I like listening to pirate radio. Some of the shows can be very creative. This evening, for example, Thunder Chicken Radio broadcast some Halloween music and Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. And, in addition to that, they sent some SSTV images as well. How cool is that?
For some reason, pirates love to broadcast during Halloween season, so this really is the time to listen. As to what frequencies to listen to, pirates seem to favor a small band just below the 40-meter amateur band. Pirate radio aficionados often spot stations when they hear them on the HF Underground Bulletin Board.
Thunder Chicken Radio was on 6935 kHz tonight. Last night, I heard WENO on 6930 kHz. Thunder Chicken was broadcasting USB, WENO LSB.
Now that I have a radio with two receivers, I can watch for pirates as I operate on the amateur radio bands. I’ve learned several things about how to manipulate the two receivers and the bandscope by listening to pirate radio stations.
Unused parts
Like many hams, I have a stock of parts that I’ve acquired over the years. They often come in handy, but it seems that more often than not, I don’t have to exact thing that I need, so end up buying even more.
It’s too bad that experimenters couldn’t have some kind of clearinghouse where we could share parts amongst ourselves. Unless it was a local kind of thing, though, I guess shipping charges would negate any advantages accrued by sharing.
Operating W1AW/8
This week, I operated W1AW/8 on 40-meter CW for a total of 100 minutes as part of the Volunteers on the Air effort. I managed to work 48 stations. I thought that there might be more activity, as I was operating in the evening, but perhaps at this point of the year, VOTA isn’t such a big deal.
At any rate, if you contacted me, thanks for the Q!
Hi Dan –
I worked W1AW/8 on 10/27 at 1551z. Was that you on the key?
I agree on the idea of parts clearing house for homebrewers. Something like that was happening a few years ago between members of the QRP-L mailing list. There was a Priority Mail box being circulated around the participants. You took what you wanted and added some of your own parts stash, before re-boxing it and mailing it to the next homebrewer in line. As you mention, shipping charges might be prohibitive. If all you were looking for were a few resistors and the odd transistor or diode, it might not be worth it. However, the right kind of high-value or scarce parts could add to the appeal.
Hi Dan,
Several years ago someone in the QRP community started a parts sharing group. Call signs and exact details are fuzzy with my memory! A medium size USPS Priority Mail box was filled with parts along with a list with names and addresses of participants. Priority mail box mailing cost is based upon volume not weight, so each ham paid the same for shipping. The idea was for the first recipient to open the box, take out some needed parts, add any surplus parts from his junk box and send to the next lucky person on the list. I think the idea was to add names as needed to the shipping list coordinating through one of the list servers.
Perhaps use the Electronics section of the nearest Craigslist? In my area it’s mostly used for stereo and gaming units.