What the world of UK-based shortwave free radio looks like today

If I am to use the 48-metre band as a default focal point for where to locate today's crop of shortwave free radio stations, it looks very different to its early 1990's counterpart.

To identify the level of modern-day pirate activity strictly from how busy 6.2-6.4 MHz happens to be is perhaps as specious today as it was thirty years ago, but that area of the radio spectrum was always the 'go to' place to locate hobby stations and for all intents and purposes, it is the same today. 

There are though some subtle and obvious changes to where else free radio can be consumed, with for example 3 MHz at times being very busy between 3900-3945 kHz, as it could be in the 1990's during the evening, but nowadays it is often used by those stations that have 'gone legit', for example the Dutch duo Radio Piepzender and Mike Radio. The band can also become swamped with high-powered signals that I hesitate to say emanate from 'relay' stations but from transmitters of unknown location, although perhaps situated in the Republic of Ireland, who live-stream for example Zenith Classic Rock, an Irish-based station who numbers FM, Medium Wave, and DAB as its usual homes. I am not suggesting that because of the aforementioned trio of stations that 3 MHz is out of bounds for other operators, but as a direct comparison with the 1990's the band would only normally come alive in the late evening when the likes of Live Wire Radio, Subterranean Sounds, Weekend Music Radio, and Radio Armadillo, to name just a few, would come on air. 

In my early days of receiving free radio I was frustrated in my attempts to hear anything away from 48 metres due to the extreme limitations of my listening station. Although I was never ungrateful of what I had or envious of those with sophisticated communications receivers at their disposal, my analogue National Panasonic and Venturer radios were not the best at picking up stations on 7 MHz, to a point where they would struggle to hear anything. It is perhaps something I didn't appreciate at the time but the 'as standard' telescopic antennas which came with the two named receivers could not be expected to be universally effective over the whole spectrum which they were expected to cover. These were antennas that weren't tuned to be fruitful for any particular area of the band but to give a general, if albeit limited overview of the best signals they could realistically be anticipated to pull in. Even when I upgraded to a simple long wire antenna, which didn't exactly stretch the whole length of my back garden, the results were disappointing but being as technically-minded then as I am today, there was no hint of me taking the plunge into antenna tuning unit(ATU) territory.

The 41-metre band was therefore an area of the spectrum where I struggled to hear stations, even ones broadcasting from the UK. It was though used to a greater extent than it is today, whether that be because of atmospheric conditions, a lack of crystals, or that listeners nowadays do not know to tune in to 7 MHz, I couldn't say. There were though many broadcasts from the likes of Radio Confusion, Radio Geronimo, and Terry Phillips' Radio Mi Amigo that passed me by, but a UK-based station from thirty years ago and before, Radio Pamela, can still be found fairly regularly on or around 7605 kHz, although Steve Most's broadcasts often skip out on this frequency to continental Europe, where reception is often better than in the UK.

Regular free radio broadcasts from the UK on shortwave are though dwindling, as are the amount of stations who transmit on 6 MHz or elsewhere. Radio Merlin International continues to be heard on 6305 kHz on an almost daily basis, despite some at times dramatic announcements from operator Paul Watt that the station is shutting down or 'won't be around for a while'. Initially as Radio Galaxy International - not to be confused with the Radio Blackbeard and Station Sierra Sierra collaboration Galaxy International - and for almost the entire period of my on-off relationship with free radio, Paul has used 48 metres on 6240 and latterly 6305 kHz; I am happy to be corrected but I cannot recall either Galaxy or Merlin ever using another area of shortwave.

Radio Nova is a station I have heard several times over the last few years, although I am not aware of it having connections to any stations from the past who shared the same name. Perhaps the operator(s) of today's Nova have previously broadcast on shortwave but that is also something I am not party to. Invariably found on 6940 kHz and specialising in a rich diet of classic rock, the station is often heard with a strong signal in the UK, and can pop up during daylight hours on just about any day of the week.

Firstly in the guise of Radio Mutiny and now the Xenon Transmitting Company(XTC),  Matt Roberts' stations have always been during my love-hate relationship with free radio a regularly irregular part of the 48-metre scene, but continue to broadcast when personal circumstances and radio communications conditions allow. A previous blog dedicated to XTC elaborates on the station's enduring quality amid so much mediocrity, and how it represents a much needed flip-side as a counterpoint to generic, back to back music-type broadcasters both legal or otherwise.

