Wolverine Radio (Shortwave Pirate) Clip: December 25, 2021

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:

Audio recording of Shortwave Pirate going by Wolverine Radio. This was recorded December 25, 2021 at 0056UTC on 6969khz in Hugo, MN. The broadcast consists of a few minutes of the Barenaked Ladies song Testing One Two Three being play and then a male voice announcing a frequency change.

Broadcaster: Wolverine Radio (Pirate)

Date of recording: 12/25/2021

Starting time: 0056 UTC

Frequency: 6.96 MHz

Your location: Hugo, MN

Receiver and antenna: SDRPlay with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic

Mode: Single Side Band

Radio Metallica Worldwide (Pirate Radio): July 29, 1997

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Date of recording: 7/29/1997

Frequency: 6.955

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna

Mode: AM

Notes: This shortwave pirate broadcaster could be heard well here in Southern Ontario in the late 1990's. They finished each program with their theme song "Secret Agent Man."

Pirate Radio WFDR: December 24, 2020

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:

A shortwave pirate radio station calling itself WFDR which broadcast on Christmas Eve December 24, 2020 at 2259UTC on 6920 kHz.

The broadcast was as follows:

- Franklin Roosevelts Christmas Speech in 1942

- Winston Churchill Speech

- Christmas Music

Date of recording: 12/24/2020

Starting time: 2259

Frequency: 6.92 MHz

RX location: Hugo, MN

Receiver and antenna: Sdr Play with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic

Mode: Single Side Band

Pirate Radio Stations WDOG and Radio Station EFP: September 5, 2020

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Richard Lacroix, who shares the following recording and notes:

First off, thank you goes out to John Hudak’s timely post on the ODXA group. Shortly after his post, I was able to quickly tune-in and intercept 2 pirate radio stations on September 5 2020 during the period 00:30 to 02:17 UTC. John’s post read:

“Pirate station WDOG is on 5060kHz. USB right now as I write this – 0027UTC Sept. 5, 2020 (8:27 p.m. EDT Fri. Sept. 4). Fairly good signal, playing various rock and pop songs. Frequent ID’s between songs and sound of dog barking.”

There were in actuality 2 sequential broadcasts. The first from WDOG on 5060.0 kHz USB from an unconfirmed start time until sign-off with “Star-Spangled Banner” played by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock at 01:53 UTC.

The second broadcast followed suite by Radio Station EFP, as well on 5060.0 kHz, but this time in AM mode. Radio Station EFP continued to broadcast until approximately 02:17 UTC after which it started to exhibit deep signal path fades and eventually went off-air at 02:17:40 UTC. Armed with the combination of devoted listeners posting reception reports and a radio always at the ready, this made for a very exciting 2 hours of SWL. Included is a 10 minute audio compilation for everyone to enjoy which I stitched together from the 2 plus hours of off-air broadcast recording I saved:

Generation Wild 100: July 26, 2014

For your listening pleasure: one hour, eleven minutes of the pirate radio station, Generation Wild 100.

Generation Wild 100 started broadcasting around 2:00 UTC this morning on 6,925 kHz in the upper sideband. As you’ll hear in the recording, their signal here in eastern North America was verystrong, even drowning out most of the ever-present summer static crashes.

I had never heard Generation Wild 100 before; this was a new pirate logging for me. After hearing their intro, I expected they’d play trance, techno, or punk rock…Not so. GW100 played a mix of, um,lounge music. I chuckled to hear their high-energy bumpers segue into smooth jazz.

Proves yet again that with pirates, you’ll never know what to expect. I love it!

Click here to download the full recording of Generation Wild 100, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Hot Legs Radio: May 25, 2014

For your listening pleasure: about 20 minutes of pirate radio station, Hot Legs Radio–recorded May 25, 2014 starting around 1:55 UTC.

Hot Legs Radio was broadcasting around 6,925 kHz in AM.

Hot Legs was rather weak and somewhat over-modulated. Indeed, in regular AM mode, I couldn't make out the station ID at all. Fortunately, by turning on the WinRadio Excalibur‘s AM synchronous detector and selecting the less noisy lower sideband, I dug the signal out of the noise. AM sync also helped compensate for the over-modulation.

You’ll hear me re-tune a couple of times in this recording. Hot Legs' signal was a bit of a moving target.  I don’t think it would have been as noticeable in standard AM mode (which is more forgiving of drift), but in AM sync, you’ll hear a tone when the frequency shifts.

Still, I’m quite happy to have caught Hot Legs Radio–a new pirate logging! Hope to hear them on again soon.

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

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:

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: 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.

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.

Dit Dah Radio

Being a fan of Morse code (or CW), I have a special affinity for pirates that use "the sacred language" in their broadcasts.

