Tag: pirate radio

HFU KIWI SDR receivers

I presently run five KiwiSDRs, each on its own different antenna. As each KiwiSDR is on its own antenna, here is a short guide describing each setup, so you can select the best receiver depending on what you’re trying to listen to.

Some of these are receivers I am hosting here free of charge for HFU members who have issues with local RFI or are not able to install effective antennas. They get exclusive 24/7 use of one password protected KiwiSDR receiver, and the other receivers are available for public use.

I still have an antenna or two available for use, so please feel free to contact me via private message if you’d like to host your KiwiSDR here. Hurry, space is limited 🙂

http://sdr.hfunderground.com:8073/ 120 foot T2FD Antenna
A good general purpose receiver for MW through say around 15 MHz. Essentially omnidirectional.

http://sdr.hfunderground.com:8074/ 250 foot V Beam Antenna aimed to Europe
Best for reception from Europe and Africa, very good down to the lower frequencies (MW and even LW). Excellent for Europirates. I’m curious to see how it performs on the higher bands once they open reliably with the new solar cycle

http://sdr.hfunderground.com:8075/ 58 foot T2FD Antenna
Best for the upper half of HF, although it does work on the lower bands and even MW to some degree. It does extremely well on the 11m (CB) band, I often listen there with this receiver. Also pretty good on 20m. Nearly vertical install, so omnidirectional.

http://sdr.hfunderground.com:8076/ 500 foot Beverage Antenna aimed to Europe
Another great antenna for Europirates. Works extremely well on the LW and MW bands, not only can you hear LWBC stations but even the MW weather stations and Greek pirate radio stations on the 17xx kHz band. A deadly antenna, and I mean this in a good way

http://sdr.hfunderground.com:8077/ 900 foot Horizontal Sky Loop Antenna
My World Famous Sky Loop Antenna® is back on a KiwiSDR. Great reception on MW and the lower half of HF, not bad on the upper half of HF either. Somewhat deaf on LW due to the low impedance it presents there, being only a fraction of a wavelength. This is the antenna that also is connected to my netSDR that I record overnight on 43 meters, and find all sort of bump in the night pirate transmissions.

Info via Facebook

Irish pirate radio audio archive

The Irish pirate radio audio archive was lucky to recently receive a donation of hundreds of cassettes belonging to the British radio enthusiast Leon Tipler who made valuable recordings of the Irish pirate scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We’ve begun digitising the collection, starting with Tipler’s acclaimed documentary series ‘The Irish Pirates’ focusing on the period 1979-1982. Many of the stations involved would have been heard by British DXers. The first part of ‘The Irish Pirates’ can be heard here:

http://pirate.ie/archive/tags/leon-tipler/

We also recently featured the pirate radio of Galway in the 1980s:

http://pirate.ie/archive/tags/galway/

73s

John Walsh (Galway) and Brian Greene (Dublin)
Pirate.ie via WOR