Radio Cinco De Mayo

Radio Cinco De Mayo made its annual broadcast on (you guessed it!) May 5th, 2013, starting around 00:17 UTC on 6925 kHz USB.

Early Saturday morning, the band's condition sounded like that of summer, with atmospheric noises (a few static crashes, produced by local thunderstorms), but propagation was steady and the overall quality very respectable.

You can download an MP3 of the full recording by clicking here, or by listening via the embedded player below.

Check out Ragnar's off-air recording of Radio Cinco De Mayo (and more!) on his PiratesWeek podcast.

UPDATE (May 08): Just received my Radio Cinco De Mayo QSL:

Shrimp Boat Radio, WSBR (a.k.a. Freakin' Awesome Radio, WFAR)

"We're shrimpin,' but they're not bitin'!"

Last night, a very unique pirate radio station emerged from the static on 6,925 kHz USB: Shrimp Boat Radio. It seems a shrimp boat radio pirate found himself bored on board, due to a lack of shrimp--but his boredom became our gain with an offer to talk shrimpin,' fishin,' or just take music requests...live.

This is the stuff great pirate radio is made of.  He started with a request for the Rolling Stones; next Black Cat Radio's Greaser Bob chimed in with a request for GNR.  And there began an evening of pirate radio with live on-air requests.

You can tell that this was a completely impromptu production--and it was all the better for it.  Not too long into the show, he took on the alternate name Freakin' Awesome Radio (WFAR).

Hearing a live pirate radio request show was a first for me, and the sort of thing that gets this "content DXer" enthused. I'm glad I had the tape rolling!  I hope he reappears on the band in the future.

Note that I start the recording at the very first announcement from WSBR. If you want to skip to the first music request, fast-forward to about 11 minutes into the recording (you'll miss some great banter, though). There are a few long breaks of static in the recording where this pirate scrambled to find and play music requests, but this just adds to the authenticity.

Click here to download the full recording of Shrimp Boat Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy!

Click here to download the full recording of Shrimp Boat Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy!

Hard Tack Radio

For your listening pleasure: a 24 minute recording of the pirate radio station, Hard Tack Radio.

Hard Tack Radio plays US Civil War era songs "celebrating the Blue and the Gray."

I caught Hard Tack's broadcast Friday night (April 12) around 23:10 UTC. Their upper side band signal was pretty strong and well above the active noise floor, though there was a heterodyne/data noise located right around 6926.8 kHz. You won't hear this noise in the recording below, because I effectively used the WinRadio Excalibur's notch filter to eliminate it. At the very end of the recording, I turn off the notch and you'll hear the noise a few seconds before the broadcast ends.

Click here to download the full recording of Hard Tack Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Radio Ronin Shortwave

If you can't tell from the number of recordings I posted today, last night was a busy night for pirate radio.

I heard no less than five pirates: AATW Radio, Red Mercury Labs Radio, Rave On Radio, Black Cat Radio and Radio Ronin Shortwave.

Though many had great signals, the strongest was Radio Ronin Shortwave on 6.925 MHz (AM). Ronin's broadcast started around  22:15 UTC (March 22, 2013) and lasted for more than an hour. Near the end, you will hear some interference from maritime mobile stations in the upper side band of 6.925--that just ads character in my book.

Click here to download the full recording by clicking here, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer:This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

All Along The Watchtower Radio

One short pirate broadcast I caught last night was All Along The Watchtower Radio.

AATW Radio's USB signal on 6.955 MHz started around 00:24 UTC (23 March 2013).

The (robo voice) host, Alex Jobs, played a great mix of music starting with a version of Video Killed the Radio Star by The Presidents of the United States of America. It actually sounded pretty good in upper side band!

Hear for yourself! Click here to download the MP3 recording of the full broadcast, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Black Cat Radio

Last night, I heard a new pirate on the air: Black Cat Radio.

