Free radio pirates on medium and short wave messageboard of alfa lima

29/10

1645 2042 45554 fantastic Baro weekend show
3900 1957 25332 UNID, e, tel. 0771..
3905 1957 44444 Spaceman changed cause of QRM to 3945
3910 1953 22232 UNID, Dutch muziek
3910 2130 25332 Dr. Tim tried to speak English, but really enjoyable
3925 1950 35333 Laser 558 program
3935 2011 25332 IRF510, Chris Ise, DJ Dipole, Mark Jones, it was really
nice to listen to well produced shows!
3945 2006 14431 Spaceman nearly fade out
6275 1650 45444 IRF 510

30/10

6200 1100 25442 Pandora with a nice show
6209 1055 35333 Antonio
6240 0850 45444 IRF510 was first on this Frequency
6240 1249 24332 Jolly Rodger? with Laser Hot Hits program
6245 0922 35433 BRI
6265 0935 35333 Fox 48
6268 1016 45333 Valencia, more worse modulation than Dr. Tim, over modulated
6275 0855 43443 IRF510, partly splatter from the plague
6280 0929 32332 Halloween radio with Dr. Tim, 10:13 close down, low
modulation, IRF 510 was much louder, splatter from the plague
6290 0950 31331e, not to identify, splatter from the plague
6295 0955 30331not to identify, splatter from the plague
6300 1022 45444 Optimod, splatter +-30khz, can anybody tell you what an
Optimod is?
6300 1151 43444 Skyline, super modulation and only +-5khz!
6300 1008 45444 Scirocco, only +-5khz!
6305 0835 45444 Mazda, splatter +-25khz, it is a plague!!! 1000 closed down,
Thank you, but later on Delta continuous splattering half of the band
6305 1015 43433 Fr. Mijnwerker
6307 1100 45444 Delta Ruurlo, not so loud, but nearly +-35khz splatter, QRM
down to IRF510. It is a plague!!!
6322 0950 44333 Zodiac, splatter from the plague
6380 1034 24332 Laser
6384 0924 35433 UNID
7460 0954 25232 Laser // 48 + 32
9385 0951 24232 Laser


In the UK and in Germany too it is very dangerous to run a free radio station. Some operators produce a show and go with a mobile 20-watt transmitter into a wood. When the show is running nobody can listen to it because some Dutch guys sitting 25khz besides splattering half of the band. So they invest four or five hours for an inaudible one-hour program.
I thing you three guys behind Delta, Optimod and Mazda are very sympathetic. But you have one mistake in your behavior: Please learn how to handle a transmitter.
For me as a listener it is a plague if I could not listen to a station 25khz
above or below because you are on the air. You are still not alone on the
band. Please ask Skyline who works with a power similar to yours how to
handle it or ask Spaceman who mostly handles much more power in a better
way. Thanks for your insight.

Freebird

He freebird,Every time you in your reports,You Have stations with splatter.
What reciever do you have.
I have no problem with the stations,Her in holland(splatter)

greeting racal

Freebird wrote:

> 6300 1022 45444 Optimod, splatter +-30khz, can anybody tell you
> what an Optimod is?

Aha, I'd like to hear about that. Everybody is invited !

R. Optimod.

B.t.w, I would guess his receiver is OK.

Optimod is from: http://www.orban.com/
History from the optimod or audio processing:
http://www.soundprocessing.nl/hisbob.html
It is used to prevend overmodulation
In the era ruled by AM, the prime purpose of non-linear audio processing devices was to prevent overmodulation. When an AM carrier reaches cutoff (at 100% negative modulation), distortion increases very rapidly and spurious harmonics are generated en masse!
copy from: http://www.soundprocessing.nl/hisfrank.html
Found by using Google with the words: optimod am transmitter Overmodulation Distortion
Technical tips for monitoring a transmitter http://www.icycolors.com/nu9n/scope_your_audio.html
Technical tips for setting up a SSB hifi transmitter also very usefull for AM
http://www.icycolors.com/nu9n/tx.html

greetings jan

Hello Jan, thanks for providing me these pointers to background info.

Although the subject is well know, it was a nice surprise to read a few recent things I was not yet aware of.

And yes, I agree, officially Optimods and related equipment are/were used to prevent over-modulation by reducing audio bandwidth and limiting (negative) modulation-peeks and to compensate for high-frequency loss in the final audio amplifier.
However in practice most stations use Orban's, Omnia's and others to increase the average loudness of their modulation, so it looks a more powerful station. Unfortionally and due to the precise adjustments needed, for AM, this mostly results in over-modulation (splatter) and sometimes severe audio distortion.
Depending on actual frequency occupation the stations operator however decides what settings to use.

Greetings,
R.Optimod

it's more than only a name.

Brrr, you frighten me !

A new Dutch Power-House coming soon.

