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

To start with it was the same conditions as last week with me today.

Poor,with lots of noise.

The only station coming through well was Orion Radio.Nice signal as usual and above the noise.
I could hear carriers here and there but they were mainly inaudible beneath the noise.
At 1030 I had some things to do and returned to the radio's
15 minutes later and to my great surprise the noise had almost gone!
With the lack of noise some more stations were heard.The best of which were VOTN and Radio Brandaris,both who would have been stronger than the earlier noise anyway.
Interesting to compare the two signals,both very similar in strength.When VOTN first came on he played non-stop music and had a solid signal with little fading and superb mod.(Much better than his last broadcast)
I was guessing this may be Borderhunter(This is a compliment VOTN).Brandaris was at first a little stronger and a lot louder.
But as the day went on it became clear that they were both of similar signal strength,but with a difference.
VOTN had very little fading with me,so was a solid signal,mod was superb but maybe a little quiet.
Brandaris was fading more with me,at times he was much stronger than VOTN and at other times much weaker.
His mod was MUCH louder than VOTN,but he was over modulating slightly.
Overall I would say they were equal in output but very different.There is little you can do about fading,but you can control mod levels.Which do you think is best,superb mod that is slightly too quiet or slightly distorted mod that is a bit too loud?
Obviously it is best to get good,loud mod,but I know this is not so easy.
So my question to you the listeners is;which do you prefer?
I tried to catch "Best of British" but had no reception here.
Best signals of the weekend for me were Scotland,Orion,VOTN & Brandaris.


Saturday 24/01/09

5815Khz - 0930-0935 - Radio Scotland - 45444 - Alice Cooper.First time on 52m,lost WiFi connection.
6260Khz - 0943-0948 - Radio Altrex - 34333 - Abba."From the land of cheese".

Sunday 25/01/09

3930Khz - 1420-1425 - The Bogusman - 33333 - Chat and Indie Rock.
5810Khz - 0935-0940 - Orion Radio - 45434 - Dutch song."Don't let me be misunderstood".Closed at 1003.
5810Khz - 1004-1009 - SW.Cowboys - 23432 - Meatloaf,Guns'n'Roses.
6205Khz - 1042-1047 - DRP Radio? - 34433 - Song in Spanish.
6210Khz - 1120-1125 - Radio Paadenkracht - 34444 - The Turtles,Spencer Davies Group.Tech problems with mic.
6220Khz - 1017-1022 - Radio Marabu - 34333 - Kings of Leon.
6265Khz - 1023-1028 - Radio Altrex - 34333 - "Barraccuda".Closed just after 1130.
6290Khz - 1055-1100 - VOTN - 44444 - Bon Jovi,CCR,Stones,Kraftwerk.Nice mod.
6305Khz - 1100-1105 - Radio Brandaris Int - 43434 - Dutch Music and instrumentals.

Andy Richards.

I was listening to VOTN and Brandaris today. Although they were both around S9 on my S-meter, Brandaris sounded louder with his slightly overmodulated sound.

I think on shortwave you have try and make your audio as loud as possible to cut through all the crackling, noise and fading.

I think if it was FM it would be different but on SW you need that extra punch.

In answer to your question - I prefer slightly over-modulated rather than under-modulated. But the trick is to get it just right. Too far the wrong way and it sounds rubbish.

One station that always has a nice sound is Borderhunter so good to hear him on today.

But conditions are overall poor at the moment. On Saturday noise levels on 75m were up to S8/9 here - struggle to hear Fox 48 and even Bogusman.

thanks Andy for the log

Hi Andy,

Many thanks again for your log.
Good to see, you still can copy Altrex in your location.

73's Altrex