Bringing the weekend to a close

There's not too much of the weekend left, and I'm closing out the evening by listening to Radio Utopia on 1620 kHz. He's putting in an excellent signal at this side from his location in the east of the Netherlands, and whenever I listen to him I am transported back in time by around 20 years to when I stayed at his place in a tent in the garden during one of my Dutch pirate tours. Amazing to think I've been listening to some of these enduring illegal broadcasters for two decades or more.

Just up the band on 1647 is Witte Tornado and the lady, who have been on air since this afternoon with their regular Sunday programme. The signal has been strong since I tuned in at 1630 utc. Also coming in pretty well at this moment is Polkaman, on his usual slot of 1665 kHz.

With some very interesting propagation conditions there are also plenty of Balkan pirates fading up and down at the top of the MW. And last night there was some interesting goings-on down on 3100 kHz. Sluwe Vos, who can often be heard on MW, was back in action, this time qsoing on this unusual part of the AM spectrum - and talking with Russian pirates! As far as I am aware, this is the first time a Dutch pirate has qsoed with one from Russia. You can click here to listen to a few minutes of the Russian side of the qso, which was recorded in Kiev. Listen carefully and you can hear several mentions of the Netherands.