Black Cat signed on 6,925 kHz USB around 23:45 UTC. After sending in a reception report, I received a reply with a cool eQSL card (see right) and learned that this was, in fact, show number one.

Here's the show #1 play list, courtesy of Greaser Bob:

• The Genders- Horatio
• Blitz- 45 Revolutions
• Queens of The Stone Age- Go With the Flow
• Nirvana- Anueurysm
• Black Flag- Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
• Betty Blowtorch- Strung Out
• The Misfits- Angel F**k
• Suicidal Tendencies- You Got I Want
• MC5- Kick Out the Jams
• Corrosion of Conformity- Who's got the Fire
• Phil X and the Drills- You're not Happy till Im not Happy
• The Vandals- Urban Struggle
• The Bloodhound Gang- Pennsylvania
• Betty Blowtorch- Rock and Roll 69

Click here to download the full recording of Black Cat Radio Show #1 as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer:This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

The Crystal Ship

Looking through some of my archived recordings from the past month, I found this broadcast from The Crystal Ship, on the TCS Relay Network.

Conditions were a little tough at the time and you'll hear some some SSB interference near the end, but the mix is worth it. I started this recording around 1:15 UTC on February 26th, 2013, on 6.9255 MHz, capturing the last third of the show (based on HF Underground logs).

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer:This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

The Voice of Alex Radio Show

This past weekend, I recorded a number of pirate radio stations; one of them was The Voice of Alex Radio Show: a tribute station for a girl whose life was taken by a drunk driver in 2011.

I recorded The Voice of Alex Radio Show on 6925 kHz upper side band on March 10th, 2013, around 23:30 UTC.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Radio Ronin Shortwave

This past weekend, Radio Ronin Shortwave broadcast a tribute to guitarist Alvin Lee, who passed away on March 6th.

As always, Ronin's AM signal came in loud and clear on 6.925 MHz, starting around 00:15 UTC (March 11th, 2013).

Listen for yourself by downloading the audio as an MP3, or simply listening via the embedded player below. Of course, I included Ronin's (most excellent) interval signal in this recording:

Boombox Radio

This morning, around 11:15 UTC, I caught a pirate that I had never heard on air before: Boombox Radio. Though rather weak, over the course of their 31 minute broadcast on 6,925 kHz AM, the signal did increase significantly (possibly as propagation improved).

I was very surprised to hear a North American pirate on at this time of the morning.

Click here to download the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Boombox, great to hear you on the air! 

X-FM

For your listening pleasure: three hours of the pirate radio station X-FM.

This broadcast was recorded this morning, starting around 2:00 UTC, on 6,950 kHz AM. X-FM can even be received in C-Quam stereo--something I have yet to try.

This is a 10 year anniversary broadcast of X-FM and has an excellent mix of music (everything from Indie rock to trance) and Redhat's live commentary. Superb signal strength, too.

You can download the recording of X-FM by clicking here, or simply listen via the embedded player below (note that I included X-FM's full seven minute interval signal/leader):

Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer:Though X-FM is quite a professional pirate (is there such a thing?), this is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include colorful language. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

Radio GaGa

For your listening pleasure: two recordings of the pirate radio station, Radio GaGa. Both of these broadcasts were recorded on 6.925 MHz in the upper side band on February 23rd, 2013; the first one at 12:40 UTC, the second one at 04:10 UTC.

Download the broadcasts from this page, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Wolverine Radio

For your listening pleasure: 2 hours and 46 minutes of pirate radio station, Wolverine Radio--recorded Sunday, February 17, 2013 around 2:40 UTC.

Wolverine was broadcasting on 6.925 MHz in the upper side band. Typical of Wolverine, lots of music variety which spans the decades, and no commentary other than station ID throughout.

I decoded two of the SSTV images Wolverine transmitted; the Canadian flag (see right) and this one. You can easily decode these live, or via the recording below. Per Ragnar's suggestion, I now use MMSTV to decode SSTV images.

