Europirate loggings via the Twente web receiver: 10/26/15

1620, 10/26, 1700+ Polkas. Fair/poor with complete fadeouts

1630, 10/26, 1730+ Signed on around 1730

1635, 10/26, 1700+ Male announcer in Dutch, but I couldn’t understand any IDs. A Hawaiian song (!), then a few old (‘50s or  ‘60s) country songs, and schlager. Fair signal. At about 1718, “Aloha `Oe” (possibly in Dutch?)

Radio Digital: 1650, 10/26, *1733-1830* Strong carrier on around 1730. About a second of music at 1733. Instrumental song on at 1735, with modulation level slowly rising. A bunch of instrumental guitar songs that sound like they could be from a ‘60s spaghetti western--Maybe a Ventures album? At least 40 min. with no IDs. Talk in Dutch at 1813. ID per Iann’s chat. Aside from those instrumentals, station played one song that sounded like a Dutch version of Slade, then signed off at 1830.

1680, 10/26, 1830+ Weak signal, sometimes fading up above the noise. Deep-voiced male announcer with some reverb and folk music. Evidently, this is a Greek pirate because it seems like the only stations that use this frequency are from Greece, and they are commonly heard in Western Europe. I guess not many European DXers know Greek because, when searching around the Internet, it seems like no one knows the name of the station(s) that use 1680; it’s always just “unid Greek pirate.”

6295-> 6290, 10/26, 1615+ Op talking over instrumental organ schlager. Sounded like he said “Hollandia” for the station ID, but I’m not sure

Radio Enterhaken: 6303, 10/26, 1615-1626+ Lots of talk in German. Comedy segment with laughter in background at 1624 UTC with phone caller.

Radio Odynn: 6321, 10/26, 1700+ Bowie “Let’s Dance”

Weekend Pirate Loggings: 10/23-10/26/15

Just getting warmed up for next weekend. . . .

CKUT Shortwave: 6925.2, 10/23, 2247+ Unlicensed relay of the International Radio Report which is aired on CKUT, Montreal. Signal was good, but there's a lot of QRM from various pescadors on and around 6925. FCC looking for input on their website, US AM stations in decline, weather report, but locally and internationally, guy (Steve McCoy) from a station in Atlanta who, I think, rebroadcast an old interview with Donald Trump and claimed it was his. In the UK, BBC refuses to fund switchover to digital, which would cost 40-45 million pounds/year (!). In Burkina Faso, the state radio stations were taken over in a coup. Activists took over and broadcast a pirate/clandestine called “Radio Resistance.” At the end of the show, e-mail address, etc., for CKUT Shortwave.

unid: 6930U, 10/25, 0220-0400+ Heard some music, sound effects, etc., mixing in with pescadors and other (?) talk. Kind of a mess.

Northwoods Radio: 6935U, 11/25, 1139+ Beatles "Ticket to Ride," Wilson Picket "Mustang Sally" Foghat "Slow Ride." Nice signal & audio

Back to the Future Day: 10/21/15

By now, if you've been following online news sites or social media, you've seen that today's Back to the Future Day. If you don't follow either and you only hang out on radio web pages or if you are located outside of North America and don't watch many American movie, here's a short explanation:

Back to the Future was a popular series of three movies that were produced between 1985 and 1989. Because of an accident involving terrorists, the main character winds up traveling back in time from 1985 to 1955. Problem is that he affects the events in his neighborhood, altering the future; one of the drastic effects is that he causes his parents to never meet, which results in him never being born. The rest of the movies in the series all involve time travel and fixing events in the future.

In Back to the Future II, Marty and Doc Brown travel from 1989 to fix the events on October 21, 2015. Today. A number of sites have discussed the events of the movie, what aspects of the "future" have come true, and the culture of the day. Even 26 years ago, there was plenty of talk about the failure of the Chicago Cubs to win a World Series since 1908 . . . and that's still true. In the movie, the Cubs win the World Series on 10/21/15. The Cubs actually made the playoffs this year and, after beating the Cardinals in the second round, were the hands-down favorites to win the National League. Now, having lost three straight to the New York Mets, ironically, the team might get eliminated on the same day that they were projected to win the World Series in Back to the Future II.

