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Off topic Short wave private stations.

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MurphyV310
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Hi,

Came across this list today. Quite a lot of activity that I'll try and see if they or some are receivable here.

Screenshot 20220111 171936

 

Cheers,
Trevor.
MM0KJJ. RSGB, GQRP, WACRAL, K&LARC. Member

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 5:23 pm
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WayneD
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I found a pirate station on Shortwave on my old 2002 Mercedes C-Class's radio back in December 2017!

From what I managed to find out Mark Stafford isn't a pirate broadcaster himself, but whoever was broadcasting his content at the time clearly was. Mark's website hasn't been updated since 2019.

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 8:29 pm
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Sundog
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@wayned

Could this be a harmonic of a badly filtered MW transmitter?

I wish my C Class had SW instead of DAB which is useless on my commute (BBC national stations).

 

 

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 8:54 pm
Cathovisor
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@murphyv310 

I spotted a station on the list called HCJB - now, I remember a station called HCJB from my SWL days in the early 80s as being a religious station based in Quito, in Ecuador? That ceased its SW transmissions in 2009 according to Wiki.

I could have a play with the SDR setup at the University of Twente to see what can be found...

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 9:18 pm
MurphyV310
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Posted by: @cathovisor

I spotted a station on the list called HCJB - now, I remember a station called HCJB from my SWL days in the early 80s as being a religious station based in Quito, in Ecuador? That ceased its SW transmissions in 2009 according to Wiki.

Hi. 
I got this list from WACRAL no idea where they got TBH. Can't vouch for its accuracy.

Cheers,
Trevor.
MM0KJJ. RSGB, GQRP, WACRAL, K&LARC. Member

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 9:23 pm
Cathovisor
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@murphyv310 

Certainly touring the 41m band just now seems to get various languages being transmitted by China Radio International.

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 9:37 pm
WayneD
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@sundog I'm not sure re: the harmonic of a MW transmission. I certainly haven't heard Mr Stafford on MW - this was early in the morning at work when I used to wait for night shift to finish, I'd have a tune about on the bands. 

We now have a 2008 Mercedes C-Class which still has Shortwave. It's an SE model i.e. the base model so it has the most basic stereo system. We also have a 2007 Peugeot 107 which is ok at pulling in MW as long as the engine isn't running!

 
Posted : 11/01/2022 10:20 pm
Pye Man
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I have heard a couple of these part-time Dutch stations on my FRG-7. One was at the top end of the 80m/75m band and another on the 41m band but none of the names listed ring a bell.

I don’t think I have ever heard his programmes but I believe Mark Stafford is an established presenter. Perhaps someone is relaying a recording of one of his shows.

HCJB was a regular on the South American SW DX listings back in the glory days of the 1970s – the one on the list clearly has nothing to do with it.

Was interested to see ‘World Music Radio’ at the bottom of the list. I remember well World Music Radio broadcasting on 6250kHz on Sunday mornings in the early 1970s. I think it was based in Yorkshire. WMR had a regular schedule and seemed quite organised. This little bit of slightly out of band 49m was popular with numerous land-based pirates with various ‘Radio Carolines’ and Jolly Rogers popping up from time to time, and, of course, RNI on 6205 from the Mebo II. Of course, then the real Radio Caroline re-emerged from the Mi Amigo at the end of 1972.

Nick

 
Posted : 12/01/2022 12:18 pm
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WayneD
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@pye-man "Dis is Radio Nordseeeeee..... Internationaal!" 😉 

Mark Stafford seems to have a regular slot on Radio Caroline now.

 
Posted : 13/01/2022 9:48 am
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Pye Man
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@wayned 

Caroline fis one of my regular listens but as there so many presenters on the roster I have by no means have heard them all! Will look out for Mark Stafford.

‘RNI... the music machine’

There was the (possibly) German RNI identification that always intrigued me usually on the bottom half hour:

‘Auf kutz?........ (sounded something like ‘cootsverlee’) mittlewelle und UKW’

I guess it it equated to ‘broadcasting on medium wave, short wave and VHF’

But words like rundfunk, übertragend and verfügbar don’t seem to work!

My German is very limited and my Dutch is worse!