Click here to download the full recording of Wolverine Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

WMPR

For your listening pleasure: 32 minutes of pirate radio station, WMPR.

I recorded this broadcast of WMPR on 6.925MHz AM on February 17th, 2013 at 10:00 UTC. You'll note that this recording sounds a little "brighter" than a typical shortwave radio recording.  This is due to the fact that I widened the AM filter to match the bandwidth of WMPR's signal (about 17 kHz!).

Click here to download the MP3 of the recording of WMPR, or simply listen below:

Wolverine Radio

Wolverine Radio was the strongest of the pirate radio stations I heard last night.

Wolverine was broadcasting on 6.935 MHz in the upper side band. Very good signal and excellent fidelity for SSB. Typical of Wolverine, lots of music variety and no commentary other than station ID throughout.

Wolverine Radio–at least each time I’ve heard them–sends an SSTV image at the end of the broadcast. Last night was no exception, though I had a difficult time decoding, and no time to tinker.

UPDATE: Thanks, Ragnar of Pirates Week, for both of the Wolverine images.

Ragnar decoded both SSTV graphics using using MMSTV in Scottie1 mode.

Click here to download an MP3 of Wolverine Radio's broadcast, or stream via the embedded player below:

Radio GaGa

For your listening pleasure: 28 minutes of pirate radio fun, courtesy of Radio GaGa.

Recorded on Saturday, February 2nd, 2013–starting around 00:10 UTC–on 6.925 MHz (USB).

Click here to download the MP3 of the recording, or simply listen below: Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer:This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly...back... away...

Rave On Radio

While Rave On Radio's upper side band signal was fairly weak, at least in my part of the world, on Friday night, I managed to record it just the same.  The broadcast started around 23:15 UTC (February 1st) on 6,925 kHz.

I believe I recorded the entire broadcast; if not, I at least captured the majority of it. This is not "armchair" copy, of course, but it doesn't take seasoned ears to hear the IDs and music through the static, either. (Indeed, I rather appreciate this skill-dependent aspect of the listening hobby).

Click here to download an MP3 of the entire show, or simply listen in the embedded Archive.org player below:

Note:This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast. Though I don't think this broadcast applies, if you are easily offended by strong lyrics and offensive music, you should slowly back away.

Bust A Nut Radio

Bust A Nut Radio's AM signal came in fairly strong last night sometime around 5:45 UTC (February 2nd) on 6,940 kHz.

You'll hear a great variety of music--from classic rock to electronica--complete with originally produced ID's and bumpers in this pirate radio recording.

Click here to download an MP3 of the entire show, or simply listen in the embedded Archive.org player below:

Note:This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast. If you are easily offended by strong lyrics and offensive music, you should slowly back away.

Red Mercury Labs

Last Saturday night, I caught the shortwave radio pirate, Red Mercury Labs, on 6.9251 MHz in the upper side band. This broadcast, which started around 1:57 UTC, contains a great mix of rock music with some commentary throughout.

You can download the full recording as an MP3 file by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy:

Pirate Radio Recordings: Two short UNID broadcasts

I was travelling Saturday night, but had the foresight to set my WinRadio Excalibur to record the pirate spectrum. There were few pirates on the band--less than I would have expected to hear on a holiday weekend in the US--and some of them were plagued by a local broadcaster whose spurious emissions wiped out the whole band at times.

I did catch a couple of interesting unidentified broadcasts, most likely transmitter tests as both were very short.  The first broadcast came on around 3:10 UTC (Jan 20) and consisted of two songs, ending with the Tardis sound effect from Dr. Who. Click here to download the MP3 file, or listen in the player below:

The second broadcast came on just after 7:00 UTC and consisted of only one song--no IDs at all. I would suspect this was the same pirate; however, the first broadcast had a tinny sound that this broadcast lacked. Indeed, their USB signal was quite amazing (wish s/he would have broadcast a full show).  Click here to download the recording, or listen via the player below:

Please comment if you think you can ID these broadcasts.