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!