Weekend Pirate Logs: 3/20/15-3/23/15

Weekend Pirate Logs: 3/20/15-3/23/15

I've been burning a lot of CDs for the latest Pirate Radio Annual and the burner creates a lot of RFI, so I might need to shut this operation down later on if a station that I don't log too often comes on. As a result, I might experience more March Madness tonight than pirate radio, but we'll see how it goes. This is what I have so far:
 
Old-Time Radio unid: 6770, 3/20, throughout NBC Blue Network IDs, Avalon Hour with Red Skelton. Ads for Avalon cigarettes & Trushay hand lotion.

Funny; it seems like I missed nearly everything last night while eating supper (Pirate Clips Radio) or doing some things with the family (Renegade Radio). I did manage to hear Captain Morgan:

Captain Morgan SW: 6939, 3/22, ca0015+ Older blues--some with guitar, one with piano, etc. Pretty good signal, but fairly tough to hear with dishwasher interference.

I was hoping for some Europeans testing to North America, esp. on high frequencies in the afternoons, but they must've all been tested out after the very successful weekend of such activities last week.

Old-Time Radio unid: 6770, 3/22, 2300+ Duffy's Tavern episode that I think is from May 25, 1949, with Archie writing an opera. Ed Wynn as guest star. Not sure if it's a generational thing or if it has something to do with my sense of humor, but I can't really tolerate Ed Wynn. This is the 1st time that I've heard a Duffy's Tavern episode on this station. Ads for Vitalis and Mum.

The Crystal Ship: 6876, 3/22, 2354+ Evidently, this is a '60s flashback program. Moody Blues right now. "Ride My Seesaw"

How Common Are NRDs?

 How Common Are NRDs?

Just saw BJ Anya of NC State drop a left-handed hook shot to beat LSU in the final seconds in March Madness, but that's neither here nor there on a radio blog.

I saw on HF Underground that veteran DXer Myteaquinn just picked up his dream receiver from when he entered the hobby, a Japan Radio NRD-505. Congrats! This radio is from 1977, a bit before my time shortwave listening. I haven't seen many people even mention NRD-505s, let alone have I ever seen any in real life.

That started me thinking about the number of NRDs sold among the different models. So, here's my really unscientific method: Check completed auctions on eBay. Here are my totals:

NRD-505: 2
NRD-515: 5
NRD-525: 13
NRD-535: 12

I can understand someone selling their 25-, 30-, or 35-year-old receiver, but I'm surprised that so many people have offered their NRD-535s for sale. Such a great radio.

Getting back to the eBay totals, the NRD-505 has always seemed to me to be the uncommon radio of the lot. Considering that the original cost for this was around $2,000 back in the late '70s, I wouldn't be surprised if very few were sold in the U.S. I knew a few DXers who owned an NRD-515, so my perception was that they were at least a bit more common. The '525 and '535 were both really common. The totals from eBay reflect my perceptions, but I don't know if they reflect the ratios of the NRD models sold.

11-meter Outbander SSTV Images 27700 kHz

11-meter Outbander SSTV Images 27700 kHz

It's been a long time since I've posted Outbander SSTV images. For the uninitiated, these are images from unlicensed stations who transmit around 27600-27800 kHz. Although they have callsigns, these are based around some guidelines created by associations of outbanders. I've received tons of these images over the past few weeks, but I'm posting ones with different callsigns, just to give a sampling of what I've decoded here.

SSTV repeater instructions from 10AD707

14AV05 from France

10AD113 from Mexico

31CDP249 from Portugal

10AD025 from Mexico

F11CPF, which uses a different system for its callsign, from France

14FP15 from France

10AD707 from Mexico with a look at the Batcave's radio shack

10AD214 from Mexico

13FB044 from Germany

DL911 from Germany

1SF072 from Italy

14PIC001 from France

1RGK462 from Italy

104LR001 from Corsica

108TM074 from Scotland

14FDG08 from France

14FJ028 from France

13CB9SU from Germany

2AD101 from the U.S.

10AD113 from Mexico

4YX5515 from Argentina

165OS002 from Sardinia

30FN001 from Spain

13SK604 from Germany

KP133 from Mexico

10AD314 from Mexico

Dead-Air Day: 3/6/15

Dead-Air Day: 3/6/15

Last night, I tuned into a station on 6924.4 kHz that had been airing some music earlier, but the songs were over and all that was on was dead carrier. I missed all of the music, but I did catch about 10 minutes of carrier. Nice signal, with a lot of quieting (not quite full) on the carrier.

