Pirate, Cupid Radio, 21460 kHz, AM, Dec 15, 2013, 1530 UTC

[Token]

European pirate radio station Cupid Radio is up on 21460 kHz AM, Dec 15, 2013, 1530 UTC. Good signal, about S5 to S6, into the Mojave Desert now that the Sun is fully up.

Cupid is from Holland, and running 300 W into a 3 el beam. Music and DJ has all been in English, pretty obvious he is aiming at a North American audience right now.

(edit) At 1556 UTC Cupid sent an SSTV image, in Scottie 1 mode. I would post it here, but it might not be forum safe, depending on how it was interpreted He is a rebellious pirate, after all. See thread here: http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,14387.0.html

(edit 2) At 1631 Cupid sent a second SSTV image, this one a bit more safe. Sorry, the image is pretty marginal quality, but it is after sundown on his end, and I am in California, a pretty fair haul for a 300 W peak AM signal.

(edit 3) 1656 UTC, Cupid with shout outs to all the stations who reported their signal here, on the HF Underground, and on the #pirateradio chat. Then off air, because he said dinner was ready.

T!

 

[VE2XWA]

Loud and clear here too at 1550 UTC

Dan

 

[KC8ESL]

Considerable fading. S3 typical s5 peaks. Enjoying this!

I think deep down we all want to be a pirate someday but only a few get the pair to do it. Again, as token said, the sstv image may not be forum safe but my comment goes hand in hand with it lol.

 

[Ref-Jazzy]

Forgive my dumb question.... but how do you guys fins these piratea and further more how did you know he was sending images, and what did you use to receive them?

 

[KC8ESL]

Someone has to take the credit for tuning the bands and spotting the pirate on either radioreference or he underground. I merely saw the spot and tuned my dial to it. Can't take any credit for that one! Always fun hearing pirate station though.

 

[ka3jjz]

There are several mailing lists that are devoted to Pirates - I'm sure that someone will chime in here with a few URLs...

As to the SSTV images, one of the most popular - and free - applications is MM-SSTV. Here's the URL...

MMSSTV - MM HamSoft

Gutsy move trying to get to NA from Europe on 21 Mhz during our almost-winter. The low end of 15 Mhz (where some Euros have shown up in the past) would likely had been better...

Mike

 

[Token]

Forgive my dumb question.... but how do you guys fins these piratea and further more how did you know he was sending images, and what did you use to receive them?

There are several “regular” pirate bands in the HF range, bands where pirates are known to transmit from time to time. By periodically watching these bands you can eventually hear pirates, even with no other queuing.

There are also several real time pirate chats, both IRC (such as #pirateradio in the Starchat server, primarily North American activity) and web based (Iann’s Pirate Chat, primarily European activity). In these chats are multiple listners who will throw out information in real time when they hear a station, allowing others to try and tune in. Sometimes the pirate operators themselves will jump into these chats and announce their operations. That was the case with Cupid in this transmission. He jumped into both of the chats I mention above and announced his operations.

Also, over at HFU HF Underground - Shortwave Pirate Radio in North America and Around The World there is a very active pirate listening community. When a station is detected it is often posted to one of those forums within minutes. Looking there can often tip you off to an active pirate. Additionally when a station is logged on the Pirate forum there a log bot throws the log entry into the chat at #pirateradio, alerting everyone there that a new log entry, and possibly active pirate, exist.

How did I know he was sending images? In this case the operator announced before he sent them that he was going to be sending pictures between a couple songs. Other operators might not announce, but, for example, the pirate station “Wolverine Radio” is known to regularly send an image at the end of his program. Even when not anticipated you can hear the image being sent, SSTV (assuming the station is using that, most do) is easily detected by ear.

There are several easy to use pieces of software to receive SSTV images. As Mike said above, probably the most used program is MMSSTV, and it is free. With MMSSTV running on a computer and audio from the radio going to the audio input of a soundcard, MMSTV can be set to automatically detect when an image is being sent, select the right mode of operation, decode it, and save it to file.

T!

 

[1ZK192]

Hello Token,

Is very good reception to so long Way Félicitation, Cupid Radio Ops Rinus is very good Man and 100% QSL.

73
Marcel/FRANCE

 

[Token]

Gutsy move trying to get to NA from Europe on 21 Mhz during our almost-winter. The low end of 15 Mhz (where some Euros have shown up in the past) would likely had been better...

Mike, Cupid has used 21460 kHz quite a bit in the past, here is a video of him on that freq a bit over a year ago: Pirate Radio, Cupid Radio, 21460 kHz, AM Mode, November 04, 2012, 1517 UTC - YouTube

He has used 15 MHz also, along with stations like Borderhunter, another Dutch station.

T!