On the real October 21, 2015, a great pirate radio way to go back in time is via the unidentified station on 6770 kHz. Although not many of the programs are from 1955, the programming does range from about 1947 to 1954.

Maybe it's a stretch, but one station that really makes me think of Back to the Future (the first movie) is the brand new station Classic Pirate Radio Relay Service, which has made three broadcasts in the past week. During these broadcasts, CPRRS has relayed Radio Dead Man, The Crooked Man, and Radio Morania. I haven't dug too far into the archives, but all three of these stations were reported in 1985.

Radio Dead Man, a spliced-up program of punk, metal, and new wave music, and stories, all involving death, was first reported in August 1985. The station had an interesting photo QSL that was a clip-and-paste parody of a Red Man tobacco package.

The Crooked Man was a single program that was occasionally aired, starting in 1985. From the sound of it, someone recorded a paranoid-schizophrenic ham, saved the most interesting parts, and added in their own songs and IDs. The Crooked Man never responded to reception reports or anything else, making it one of the more mysterious stations.

Radio Morania was a parody of the communist shortwave broadcasters of the Cold War era. It was recorded in the late '60s and sold in cassette form in electronics magazines around 1972. Someone discovered (or rediscovered) the program in 1982 and it was occasionally aired without relay station IDs between 1982 and 1985, although it is still re-aired from time to time.

So, CPRRS might not be on the air tonight, but it was on last night with the Radio Morania relay; almost on October 21, 2015

Weekend Pirate Loggings: 10/16-10/18/15

unid: 6925U, 10/17, ca. 0030 Initially tuned back and forth between this station and RFW a few times, but went back to 6925 kHz and this one was gone. Good signal with rock. I didn't see anyone else logging this, so I don't know who it was.


Radio Free Whatever: 6950U, 10/17, 0036- Dick Weed is looking for a new sidekick because Stavin doesn't show up very often: "We're an equal opportunity offender." Throughout most of the show, the signal was fair. Lots of pescador QRM in there and another station was on the frequency for a few min around 0055.

KIPM: 6950U, 10/17, 0120+ Could hear Allen Maxwell's voice, but signal was under pescadors and someone sending CW for a few min.

Burn It Down Radio: 6962U, 10/17, 0238+ Faint signal, but I can hear music down under the noise and occasional static crashes. ID per HFU

unid: 6930L, 10/17, 0324+ On and off with Latin dance music. QRM from other pescadors. Assuming that this is just a pescador playing around, but maybe one day one will be inspired by the pirates and actually broadcast with IDs

Classic Pirate Radio Relay Service: 6925U, 10/17, 2234+ Nice signal. I missed the station's first show, with a relay of Radio Dead Man from about '85-'87, but I tuned in in time to catch station IDs, a song, more station IDs, and then a relay of the Crooked Man. To the best of my knowledge, only one Crooked Man show was ever produced and it was aired for the first time in 1983 . . . and rarely through about 1987 or 1988. I think it's been relayed by a few others since.

Wolverine Radio: 6945U, 10/17, 2312+ Excellent signal and audio, with a animal theme: Elvis "Hound Dog," "Rockin' Robin," etc.

Liquid R (tent.): 6925.2, 10/18, 0115+ I saw a log of this on HFU and listened to its carrier for about 45 minutes or so. Every now and then, some dance music would fade up for about four or five min.

Old-Time Radio unid: 6770, 10/18, ca. 1600 Nice signal with an episode of Richard Diamond, detective

Loggings via the Twente receiver

Unid: 1611, 10/17, 1305+ HUGE signal, off and on with apparent technical problems. Schlager and older Dutch pop. Haven't heard any talk at all.