But that's not all. I haven't seen anyone else mention it, but the Old-Time Radio unid on 6770 has been airing just dead air for the past few days. Maybe three days? Wonder if it'll switch to a different frequency soon or if the programming will return? It's been a pleasure to listen to and have around on the bands, so I keep trying to not take it for granted.

2014 PRA notes: I'm planning to do a mass e-mail, so I'm still keeping the price at $15 + shipping until I can get that e-mail sent out.

We had a foot of snow here yesterday at long last & it was -11 this morning. Maybe the modulation of these stations got frozen in the ionosphere and only the carriers made it to the radio.

Post-Winterfest Entry; 3/2/15

Post-Winterfest Entry; 3/2/15

Yesterday, I drove for about five hours through freezing rain, from Philadelphia to home. You know that the conditions aren't too great when everyone's driving about 40-50 mph on the PA Turnpike near Philly.

The Winter SWL Fest is always invigorating to me. I always return home with fresh ideas (to me, at least) and an optimistic attitude about the future of pirate and/or shortwave radio. Just something about chatting with others with similar interests and different concepts really cracks the winter doldrums. At this point of my monologue, I always mention that hobbyists in other parts of the country should at least try having some small get-togethers, if not a full-out fest.

It was nice to see that attendance rose by about 19 people from last year. Not a bad turnout, considering that it isn't really advertised, we're a few years past the 25th anniversary of the Fest, and some high-level events (the Resurrect Dead movie premiere and Mark Fahey's North Korea presentation) are in the past.

Unfortunately, I was unable to leave for day 1 and I missed the events on Friday. A lot of great stuff was slated, such as George Zeller's pirate forum, atrainradio's talk on getting youth interested in shortwave radio, and David Goren's Shortwave Shindig. Some other talks were slated for Friday & Saturday that I wanted to see, but didn't quite as directly apply to pirate listening.

On Saturday, Mark Fahey returned with a lot of video and propaganda from around the world. As mentioned above, Mark has spoken at length at the SWL Fest and other locales about radio monitoring and the socio-political situation in North Korea. I find North Korea to be fascinating because it's the most repressive regime on earth and because its cult of personality of bizarre and downright insane. If you don't believe the latter part, try reading the DPRK constitution sometime.

Actual line from the DPRK constitution: "Comrade Kim Il Sung was a genius ideological theoretician and a genius art leader, an ever-victorious, iron-willed brilliant commander, a great revolutionary and politician, and a great human being."

In case you're wondering, not everyone in North Korea believes that they're living the dream. A number of North Koreans in exile are working to create a social revolution with episodes of Friends. The article, from Wired magazine, shows the lengths taken to bring even the most innocuous entertainment into North Korea, with the hope that some people will being to question their existence and the country's leadership.

I wonder, if South Korea had a thriving pirate radio scene, just how many of those broadcasts would be audible in the North. Likewise, how many North Koreans would begin to question the
authorities (and eventually defect) for a relatively minor level of shortwave pirate activity in the South?

2014 PRAs are now shipping

2014 PRAs are now shipping

I've been packing & shipping the latest PRA over the past few days. From the receipts, it looks like those who already ordered should be receiving their copies throughout next week. I'll also have copies available at the Winter SWL Fest for anyone who's planning to be there.

From now until 2/28/15, I'm taking advance orders for $15 + $3 shipping ($18) in the US. If you want a copy, send the $ via PayPal to info (at symbol) hobbybroadcasting.com or send a check or money order to:

Hobby Broadcasting
POB 109
Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214

I did check on the international shipping costs. International postage keeps increasing at ridiculous rates. This year, the price to Canada is $10 and it's $15 to the rest of the world. It looks like it would be about $22 to send three copies to Europe, so if a few friends want to save some $ in shipping, they could order a few copies together and split the shipping price.

This edition is 178 pages and features a look at the pirate activities during the government shutdown of 2013, the Rohde & Schwarz SK010 transmitter, and Radio Free Nashville. It also contains entries on 187 shortwave pirates that were reported in North America during 2013. The book also will contain an audio CD with clips from 70 different stations. For those of you who've never seen a copy of a PRA, it is a perfect-bound paperback book with a color glossy cover, approximately 5.5" x 8.5". This is the 5th edition.

Weekend Pirate Loggings: 2/20-2/22/15

Weekend Pirate Loggings: 2/20-2/22/15

I'm planning to have some updates on here this weekend, but first I need to get packages ready to ship. In the mean time, here are a couple of loggings:

Rave On Radio: 6925U, 2/21, ca.0015 Heard some country-type music, but it was really weak and there was a lot of pescador QRM

Old-Time Radio unid: 6770, 2/21, 1300+ Nice signal with Jeff Regan, Investigator, The Lyon's Eye and the show "The House by the Sea"