Quiet start to the week

As I write these words I'm listening to Readymix on 6450 kHz in the shortwave band. He's a regular on MW but he occasionally goes international and he's putting in a decent signal right now. 

Around an hour ago there was a blast from the past on MW. I was tuning around and heard Billy Joe Royal with Down In The Boondocks. Back in the 90s I used to hear this track pretty much every day on 1636 kHz. Nearly 20 years later I was hearing it again, and on that same frequency. I was thinking... could this possibly be Radio Nooitgedacht. And then I heard this. 

Great to hear this famous regular station from the past, especially as I have visited him several times, most recently a couple of years ago. Perhaps we'll hear some more from him over the coming weeks?

On Sunday night signals started to arrive from across the North Sea at around 1900. I'm sure this is a little earlier than has been the case in recent weeks, and I guess the Dutch pirates will very steadily start to be heard even earlier now we have gone past the longest day of the year.

While I was watching some of the closing action from Glastonbury last night I had a WhatsApp message from Relmus asking if I could hear his signal on 1640. I had a check and, sure enough, there he was and with a great signal. No surprise in that as this power pirate always comes in well here. But, he was strictly low power this time, running around 150 watts. He even sent me a picture to prove it - he was using his very first MW transmitter and it was doing a fine job . . . I wouldn't want to touch any of those wires though!

The original Relmus MW transmitter