Unid: 1628, 10/17, 1305+ Another huge signal, spreading from about 1620 to 1643 kHz. Schlager, older Dutch pop, and The Carpenters "Sweet, Sweet Smile." No talk here, either, so far

Radio Spaceshuttle International: 6304, 10/17, 1320+ Fair/good signal. IDs. I think Dick said this song was by The Rebels

Europirate Logs via Twente Online Receiver: 10/15/15

unid: 1620, 10/15, 1442-1444* Dutch music that sounds like '50s or early '60s American country music. Male announcer came on with feedback. Some talk in Dutch & I could hear a few IDs: "Radio ----," but my Dutch is nonexistent, so I couldn't figure it out.

unid: 1625, 10/15, 1554+ What sounds like older Dutch music. Pretty good signal

unid: 1639, 10/15, 1741-1744* Very strong with Schlager. I was listening to 1671 and I saw this one sign off within about 10 seconds of the 1671 station.

unid: 1671, 10/15, 1741-1744* Country & polka. "Roll Out the Barrels." Dutch announcement at end. I thought it sounded like he said "Radio Madonna," but I searched & didn't find a station with that name.

Radio Spaceshuttle International: 6304, 10/15, 1408+ Fair with a lot of band hiss. Computerized IDs, male announcer with mailing address, 31m frequency, etc. IDs in a number of different languages. RSI announced its last show a few weeks ago, so maybe this is a relay from a friend or fan of the station? spaceshuttleradio/@/yahoo.com, pirate radio song, Lots of '60s rock: "Do the Locomotion" Troggs "Wild Thing" Kinks "Sunny Afternoon""The Lion Sleeps Tonight" Dick Spaceshuttle said this is a '60s music show.

Radio Goofy: 6325, 10/15, 1710+ Pop song in either German or Dutch. Fair signal. IDs about station causing orgasms, with a gasp in the background

unid: 6360, 10/15, 1447-1503* Instrumental organ Schlager that sounds like old rollerskating music. Techno with a theremin. Nice signal. Off without ID.

Radio Supersound: 6383, 10/15, 1425+ ID per Iann's chatroom. '80s pop: Duran Duran "Wild Boys," Michael Jackson, etc. Male announcer just started to talk when the Twente receiver glitched out for about 10 seconds or so. When the audio came back, the station was back to music

Pioneer AM: 6390-->6393, 11/15, 1520+ Instrumental synthesizer music--in more of a Kraftwerk way than a techno style. Into lots of Schlager, mostly instrumental. Barry Mann "Who Put the Bomp?" ID per Iann's pirate chat, but I haven't heard any announcements here

Mike Radio: 6955, 10/15, 1715+ Bits and pieces of audio coming through. ID per Iann's chat, but I didn't hear one

Pirate Radio Loggings: 10/15/15

I heard Pirate BBC Radio a few weeks ago, but I didn't log it on here . . . and then Windows crashed on my computer and knocked out my recording. So, I thought I should log it here before anything happens (regardless of whether I hear any other pirates tonight)

Pirate BBC Radio: 6850.2, 10/15, 0022+ Unlicensed relay of the BBC World Service. Business Matters program. Programming is coverage of the debate between Hillary Clinton & Bernie Sanders. Great signal. One commentator said that Hillary is stuck in the '90s, talking about pushing for women's equality when colleges are graduating only 40% males. BBC news headlines: Israeli troops fighting Palestinians, ebola can linger 7-9 months, 14-year-old forced to kill someone in Mexico, Benin (I think?) leader dies. Interview with Vicki, who spent the last three months in North Korea.

Liquid Radio: 6925.2: 10/15, 0045+ Fair, but a better signal than I often get from LR. The Animals "Paint It Black" Pretty bad QRM from pescadores. Peter Gabriel "Big Time," Asia "Only Time Will Tell"

Auds'n'Ends 10/14/15: Kmart audio

I finished the oscillator for my Corsette project last night. It won't oscillate. I consider that a problem. Time for some troubleshooting . . . I've evidently done enough trouble causing.

Lately, I've seen a few articles around the Internet about a guy who worked at the service desk of a Kmart in the '80s and '90s. He handled the in-store audio, but unlike most service desk workers, he saved all of the cassettes that were produced for the "in-store radio station." He has since digitized them and posted the recordings. The early recordings are really Muzak-y. And as I mentioned back when the Old-Time Radio unid station was playing Muzak in the mornings, the Muzak phenomenon has totally disappeared and people in their 20s can't relate.