[quote="Andy Richards"][b][i][color=blue][/color]I hope your
A station name?
Andy.[/i][/b][/quote]

An Email address?

I just latch me in the discussion again.

Racal wrote
He freebird,Every time you in your reports,You Have stations with splatter.
What reciever do you have.
I have no problem with the stations,Her in holland(splatter)
greeting racal

Optimod wrote
B.t.w, I would guess his receiver is OK

Hello Racal! Hello Optimod!
I use a Sony 2001 D and a NRD 535 both with 20m long wire outside. My location is around 250 km south of you. Reception conditions maybe different at various locations.
Racal you have luck if you have no problem with splatter . If I follow the discussion over the last month or maybe years on this board correctly I do not stand alone with my experience concerning splatter.

Andy wrote
There was a time when all Pirates were accepted,just because they were Pirates.But the mood has changed.People on this site realise that there are good and bad Pirates,acceptable & unacceptable behaviour and it is Europewide too.

Hello Andy!
I think you are right in most aspects you wrote. I have only two completions.
I heard from other free radio enthusiasts there are discussions for more than 30 years whether a station is a good or bad one or if it has the right to exist. There were discussions if a tape pirate is a good one or not. Other discussions concerned the used frequencies. For example “This is my frequency and you do not have the right to use itâ€

Andy Richards wrote:Hi Freebird!

I am well aware of the discussions on Pirate radio over the years,having been involved in Pirate radio since 1970.What I was refering to was the atitude of posters on this forum recently.There was a time when they simply posted logs,reception reports,details etc.Now posters are more inclined to post comments like;"Over - modulated" or "Splattering" or "interfering with such & such a station".I think this is healthy.
AM Pirate operators on both SW & MW tend to be radio enthusiasts & so their knowledge is good & they have a pride in their programmes & signals.Operators rarely transmit bad signals or cause interference deliberately(Though it does happen)Usually it is by mistake,especially in the case of coming on air on top of another station,simply because the other station is not heard.
There does tend to be a paranoia amongst low power stations that the high power stations deliberately interfere with their signals,but in general this is just not the case.As I said,in general,it is because the low power station is not audible at the high power stations QTH.I'm afraid this is unavoidable,unless there is more contact between stations.It would be a good idea for low power stations to post their intentions to broadcast on this message board(Under PX announcements)
As most Ops read this forum it would offer them some protection as most
Ops would then try to avoid these frequencies even if they could not hear the station.
But there is another point here.Why don't new low power stations look for new frequencies,away from the "Big boys".There is no point going on air on a Sunday on 6300Khz or on a Saturday night on 3927Khz & then complaining that some big station came on top of you!!
Look at Orion Radio,I know he's not really low power,but he is experimenting with 5710Khz.
Low power stations do not need to use the "Popular bands" as they did in the past to catch listeners on the "Off chance",they can now use the internet to inform potential listeners where & when they will be on.
We are all enthusiasts on this board & I'm sure we can all work together to make the experience of Pirate radio more enjoyable for both Ops & listeners,let's try to do so.


Andy.

andyrichardz@msn.com

www.freewebs/radiofloss

Nice words Andy!
However, I championed the use of 3.9 MHz in the early 90's, it worked, many low power stations down there getting signals out when they couldn't do it on 48 cos it was so congested at the time.
But and it's a big but, the band became popular with low and high power stations alike, so that now the band is frequently out of reach to the low power op's (but not always).
What I am saying is that how many times do you need to invent or re- invent a new band just to get away from other ops who maybe interfering?
The more bands we use the less chance there is of people hearing us, oh you could spend all day posting on obscure boards on the net in the hope that someone wil tune your way.
But it's still easier to TX in a well known band like 48M.
We know that the majority of people in the world that listen to pirate radio do so on a regular basis, but it probably amounts to less than 500 people, but there are many casual listeners who only tune in now and again and don't trawl the boards.
It's these people we need to hook, otherwise the hobbie and the fight may go down the pan!
If we shift bands all the time they won't hear us, they will think we have gone and they will stop looking and instead take the easy option of DXing some legit station that has a schedule to work from.
Sooner or later we will find ourselves in the postion that so and so station was busted on some obscure band and the only people that heard them were the officals that did the raid!
Now that would be worth all my/their time and effort!!
Lovely stuff and all that,we are all mates in the fight for FR, 73's,
Dave.

