Late-night Underground activity

It's the very early hours of Saturday morning. I'm sat in the living room with no lights on and listening again to the old valve radio in the corner of the room. I have an excuse! I was working late tonight and have not been home for long, so I thought I would relax with the radio for a little while before heading to bed. And what do I find to listen to as a new weekend arrives?

The glow of the valve radio

I find Radio Underground on 1624 kHz, one of only a handful of pirate stations now operating from England on MW. Conditions are pretty long skip as I listen and the signal is slowly fading up and down, but on the peaks it is listenable. There is plenty of static on the band as well, just to add some extra spice into the mix, and various legal stations from the US are starting to break though. However, Underground is arriving here with a SINPO around 24322, sometimes more, and it's good to have this station on the air. The power amplifier of his transmitter blew up on Monday evening and he fixed it earlier today. He seems to have done a good job as everything is working well - just a shame conditions aren't more suitable for listening.

Underground was also on MW last Sunday evening. He was using a T-antenna on that occasion, while he is using a half-wave dipole right now. It seems the dipole does the better job for listening at this distance.

As I listen, Underground has just closed down and Soerabaya is now giving him a report on 1646. International qsoing on MW - I love it!