Last night, around 00:30 UTC (only a few minutes after WKND began broadcasting) I heard Morse Code on 6.935 MHz USB.

If you, too, love Morse code, you'll love "Dit Dah Radio;" after their preamble in Morse code, they follow with The Capris' 1960's hit, Morse Code of Love.

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

WKND

The holidays are a great time to listen for pirates on the shortwave spectrum. Since many pirates are on holiday leave from their day jobs, they have a little more time to broadcast.

Last night, the first pirate I heard was WKND on 9,625 kHz AM.

His station was quite clear, but modulation, perhaps, a tad low. Other noises, including Spanish SSB, can be heard in the background.

Click here to download the full MP3 recording of WKND, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Radio Casablanca

On Sunday, December 17th, around 22:00 UTC, I happened to pick up the last thirty minutes of Radio Casablanca; a pirate that plays a nostalgic mix of music from the 1930's and 1940's. They were broadcasting on 6939 kHz in AM. Close your eyes, and you can imagine what it must have sounded like back in the day Phyllis Jeanne Creore Westerman graced the shortwaves.

You'll hear me tweaking the receiver in the first three minutes while, in the background, I was entertaining my children. I though about cutting it out but, on second thought, simply uploaded it as-is. I switched from a very wide AM bandwidth to AM sync and then AM sync with only the lower sideband (to kill some noise in the upper side band) after adjusting the center slightly below 6940 kHz.

I love how the recording starts on a tone and then morphs into Close as Pages in a Book by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

You can download the MP3 by clicking here, or simply listen in the embedded player below:

True Classic Rock Radio

Last weekend, I caught a shortwave pirate I'd never heard before: True Classic Rock Radio. Well, at least I'm pretty confident that's their name. When I first heard their ID I couldn't confirm it, but when I passed the clip to my buddy Andrew, he nailed it.

Funny thing is, when I go back and listen to the station ID now (check it out around 17:30, and then again at the end of transmission) it sounds so obvious.

This short broadcast includes some great classic rock and ends with Hendrix. I didn't note the exact time they began to broadcast, but I heard them on between 3:00-4:00 UTC, on 6,925 kHz AM, December 8, 2012. Click here to download the mp3 directly, or listen through our Archive.org player:

Grizzly Bear Radio

A few weeks ago, I found a pirate I had never heard before: Grizzly Bear Radio. They quickly nullified my claim that Radio Appalachia was the only pirate I knew of that broadcasts bluegrass music. According to Grizzly Bear, they transmit from the northwest US, so the fact that I hear them at all speaks of good propagation and Grizzly Bear's antennas. At any rate, I did manage to capture almost their entire broadcast--nearly 5 hours!--on October 6th. Unlike many of my recordings, this one is faint at times and you'll have to listen through the static.  Still, this is what I enjoy about pirate radio, hearing some unique audio through the static. As grandpa used to say, this "builds listening skills."

You can download an mp3 of the full recording, or simply listen in the player embedded below.  Enjoy:

Radio Appalachia

Radio Appalachia is the only pirate I've ever heard on the shortwaves which features bluegrass and gospel music. This recording was made Saturday night on 6.9349 MHz (AM). At 8:28 in the recording below, you'll hear Radio Appalachia's station ID :

"Radio Appalachia, you are listening to Radio Appalachia...the free voice of the Ohio Valley. Broadcasting from high above Moundsville, West Virginia, this is Radio Appalachia."

You then hear their signature Three Stooges audio sample and a repeat of the ID.

Click here to download the MP3, or listen to the entire broadcast below:

X-FM

Listening conditions Saturday night were  pretty good--we had clear skies and  though propagation wasn't excellent, I did manage to record a full broadcast (over 3 hours) of X-FM. X-FM typically features a wide variety of music spanning trance/electronica to varieties of rock/metal. This broadcast was no exception--hear for yourself:

PLEASE NOTE: While most of the music in this broadcast is perfectly safe, parents should note that some songs contain explicit lyrics. If you're easily offended, you might want to slowly back away.  After all, this is pirate radio!

UPDATE: Check out the QSL card I received for this broadcast:

North Woods Radio

Though listening conditions were tough Saturday night, as we were wedged between two lines of thunderstorms (both of which were no more than 60 miles away) I did manage to capture North Woods Radio's full broadcast. This broadcast featured some noted drum solos. As you can hear for yourself, their AM signal was strong at times on 6,935 kHz, but occasionally the percussion was augmented by natural forces, in the form of static crashes:

Wolverine Radio

Though summer conditions can be tough--with regional storms generating HF static crashes--I did manage to capture about thirty minutes of Wolverine Radio. As you can hear for yourself, their upper side band signal was strong on 6,950 kHz: