heard presumably a CW ID for KCPR at 0433 . . . "presumably" because I don't copy code without a key in front of me (and even then, it's very slow). I think the music here is basically all country. Copied an SSTV image at the end of the show

KCPR

Old-Time Radio Unid: 6771.6, 5/26, 1230+ Checked this morning & back again at 1425 and the station is still on the air with older easy-listening music. Presumably, this has been on since yesterday around 2000 UTC (possibly earlier).

Pirate Radio Boston: 6924.6, 5/26, 1425-1439* ID per HFU. Just heard clear IDs + e-mail address and Belfast, NY maildrop. Signal is weak here, but still nice to hear Charlie again.

Weekend Logs: 5/3-5/5/14

OK, this weekend has been more about digging, mowing, and building for me than tuning the dials, but I'll pop in any logs that catch.

WMIB: 6925, 5/4, 0017* Caught only the last 40 seconds of the show. Tuned in during "Train Kept a Rollin'." Afterward, heard what sounded like "WMIB, all music by B, WMIB, WMIB." Nice signal. I saw on HFU that this was reported as both WMIB and WMID. I definitely thought it sounded like "WMIB" for those last three IDs, but you never know if it might've been "WMID"

Weekend logs: 4/25-4/27/14

Torrential downpour here (OK, it just rained a lot), so I watched the Pirates (baseball) on TV lose again and I scrubbed out some old Pepsi bottles so that I can try my hand at making homemade root beer. But I do have a logging:


Radio Focus International: 6284.7, 4/26, 0352+ One of the strongest signals you'll find from a Europirate in the Midatlantic states on 48 meters, but the thunderstorm noise is tremendous tonight. UK-accented DJ with a variety of pop and rock music, such as John Fogarty "Rock'n'Roll Girls," Foreigner "Cold as Ice." Clear IDs & announcing 6285 kHz. I was thinking that I had a QSL from Focus, but I guess I just heard the station last year. A lot of DXers in North America should be able to hear Focus tonight.

Beautiful day & doing some outdoor work. Missed Radio Black Arrow from Holland testing on 19m, but am now hearing a pirate:

Unid: 6875, 4/26, 1800-1803* "Deck the Halls" & other Christmas music, then a phone number & into James Dobson for a few seconds and plug pulled.

I think I'll try to dig another wheelbarrow load of dirt, but right now I have:

Island Radio: 6221, 4/26, 2355+ Really strong carrier with decent audio now. Light pop music, but nothing that I've been able to ID yet.  At 2359, I heard what sounded like an ID break, but I started getting some USB QRM on the frequency. Jari in Finland says this is Island Radio. Nice signal & I've never heard the station before.

Radio Focus International: 6284.7, 4/26, 2350+ This one had a weaker carrier, but stronger audio than 6221. Judging by the frequency, I think this is Radio Focus International, but I didn't check it out. I thought I'd start recording 6221 in case it was a new station for me (and it is).

Undercover Radio: 6925U, 4/27, 0009- Shoutouts to atrainradio & RAFman. Talking about new Undercover Radio t-shirts and the possibilities of going to Moogfest in Nashville. "You never know...if you see someone wearing an Undercover Radio t-shirt, it could be Dr. Benway." Said to e-mail him if you'd like a PDF of the Undercover Radio interview in the latest issue of CQ+.

Radio Experience: 6240, 4/27, 0021+ Older ('70s?) dance music with announcement breaks. Um, that's not a lot of details, but the signal actually is pretty good here. OK, now a tangible detail: "Under Pressure" by Bowie and Mercury. Sam Cooke "Wonderful World," Kinks "Lola"

MAC Shortwave: 6950, 4/27, 0015+ DJ James Stewart talking to himself, talking about It's a Wonderful Life, etc. Big signal.

Radio Free Whatever: 6925U, 4/27, 0049+ Tuned in to hear one of their pre-recorded IDs, into music. Another really nice signal.

Wow, can't believe how many stations have been coming in from around the world tonight. Nice conditions! Some great signals + some signals from Europe that are strong enough that my ears aren't ringing from trying to strain through the static!

Borderhunter: 6295, 4/27, 0104+ Nice signal here tonight. Hearing pop dance music and some announcements by Frans. Best signal from Europe tonight. Pretty awesome to hear four different Europirates in just over an hour!

Metro Radio International (tentative): 6974.1, 4/27, 0107 Just a carrier right now

Wolverine Radio: 6945U, 4/27, 0200-0219* Wonderful signal with crazy theme. Right now (0219) is the final SSTV image and it's not nearly as clear as the signal has been. After show, Dick Weed and a couple of other guys QSOing. One guy said that he used to pirate on 6200 kcs years ago from the south side of Chicago. These two guys are trying to encourage Dick to put on a show.

Radio Free Whatever: 6945U, 4/27, *0025- "OK, sing along if you know the lyrics." Request for Chris Lobdell... a singer from Sweden

Easter loggings: 4/19-4/21/14

I drove about 500 miles over the past few days, so I haven't been around the radio much. But, I've been around the radio a bit tonight.

I came in from digging a garden out of a shale bed and checked the radio at about 2200 UTC and checked the European bands. I had just had really weak carriers. But when I came back a couple of hours later and I had a few nice signals.

Radio Star International (UK): 6219.3, 4/19, 0014+ Not bad, but I wasn't getting too many details through the speaker. I think I'll need to check this on headphones to hear what it sounds like. Radio Star International is fun station to tune in. I heard it a few years ago on Easter via a European web radio and this is one of the few stations that I've heard over the past decade or so that uses DJs in shifts. It was a really entertaining show.

Radio Marabu (Germany): 6239, 4/19, 0116+ A really nice signal for a European pirate. An oldies show this time, with '60s music, although I didn't know any of the songs. I think this will be on for a number of hours, so I wonder if it'll fade back in overnight toward morning.

Radio Free Whatever: 6930U, 4/19, '40s jazz with Dick Weed and Steven. Awesome signal! Caught it just a bit before QRT.

Pirate logs: 4/6/14

Pirate logs: 4/6/14 (local time)

? 6295, 4/7, 0038+I first assumed this was Reflections Europe, although it's running past its normal time, if it is it. I'm hearing a Christian radio preacher on the frequency. Reflections Europe broadcasts from Europe with a paid lineup of preachers every Sunday on 6295 kHz. I'm hearing both the preaching and some rock music on the R8. On the R-5000, I'm hearing both as well. Wow, the signal's now up to S9. Because I'm hearing them on both radios, I'm assuming it's not images, but maybe spurs? Or maybe it *is* Reflections Europe and some spur of another station? Reflections Europe's website is here. Transmitter(s) went off at 0100 UTC, so maybe it really was Reflections Europe. If so, it was the best signal by far that I've heard from the station.