The first loop

I didn't listen all of Tuesday evening, but I did spend a couple of hours with the radio and these are the Dutch MW pirates I heard:

Freq Time Station name SINPO Type of broadcast

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

1630 1802 Pontiac 45434 (q)

1638 1802 Ros Am 23432-35333 (t)

1655 1803 Belladonna 24222 (m)

1632 1810 Boomerang 35333-45444 (m)

1625 1813 Marskramer 25332 (q)

1642 1834 Baanbreker 25232 (q)

1646 1916 Vrolijke Mijnwerker 45444 (t)

1621 1919 Blauwe Koe 45444 (m)

1665 1930 Kristal 45444 (m)

1617 1937 Marianne 45434 (m)

(q) = station was qsoing; (m) = station was broadcasting a music programme; (t) station was testing

Observations

• An interesting evening on the MW band with conditions changing rapidly. Notably, when I first heard Ros Am tonight his signal was weaker than usual, and the same went for Boomerang. Boomi is one of the strongest Dutch MW pirates in England, but his signal was right down on usual, but a few minutes later was back up there to something near the usual strength. As the days and weeks wear on into deep autumn and winter, this should hopefully level out.
• Talking about Ros Am, I had a great conversation via WhatsApp with the legendary pirate yesterday, during which he sent me the photograph below. I posted this on my Facebook page and talked about it there, but this was my very first loop antenna and the one with which I first started hearing the Dutch MW pirates during the early 1990s. Seems a lifetime ago now and although many of the voices I would regularly hear back then have gone - Pelikaan, Nooitgedacht, Tijdbreker - many of these longtime pirates are still with us - Barones, Noordzee, Toulouse spring to mind - and this great hobby goes on.

MW Pirate Fan's very first loop antenna