Andy Richards wrote:

Hi Dave,

As usual,you make many good points.But I have to take you up on a couple of them.
As to the use of different frequencies,6320,6325,6395 & 6400Khz have all been used recently by;Radio Blackbird,Radio Mazda,Orion Radio,Radio Padenkracht,Radio Zodiac Int,Radio Scotland,West Coast Radio,Hit Radio,Weekend Music Radio & many more.I don't know how successful these transmissions were,but these ops avoided interference from other stations by broadcasting on nice clear channels.Most of the stations I have listed are what I would call "Medium Power Stations",but they still seemed to feel the need to avoid "The big boys".Maybe some of the Ops I've mentioned might care to post here & tell us how they got on.You may be right,Dave,I don't know.But my gut feeling is that they did OK.
The other point is about posting your broadcasting intentions on the internet.Come on Dave,you don't need to post on loads of "Obscure" message boards,AlfaLima.net is the only one that most people read.
None of this is brain surgery,we should be able to organise ourselves better.More communication is the answer,not just on this forum but Pirate to Pirate.If you can establish regular e-mail contact with most of the more powerful operators and warn them of your broadcasting intentions beforehand I am sure you will be left alone.
Let's work at this people,it really isn't so hard to do.



Andy.



andyrichardz@msn.com



www.freewebs.com/radiofloss

As to the use of different frequencies,6320,6325,6395 & 6400Khz have all been used recently and thats the point.
over the years we have used all these freqs and more. But no sooner than you open up another part of the band, does somebody else come and claim it for them self.
Over the years I tried to get people to move to bands that suited the conditions etc. 3.9 mhz, 5.8 mhz etc, but once it became successful other OPs moved the congestion to there.
Plus there is the other thing that listeners have brought up, some of the freqs we chose arn't available on anything other than general coverage receivers, so those with fixed band RX's can't tune to us.

BTW all, starting a new pirate band on 11.100 to 11.200 MHz.
Does your receiver tune it??
Thanks Andy for the intellectual exercise, makes a change!!

Hello All,

Good discusion here! All off you siad good things. I guess we all have to post who is when on air. The difficult is to tell everybody you are on .....kc. So I post that I am on air between6250 and 6400kc. But we all have to comunicate better and/or more. Testting other freq. is a good point, I am still looking for other good freq. th e52 meters seems to be a good pirate band I did good tests there in day and evening time. The Higher freq. are also good, but more for real dx-ing. Another point is the propagation, sometimes this is that good, it looks like pirates produce splatter, but most pirates haven't change anything one there transmitter or audio part, I guess it is all in the air. When I go on air I look the band for free freq., than ask some friends in europe which freq. is free, and than go an air. But even than it is posible to go on top or close to other stations whitout knowing this.

[/i][/b][/quote]
As to the use of different frequencies,6320,6325,6395 & 6400Khz have all been used recently and thats the point.
over the years we have used all these freqs and more. But no sooner than you open up another part of the band, does somebody else come and claim it for them self.
Over the years I tried to get people to move to bands that suited the conditions etc. 3.9 mhz, 5.8 mhz etc, but once it became successful other OPs moved the congestion to there.
Plus there is the other thing that listeners have brought up, some of the freqs we chose arn't available on anything other than general coverage receivers, so those with fixed band RX's can't tune to us.

BTW all, starting a new pirate band on 11.100 to 11.200 MHz.
Does your receiver tune it??
Thanks Andy for the intellectual exercise, makes a change!![/quote]

Hi Dave,
Your point about fixed band RX's is a good one.Won't argue with that.Except to say that if the listeners are really interested,they can go out & buy a general coverage receiver.
Your other points lead to the fact that,at least for operators,this medium has become more popular.There certainly seems to be more stations on now than a couple of years ago.This must be a good thing.
But,back to the point in hand.As JoJo(Orion Radio) has said,he always posts vaguely where & when he will be on.This is good enough for most Ops as they can listen out for him.No guarantee of no interference of course.
The best we can say is;

1.High power operators don't have a problem,they can flatten all interference,but I think most of these try as best they can to avoid it.Lower power Ops can help by warning of their intentions to broadcast.

2.Medium power Ops don't have too many problems except from the high power Ops,who will probably hear them anyway,but still need to be careful on choice of frequency and posting broadcast plans.

3.Low power Ops are at the mercy of the above two & have to do all they can to be heard,frequency choice,posting intentions,keeping in e-mail contact with all other Ops etc.
God knows I know what it's like to operate from a field,every week,in all weathers!!(We never had interference problems on MW)And after all that work I too would be extremely annoyed if all my efforts went to nothing because some big station blotted me out because they didn't know I was on!!So you have to do something to solve the problem!!
It's no fun for the listener either,listening to an interesting programme from a low powered station when a big one blots it out...............who does he blame?The big station for not hearing the little one?Or the little station for not ensuring his frequency is clear before switching on?
All the Ops have a responsibility to make it work for the listener,otherwise the listener will get bored & go away.
I know,the whole essence of being a Pirate is "NO RULES!FREEDOM!!"But we can still be organised without actually having rules.It's not a perfect solution,but it's better than anything done before & worth a try.


Andy.


andyrichardz@msn.com

www.freewebs.com/radiofloss