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

I don't think I've ever told you guys what I actually listen on.

It's not much...........an old Trio 9R59DS(Bought in 1975 when I was 15!) connected to an inverted L long wire stretching half way down the garden and connected to an apple tree(Insulated of course!).
No earth.(Though I need to make one to see if it kills some of the noise here).

The old Trio still works really well,even though a couple of the switches are a bit crackly now.
The only problem with this radio is that you can't really tell what frequency you are listening to.
For this I use an old Roberts R881 portable.It's not precise(5Khz spacings) but better than the Trio!

I am getting close to having to open my dusty old wallet to buy a new communications RX and a new portable too,but whilst these old horses are still working so well and SW conditions are so bad I am holding off!(Tight fisted git that I am!).

It was with this in mind that I decided to experiment this Sunday morning.
I would not use my old and trusted receivers,but instead use Web Radio.

It was an interesting experience,
I used Barney's reciever.Because it's the best.
And you can see my logs below.
Was it better than listening normaly?
Well,it was nice to interact with other Pirate fans.
Hi to frfreak and andyp!
I have no idea who they are but they knew their SW Pirates!
But to be honest,Iann's Chat is better.
Reception was maybe slightly better than on my radios,mainly as there seems to be less noise in Bedford than London.
Of course I had to share the tuning,but that was OK as the others were Pirate fans too.
But at about 0900 the connection was lost.Maybe Barney has certain times he shares his radios or maybe he just decided he wanted to use them.It makes no difference,they are his radio's and he can do what he want's with them.I am just happy he makes them available to the public.
But the fact remains that I had lost my Pirate reception.
I tried other Web receivers.The ones in NL are useless,even with the short skip today,even Delta was weak.The German ones are a little better.In the UK the only one I found was in Cumbria and signals were poor.I tried a couple in Italy and Mystery were MASSIVE!
Overall it was an interesting experiment.And I recommend you all try it at least once.
But is it better than using my own radios?
I have been playing with "Internet Radio" for the last few months,and it is great fun.
But not the same as REAL RADIO.
I can say the same for my experience this morning.Great fun,but but not the same as REAL RADIO!


Friday 06/08/10

3900Khz - 2125-2130 - Radio Sallendse Boer - 34433 - "Proud Mary","Bad Moon Rising".(Both CCR).
3900Khz - 2150-2155 - Radio Sallendse Boer - 35434 - Lots of CCR.Better when Likedeeler moved.
3905Khz - 1955-2000 - Radio Likedeeler - 35433 - "LA Woman","Hush",German,slightly over modulated mic.
3925Khz - 2155-2200 - Radio Likedeeler - 35434 - Good Rock Music.Better signal after moving fx.

Saturday 07/08/10

3930Khz - 2040-2045 - Bogusman - 44333 - Chat and Indie Rock.

HEARD ON BARNEY'S WEB RECIEVER;

Sunday 08/08/10

5825Khz - 0840-0842 - Best of British Radio - 35333 - "West End Girls".
6210Khz - 0844-0847 - Misti Radio - 24333 - Dutch Music.
6220Khz - 0820-0822 - Mystery Radio - 33333 - Stevie Wonder.
6240Khz - 0822-0824 - Free Radio Victoria - 44444 - Oldies.
6300Khz - 0824-0829 - Delta Radio - 55444 - Country Rock,"Hold on,I'm coming".
6310Khz - 0815-0820 - Trans Europe Radio - 33333 - "YMCA",Dutch song.


Andy Richards.

Thanks for all the info on your receiver. Web receivers can be handy for broadcasters too, to understand how well we are being received. There's a good one in Italy on which you can usually hear Europirates.

Oh, and thanks for the log of 5825!

One of the things which the old SINPO code doesn't really give an indication of is audio quality. Some stations have very nice modulation, broad and deep. Others are tinny, others are muffled, some are undermodulated some are overmodulated (and splatter). I'm sure it would be useful for stations to know which of these categories they fit into. So how's about a new reception reporting code, which I call SIMFEROPOL.

It works like this:

S - Signal
I - Interference
M - Modulation
F - Fading
E - Engnieering
R - Readability
O - Ovalness (how round the sound of the station was)
P - Propagation (general conditions in band rather than fading on signal)
O - Overall
L - Loveliness (a highly subjective score based on how much you liked it all)

The 'loveliness' bit is perhaps difficult to understand, but if you 'Google' SIMFEROPOL and go to the images page, there are some examples, such as this one:



Which would probably score a 4 or 5. How you apply this to short-wave reception is clearly complex, and highly personal, but I though I would stimulate a discussion.

Seriously though, how's about adding some additional info on Quality of Signal? SIMPQO anyone???

BoB
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I don't think I've ever told you guys what I actually listen on.

It's not much...........an old Trio 9R59DS(Bought in 1975 when I was 15!) connected to an inverted L long wire stretching half way down the garden and connected to an apple tree(Insulated of course!).
No earth.(Though I need to make one to see if it kills some of the noise here).

The old Trio still works really well,even though a couple of the switches are a bit crackly now.
The only problem with this radio is that you can't really tell what frequency you are listening to.
For this I use an old Roberts R881 portable.It's not precise(5Khz spacings) but better than the Trio!

I am getting close to having to open my dusty old wallet to buy a new communications RX and a new portable too,but whilst these old horses are still working so well and SW conditions are so bad I am holding off!(Tight fisted git that I am!).

I guessed it was a receiver like that. About the crackly switches, use a contact spray.

Well, you don(t need more sensitivity, but less local noise and less image frequencies. Specially at night, the images for 6300 kHz are around 7210 kHz, where there are strong signals (problem not so bad on Sunday mornings, however).

You can get both (less images and less noise) with just a rightly designed antenna. Still an outdoor one, maybe a dipole or a loop, but tuned from indoor. For that, the antenna should be not far away, with an open line (2 identical wires in paralllel) in (almost) free space, down to some sort of antenna tuner. That antenna tuner should include a variable capacitor and a coil. The exact scheme depends upon the type (dipole or loop), and the lengths (versus wavelength). Try a coil of about 50 turns around a 25 mm OD plastic tube, with a way to short part of the winding. Put the VC in series or in parallel. Then, couple to the receiver with a smaller coil (say 20 turns on a 15 mm form) that you will slide inside the bigger coil. Put one side of the small coil to the antenna termminal, the other one to the earth terminal. Just trying what goes well or bad will give you a quite better result than a long wire with no earth. When the antenna is well tuned to the frequency, the image can be much lower. Use small gauge wire (enamelled copper from a discarded motor is very good).

Hope this helps.

Ray

Interesting posts.


BOB,

I agree with you about SINPO.most Pirates prefer S reports with some comments.Your system is pretty good too,but nobody seems to have time these days.Let's see if some reporters improve reports.
I'll stick with SINPO for now but try to add more info than usual.

Ray,

A very good post.Most of the info you gave I am aware of(Though it would be very useful to many readers here).
Again,a question of finding the time to do these things.
I will must try to find the time before the weather closes in and do most of the things you suggest and hopefully get better reception for the months ahead!


Andy.