Occupying slightly different programming territory, Radio Parade has over the last few years become one of the most prolific UK-based broadcasters on shortwave. With a music selection that might include Johann Strauss, operatic extracts, and the theme from the former BBC TV sports programme Grandstand, Parade can never be accused of being predictable and slavishly reverting to type. I have mostly heard the station around 6.95 MHz and on the 76-metre band, although it has also been logged adjacent to 5.8 MHz and occasionally on 48 metres.

Radio Pandora is a station I first heard in 1993-94, about the time that operator Steve St. John first took to the airwaves. Known for his on air chuckling and 'hellos' to other operators including XTC's Matt Roberts Steve is one of the friendliest voices to be heard on 48 metres(and on 3 MHz in the past), although sadly these days with far less frequency. I would never class Pandora at any time during the last three decades as a frequently heard station, at least by myself, although I doubtless missed many of the station's transmissions due to the perfect storm of low power and my at-the-time inadequate receivers. It would perhaps be a surprise if I told you just how old Mr. St. John actually is but discretion is the better part of valour, but an evergreen, personable nature only lends greater mystic and respect to this underrated broadcaster.

There are several stations - Little Feat Radio(LFR), Radio Underground, and Focus International - which I believe could still be categorized as active but on which I otherwise have little knowledge. I believe the latter two operators were far more active in the early years of the new millennium but that coincided with a fallow period of your correspondent's interest in free radio. Any information as to this triumvirate's respective statuses would be appreciated.  

As I detail what remains of any semblance of a UK-based scene on shortwave, it has been brought home to me just how depleted in a quantitative sense what can be heard when compared to the early 1990's and even the initial years of the current millenary. If I instead use a qualitative yardstick by which to measure a like for like contrast the results are equally as grim; the reasons I believe to be behind that will be addressed in this blog's concluding post. 

There is though some hope for the future, with several new stations having recently broken ground on 48 metres and 3 MHz. Radio Jennifer seems to have settled on 6400 kHz as its regular frequency, if albeit one it has to 'share' with Radio Pyongyang! I have also heard the station around 3900 kHz, with a strong signal and vastly improved audio. Image Radio is another new kid on the block, a station I think first emerged a few weeks ago as Lockdown Radio during initial tests around 6225 and 6250 kHz - the latter not being the greatest frequency for a low powered hobby pirate that will on occasion have to 'battle it out' with other Korean-based stations. A further broadcast as Image Radio, this time on 6325 kHz, produced an S9 signal at my location, when the band either side of that frequency was mercifully quiet.

It remains to be seen if the various novel coronavirus-related lockdowns in the UK will have produced any other new stations, as radio enthusiasts and society in general continues to grapple with the new normal, and how to while away the hours in our homes. It is though plain to me that as each new generation of free radio stations replaces those who have ceased broadcasting, levels of both quality and quantity are inexorably declining.

NEXT TIME: My conclusions and summing up of the 1990's UK free radio sphere, and whether nostalgia actually is what it used to be.

Sunday service

Despite the limitations of my National Panasonic 1822 receiver, whose scope was restricted to receiving broadcasts on shortwave from approximately 5.9 - 18 MHz, I was for a time in the early 90's reasonably content with my admittedly modest listening post. 

The addition of a long wire aerial, using the connector to the rear of the receiver that I had to that point overlooked, certainly brought in stronger signals of conventional and free radio stations alike, but also at a cost of greater noise which at times severely hindering reception. Not being particularly technically minded, a lifelong handicap that I have never quite shaken off, and a lack of sophistication to my listening equipment, naturally minus an Antenna Tuning Unit(ATU), meant that the possibility of greater reception and being able to hear more stations throughout the shortwave spectrum would continue to elude me whilst I stuck with a receiver, it should be remembered, that contained a cassette deck. 

Nevertheless, until I upgraded to a Venturer 2959 multi-band receiver that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Lubyanka building, perseverance was the watchword - to make the most of what I had. 

It was though from joining the British DX Club(BDXC) that gave me a greater knowledge of the stations audible on Sundays, mostly those that broadcast in the mornings with some purposely popping up later in the afternoon as the 48-metre band became less congested. The BDXC Alternative Airwaves page was at the time a goldmine of information which not only confirmed the triumvirate stations I initially heard were by October 1990 regulars on the airwaves, but that they were just a sample of what could be heard occasionally, often, and in some cases without fail each Sunday.

