Although I was unable to hear anything during the daytime, I entertained myself listening to the SDR at Twente and to various Dutch pirate signals. There was a nice qso during the early afternoon between Havanna, Sterrenboog, Noordzee, Utopia and Johan.
I've heard Sterrenboog on my own receivers only once here in England, so it was nice to hear him again even if it was on the SDR. I wondered, however, given his transmitter had been on, if he might flick the switch again during the evening, which would give me a chance to hear him properly. And, sure enough, he did just that and put a decent signal into my location. He was qsoing with Brandaris and Bizon, and I made some recordings, which you can hear below.
Regular readers of the blog might well have seen the list I put together in the first days of 2017 detailing all the stations I heard during 2016. There were 167 in total.
January leaves me with the impression it has been a busy month for the Dutch MW operators, so I thought I'd count up the stations heard. And, incredibly, with just one month of the year gone, I've logged 101 pirates. I reckon three of those have used two names, which brings us down to 98 individual operators. Some feat for just one month.
Although the rest of the year will see many of these stations logged many more times, I reckon hearing over 200 stations is certainly possible for 2017, which indicates the AM pirate scene is thriving. At a time when the Dutch authorities are cracking down on the hobby and many operators are getting older, this amount of activity is a real positive for the future of the Dutch pirate scene. Long may it continue!
It was particularly pleasing to catch Skywire with a good signal on Tuesday evening. In fact, reception of the station was the best I have ever had. As you can hear from the recording, his 80 watts was doing particularly well. I heard Arizona for the first time in a long while, and Charlie Brown from Twente is a new addition to the band.
Here are the logs for the last few days:
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
January leaves me with the impression it has been a busy month for the Dutch MW operators, so I thought I'd count up the stations heard. And, incredibly, with just one month of the year gone, I've logged 101 pirates. I reckon three of those have used two names, which brings us down to 98 individual operators. Some feat for just one month.
Although the rest of the year will see many of these stations logged many more times, I reckon hearing over 200 stations is certainly possible for 2017, which indicates the AM pirate scene is thriving. At a time when the Dutch authorities are cracking down on the hobby and many operators are getting older, this amount of activity is a real positive for the future of the Dutch pirate scene. Long may it continue!
It was particularly pleasing to catch Skywire with a good signal on Tuesday evening. In fact, reception of the station was the best I have ever had. As you can hear from the recording, his 80 watts was doing particularly well. I heard Arizona for the first time in a long while, and Charlie Brown from Twente is a new addition to the band.
Here are the logs for the last few days:
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
1620 1639 Sterrenboog 25222-35333 asking for report
1645 1648 Digitaal 35443-45444 report for Sterrenboog
1630 1649 Rodester 45444 report for Sterrenboog
1643 1701 Charlie Brown 25322 qsoing
1630 1717 Noordzee 35333 qsoing
1640 1728 Brugwachter 45444 qsoing
1645 1744 Batavier 34333 testing with wire antenna then coil
1635 1745 Nachtzwerver weak signal qsoing
1661 1804 Arizona weak signal qsoing
1634 1831 Blauwe Panda weak signal qsoing
1646 1835 Skywire 25332-35333 music programme
1620 1921 Brandaris 35333-45444 asking for report
1623 1930 Bizon 35333-45444 report for Brandaris
1611 1941 Zwarte Boer 23322-34333 music programme
1630 1941 Marianne 44444-55444 music programme
1655 1942 Batavier 35333 report for Brandaris
1640 2027 Batavier weak signal
1660 2217 Batavier 34433 music programme
1614 2219 Monaco 24222-35333 report for Marianne
1645 2219 Monte Carlo 35333 report for Marianne
1633 2237 Barcelona 45434-55444 qsoing
1633 2237 Barcelona 45434-55444 qsoing
1620 2245 Monte Carlo 44444 qsoing
Monday, January 30, 2017
1642 0944 Noordzee weak signal. Testing, also on 1636 and 1630
1645 1631 Digitaal 25442 calling for qso
1650 1636 Digitaal 25442 calling for qso
Sunday, January 29, 2017
1647 1856 Witte Tornado 44444 music programme
1620 1857 Weduwe 45434-55444 music programme
1611 1936 Jonge Boer 23422 music programme
1635 1949 Yogi Bear en Einstein 45434
