Party time!

I spent Friday night having a few drinks so there wasn't much radio listening to be done, but I was up bright and early on Saturday ready to check the band to hear which stations were on air. But, there was nothing to be heard between 0700 and 0800! Usually there are a good number of Dutch MW pirates on air at this time, but this time it seems they were sleeping!

I suspected bad propagation conditions might have had something to do with it, and that was kind of confirmed during the evening and night-time when there were plenty of stations to be heard, sometimes very strong, but with signals more unstable than has been the case in recent weeks. Thinking back to previous years, however, November can often be like this, so it's nothing too unexpected - and really it all adds to the experience of hunting Dutch pirate signals on the airwaves.

So here's what I've heard over the past couple of days:

Freq Time Station name SINPO

Saturday, November 21, 2020

1611 1528 Veluwse Ster 25332-35443 (m)

1660 1535 Digitaal 35333 (m)

1625 1550 Bavaria weak signal

1649 1550 Lotus 35443 (r)

1629 1611 Admiraal 25222-35333 (m)

1647 1703 Keizer en Keizerin 35333 (m)

1620 1732 Ros Am 44434 (m)

1670 1733 Armada 35333 (m)

1615 1737 Uniek 23422 (m)

1638 1852 Bluebird 55444 (m)

1629 1941 Quintus 35333 (m) later on 1632

1662 1941 Viking/Tante Foeke 25322-35333 (m)

1655 1942 Yogi Bear/Relmus team 45434 (m)

1617 2247 Turftrekker/Blauwe Koe 45444 (m)

1627 2247 Marskramer 45444 (m)

1652 2248 Moby Dick 43433 (m)

1665 2359 Monte Carlo 25232 (m)

1638 0031 Pandora 54444 (q)

1648 0040 Jeneverstoker 24322 (q)

(q) = station was qsoing; (m) = station was broadcasting a music programme; (t) = station was testing; (r) = station asking for a reception report from another station

Observations

• Interesting to catch Bavaria on air for the first time in some years. Admittedly, the signal was very weak at before 4pm local time here, and the identity of the station was confirmed for me by Radio Poema. 
• There was a lot of doubling up on the band today, with Ros Am sharing 1620 kHz with another station, although my old friend was winning the fight and coming through pretty well. 

• Later, there were two stations also on 1655 kHz, although the winner there was Yogi Bear, who was trying out some new audio processing during a lengthy broadcast that also featured Friesland’s technical guru Dr Einstein and fellow pirates Relmus and Batavier. The Pier Clan ladies were also present in the studio making for an entertaining evening on air with the party atmosphere Relmus used to bring during his Friday night broadcasts a few years back when the much-missed Wadloper would also be present in the studio. I’ve been lucky enough to experience a fair few of these broadcasts first-hand, and they’re great fun. I found some photographs just the other day of me sitting in the main chair in the Relmus studio! And on Saturday night I was sent a few pictures live from the scene:

 

Friday, November 20, 2020

1660 1718 Vrolijke Mijnwerker 45433 (q)

1660 1723 Digitaal 35333 (q)

1645 1727 Casablanca 25222 (m)

1632 1727 Vendor 25332 (q)

1660 1729 Turfsteker weak signal-25322 (q)

1620 1737 Admiraal 25332 (q)

1629 1755 Admiraal 25332 (q)