Long-distance listening

It's just flipped over to Tuesday morning and I'm listening to King Radio from the Netherlands. This MW pirate, who used to be known as Radio Atletico, is broadcasting with around 150 watts on 1625 kHz and coming in pretty well here in England on the peaks. Sometimes the signal is fading down however as propagation changes and conditions become increasingly long skip. And that is why I can hear legal stations from the US pretty clearly on 1610, 1620 and 1630 kHz. On a personal level, hearing such stations does not set the pulse racing as these are licensed operators, although it never fails to amaze me just how well signals can cross the Atlantic Ocean some nights.

I listened to the Dutch pirates during the early evening on Monday and there was a nice qso at around 1600 utc with some cracking signals, none more so than Schaduwjager who, as usual, sounded like he was broadcasting from a studio next door with a power-packed signal and excellent modulation.

Here's what I heard, together with some other recent station logs:

Monday, November 25, 2013

1635       1606       Zwarte Boekanier 45444 qsoing

1620       1606       Schauwjager 55544-55555 qsoing

1630       1611       Spanningzoeker 55444 qsoing

1611       1616       Batavia 34333 music programme

1651       1618       Baanbreker 23332-34433 qsoing

1620       1618       Silvia 35443 qsoing

1650       1629       Zwarte Boekanier 45444 qsoing

1620       2201       Quintus 43433-44444 testing

1629       2201       Calipso 55544-55555 testing

1647       2201       Armada 55544 music programme

1655       2202       Witte Raaf 45434-55444 music programme

1636       2202       Noordzee 44433-44444 music programme

1625       2257       King 35333-45444 music programme

Sunday, November 24, 2013

1611       2110       Technical Man 54444 music programme

1625       2110       Relmus 55444 music programme

1647       2110       Witte Tornado 55444 music programme

1660       2114       Digitaal 34433-44444 qsoing with Arizona

1570       2122       Soto En Daniel 22422-33533 music programme

Thursday, November 21, 2013

1638       2325       Bluebird 44434-55544 music programme

1620       2330       Amigo 33433 music programme

1656       2351       Romax 24222-34333 asking for report

Monday, November 18, 2013

1620       1731       Zwarte Boekanier 45444-55555 music programme

1645       1732       Casablanca (Twente) 25332 music programme

1610       1734       Digitaal 44544 qsoing

1647       1743       Vendor 42432

1622       1751       Zorro En Karabijn 35443 qsoing

1613       1754       Black Power 44444 testing

1647       1805       Pecon 35343-45344 qsoing

1635       1847       Zwarte Arabier 44433-55544 music programme   

1646       1905       Blauwe Reiger 44444 asking for report

1646       1909       Baanbreker 35343 qsoing

1650       1913       Zwarte Boekanier 55544 qsoing

1646       2257       Vrolijke Mijnwerker 45444-55444 qsoing

1638       2257       Bluebird 45434 music programme

1629       2257       Noordzee 45444 music programme

1647       2312       Noordzee 44434 qsoing

1647       2331       Monte Carlo 33333, 55444 at 2353 qsoing

1651       2336       Jeneverstoker 34333 qsoing

1629       0014       Calipso 55444 qsoing

Observations

• I didn't listen for too long on Sunday evening, but I stumbled across an interesting signal on 1570 kHz. I was meandering across the top of the MW band as I often do, and dipped down to 1512 to see if anything from the Netherlands was audible. That frequency was clear, but as I made my way back up to 1.6 MHz, some traditional Dutch sounds caught my ear on 1570. I stayed tuned and eventually heard a voice talking. Then, I heard the microphone change hands and another voice was coming out of my radio. It was Soto and Daniel. They can often be heard chatting away around 1570 but this was the best I had ever heard them

• Technical Man was busy on shortwave during the daytime on Sunday before switching to MW during the evening. His signal was pretty good here as usual, but what really caught my ear was that he was giving out an email address. This is the first time I've heard him do that, so I'll be dropping him a line soon. You can get in touch with him at technicalman@hotmail.nl