Nick

 
Posted : 13/01/2022 1:00 pm
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WayneD
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@pye-man my German is terrible and my Dutch is non-existent!

I've been explaining the concept of pirate radio ships to my 8 year old who's fascinated with old tech. He asked "What happens if the ship is sinking?" I'm sure you can guess what recording of RNI I played to him! 

 
Posted : 14/01/2022 11:38 am
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Pye Man
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@wayned

Know it well! There is an earlier boarding party incident on Paul Harris’s record - probably on the net too. RNI was surrounded by intrigue. What the truth is about the station one doesn’t really know. I think it would be a good basis for a film – somewhat different from The Boat that Rocked.

There will be some of the last broadcasts of Caroline from the Mi Amigo when it it went down somewhere around Knock Deep in early 1980. I think Tom Anderson is the last voice. There are code numbers broadcast for ‘the office’ which I think boil down to ‘we are sinking’ and ‘imminent’.

Apparently, the antenna mast remained visible above the waves for years. Where she sank wasn’t very deep and at low tide some of the superstructure was visible though now she is well down in the sand. Think of all those records down there...

There will be a clip on YouTube or somewhere of an extract from BBC Coast TV programme where Tom Anderson is taken on a coastguard vessel and sees an image of the wreck on sonar/whatever.

This was a fascinating time. A friend described it as a ‘frontier operation’ which I think is very appropriate – probably the last outlaw frontier in the European experience which connected with the masses. As we move into an ultra-regulated and controlled world it seems astonishing that these stations ever existed or were allowed to exist. The laws that were quietly passed after Caroline’s last demise in 1990 are far more draconian than the 1967 act and basically give the Navy free rein in international waters to act against pirate ships.

Nick

 
Posted : 14/01/2022 12:31 pm
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MurphyV310
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Interesting what's been said about pirate ships, would that be marine piracy across the board or targeted at Radio Piracy? 

Cheers,
Trevor.
MM0KJJ. RSGB, GQRP, WACRAL, K&LARC. Member

 
Posted : 14/01/2022 12:36 pm
Pye Man
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@murphyv310 

I believe the law was extended in the 1990s to deal with pirate stations with broadcasts aimed at the UK (it could be interesting as to how that would interpreted) on the high seas. What gives the authorities leeway is that usually the vessels’ registrations (typically Panama) get withdrawn so that they become stateless. Attacking a registered ship flying another country’s flag would, of course, be considered an act of war.

However, previous to this it did not stop the British and Dutch authorities boarding the Ross Revenge in international waters in the late 1980s, disabling and damaging the transmitting equipment and heaving the record library over the side.

PS I think that the only radio ship given official blessing as a broadcaster, and possibly the only ship ever registered in the country, was the King David which broadcast Capital Radio in 1970-71 (predating the London station of the same name) and was registered in Leichtenstein.

Nick

 
Posted : 14/01/2022 12:47 pm
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Doz
 Doz
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Posted by: @pye-man

@murphyv310 

I believe the law was extended in the 1990s to deal with pirate stations with broadcasts aimed at the UK (it could be interesting as to how that would interpreted) on the high seas. What gives the authorities leeway is that usually the vessels’ registrations (typically Panama) get withdrawn so that they become stateless. Attacking a registered ship flying another country’s flag would, of course, be considered an act of war.

However, previous to this it did not stop the British and Dutch authorities boarding the Ross Revenge in international waters in the late 1980s, disabling and damaging the transmitting equipment and heaving the record library over the side.

PS I think that the only radio ship given official blessing as a broadcaster, and possibly the only ship ever registered in the country, was the King David which broadcast Capital Radio in 1970-71 (predating the London station of the same name) and was registered in Leichtenstein.

The record library was not heaved over the side but confiscated. It was returned years later. 

The M.V.Communicator (ex-laser 558/ Hot hits etc) was also used legitimately for many years in the Netherlands, before being sold and being used briefly in the Shetlands for the "superstation" before being sold and cut cup for scrap.

