Shortwave Pirates

Most stations can be found in specific parts of the shortwave spectrum.

76 metres: 3900-3945 kHz: This is popular with European pirates, especially in the evenings when skip is longer, and during the day in winter months.

52 metres: 5800-5840 kHz: European pirates can also be found here, overspill from 48 metres.

48 metres: 6200-6400 kHz: This is a prime area for the Euro-pirates, especially at weekends.

43 metres: 6900-6950 kHz: This area tends be mostly used by North American pirates, but some Euro-pirates are also found here.

39 metres: 7500-7700 kHz: Unreliable propagation means this band isn't widely used but some Euro-pirates can be heard here.

Others also can be heard on higher shortwave frequencies ... such as 9290, 12256, 15070 among others.

Very few operate to fixed schedules and will just come on air when they feel like it. Weekends are the busiest times, especially Sunday mornings in Europe.

What can you expect to hear. The vast majority of European pirates come from the Netherlands, although there are also active stations in Germany, UK, Scandinavia and Italy and other European countries. The main diet is music - pop, rock, dance, schlager, polka, indie. Some of the programmes are pre-recorded, others transmitted live. Power used ranges from a few watts to up to 1kW (or more sometimes!).

Many will issue QSLs for correct reception reports. See the QSL Gallery section for QSLs received over the years.

Check out the Recordings to hear short audio clips of some of these stations while the Addresses section has contact and web site details for many pirates.

The Links page has many links to websites with logs, information and other useful resources for the DXer.

So, happy hunting!

21Nov 09: QSL gallery, links

4 Nov 09: QSL gallery

24 Oct 09: Redesign

26 Sept 09: QSL gallery

18 Sept 09: Recordings, QSL gallery

30 Aug 09: QSL gallery

23 Aug 09: QSL gallery

29 July 09: QSL gallery

This ifffs my blog with daily updates of station news and logs....

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