 
Posted : 15/01/2022 5:04 pm
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Pye Man
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@doz 

I think the Norderney (R Veronica) survives and is a floating night club. I think the Galaxy (R London) was in Kiel for years and eventually sank in the harbour. The Laissez Faire/Olga Patricia (R England/Britain Radio) had a long life eventually ending up as a fishing vessel on the US eastern seaboard. It went for scrap not so long ago. The REM Island was eventually dismantled after the Dutch authorities had finished using it for some sort of scientific water monitoring purpose and I believe is now reconstructed in a harbour somewhere and is a restaurant.

The Ross Revenge is a tough old boat – not many survive an encounter with the Goodwin Sands. Pleased they got the record library back!

The Mebo II came to a grim end in Libya where it was used for target practice by the Libyan air force or navy. I remember that after the August 1974 closedown there was a plan for it to broadcast in the northern Med as Radio Nova International. I regularly checked 6205kHz in vain. I think that in the end it was only let out of Holland when Holland and Panama came to an agreement that the ship would not be used for broadcasts in European waters.

Nick

 
Posted : 15/01/2022 5:48 pm
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Cathovisor
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Posted by: @pye-man

Auf kutz?........ (sounded something like ‘cootsverlee’) mittlewelle und UKW

If it was "Auf kurzwellen, mittelwellen und UKW" it was indeed "On shortwave, medium wave and VHF" (strictly, ultra-short waves).

"kurzwellen" is pronounced "curts-vellen".

 
Posted : 15/01/2022 7:15 pm
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Alex728
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The impression I get is over the years Agentschap Telecom/RCD/PTT has permitted (and still allows) an AM station from a ship/boat location provided it remains in NL territorial waters, and has relatively low power (otherwise UK radio stations lobby Ofcom complaining about unfair competition)

I think Radio Seagull is still going but I couldn't monitor it on UTwente SDR due to QRM, various other low power stations are licenced on AM across the Netherlands, often on old Hilversum allocations that NL has always had 

https://radioseagull.com/#home.html

its not even that expensive to get a low power AM licence over there!

https://www.agentschaptelecom.nl/onderwerpen/radio-en-televisie/commerciele-omroep/laagvermogen-middengolf

These are the frequencies available to LPAM stations, with potential coverage maps

https://www.agentschaptelecom.nl/binaries/agentschap-telecom/documenten/kaarten/2019/02/14/frequentierechten-middengolf-nederland/Frequentierechten+middengolf+Nederland.pdf

I don't know about the status of the current small HF stations but apparently AT does issue HF licences and they aren't as expensive as I'd thought (although each Kw is €610 per year), probably using the old Radio Netherlands Worldwide allocations. Unlike UK where Ofcom is a one stop shop, a station does have to apply separately to the "Ministry of Culture" to get a licence for the content

https://www.agentschaptelecom.nl/onderwerpen/radio-en-televisie/tarieven-omroepen

 
Posted : 15/01/2022 8:19 pm
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WayneD
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Posted by: @pye-man

The Mebo II came to a grim end in Libya where it was used for target practice by the Libyan air force or navy. I remember that after the August 1974 closedown there was a plan for it to broadcast in the northern Med as Radio Nova International. I regularly checked 6205kHz in vain. I think that in the end it was only let out of Holland when Holland and Panama came to an agreement that the ship would not be used for broadcasts in European waters.

I remember reading about that 😭 

Have to say, OFCOM don't seem that bothered about illegal radio broadcasts these days. Amateur radio repeaters are supposed to be "self policing" now. Every other car has a Bluetooth FM transmitter - if you're ever bored stuck in traffic, tune to 108 FM. You can hear all sorts! People listening to audiobooks, private phone calls, digital radio, podcasts, really dodgy tastes in music, etc etc.

Like everything I suspect OFCOM had their resources and budget absolutely slashed. Add that to the amount of broadband provider problems and dodgy gambling website adverts that seem to end up on TV channels...

 
Posted : 16/01/2022 1:37 pm
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Pye Man
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Posted by: @cathovisor
Posted by: @pye-man

Auf kutz?........ (sounded something like ‘cootsverlee’) mittlewelle und UKW

If it was "Auf kurzwellen, mittelwellen und UKW" it was indeed "On shortwave, medium wave and VHF" (strictly, ultra-short waves).

"kurzwellen" is pronounced "curts-vellen".

Fabulous! A 48+ year mystery solved!

Many thanks

 

Nick

 
Posted : 16/01/2022 2:19 pm
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