It is easy to scoff in our current day and age at the reliance on printed material such as the BDXC's monthly publication Communication, but at the time, remember, only 30 years ago, this and other similar sources of information were all that were available to radio enthusiasts. Nowadays it would be very easy to complain about consuming media that would be out of date before it had reached its audience, but in the early 1990's we couldn't lament at not having access to what was never at our disposal. The anticipation of receiving Communication in the mail, along with the likes of Pirate Chat and Free-DX, can never be replaced by today's instantaneous rolling news and internet fora.

Although not a station by dint of its location that falls within the remit of this blog, the Netherlands-based Radio Orangutan was one of the first free radio stations I heard from anywhere, with a QSL and letter arriving less than a week after contacting station operator Freddy. I am not particularly 'in to' stations from outside the UK, perhaps because of the very real British trait of expecting everyone to speak English instead of their native tongue, but Orangutan will always in my mind be synonymous with those exciting times of receiving mail from the men behind the microphones. I only recall one station, a Radio Alpha from the Netherlands, who never replied to a letter of mine. I perhaps should have known better than to write to a hitherto unknown station playing continuous music only punctuated by a canned appeal for three International Reply Coupons(IRC's) to accompany reception reports in exchange for a QSL card, although the promise of this new addition to my collection probably being the motivation. Whether a Radio Alpha, or that particular Alpha, re-emerged I couldn't say, but if the rather nondescript broadcast wasn't just a vehicle to harvest what at the time were quite valuable IRC's, 29 years on I continue to live in hope that my QSL is still at the printer's...

I soon became accustomed to a regular diet of UK stations on 48 metres, something that has gradually declined to what today has sadly become, Radio Merlin aside, a rare scenario bordering on the nonexistent. Those who I frequently heard on Sunday mornings would include Britain Radio international, Radio Orion, WNKR(featuring both the inimitable Dave Martin and Andy Walker), the late Norman Nelson's Radio East Coast Commercial, and the Northern Ireland SW Relay Service. Today's Radio Merlin was in the early 90's known as Radio Galaxy but with the same operator, Paul Watt, still very much at the controls on a daily basis. Operators less frequently heard but no less popular for being so included Midlands Music Radio, Radio Confusion(later Subterranean Sounds), Scotland's Weekend Music Radio, and Radio Armadillo, an emerging force of alternative programming which helpfully would often be audible on a Friday afternoon on my return from Sixth Form. 

It should be reiterated that these were by far not the only UK stations audible at the time, but the point of this blog isn't to simply represent an anodyne list of every UK-based station heard(or otherwise) on shortwave in the 1990's. All stations that have come to mind - this blog is predominantly being crafted from my own memories aided by some useful information supplied by Matt Roberts of Radio Mutiny, latterly XTC  - will at some point or other be mentioned, but the object of the exercise is in some part to fill the obvious gap in chronicling the 90's UK shortwave scene that is otherwise conspicuous by its online absence. There is therefore relatively little information on the internet from which to draw knowledge, or inspiration, but I unequivocally apologise if the content of my blog posts does not mirror how others remember the events of the day. There will always be room for subjectivity, but I am happy to correct any inadvertent factual errors precipitated from drawing upon memories that have not seen the light of day for much of the last three decades. 

It is often said that familiarity breeds contempt and whilst this would in the main be an unfounded emotion during my time of listening to shortwave in the 1990's, it was often the stations popular as much for their enigmatic nature, be that from broadcasting on relatively obscure frequencies or a penchant for unexpectedly 'popping up' before inexplicably disappearing just as quickly, as they were for musical output and a charismatic operator. One such station that undoubtedly ticked all the boxes was Station Sierra Sierra - the super station. Run on a shoestring by the likeable Paul Stuart Sierra Sierra's albeit infrequent appearances on 6540 kHz were always especially welcome; only during my very recent musings about the 1990's have I concluded that Paul's short but enjoyable broadcasts were more than likely stymied by personal and local circumstances that theoretically could include when the neighbours were home, or more pertinently - when they were not. Characterized as much by seemingly short, random appearances away from conventional 48 metre band frequencies as by the station's signature tune - Don't Worry by Kim Appleby -  Sierra Sierra certainly lent credence to the assertion that less can be more. Paul Stuart would later in the 90's turn his attention to outside broadcasts in conjunction with Radio Blackbeard's Dave Norris under the Galaxy International banner, something which will no doubt be written about in greater detail at a future date. 

NEXT TIME: UK powerhouse broadcasters on shortwave(not including the World Service!). 

1990: My introduction to Shortwave Free Radio - UK style

I had been listening to the shortwave bands for almost a year before one Sunday morning stumbling upon several of what I came to know as free radio 'pirate' stations, a curiosity initially piqued as to what the other band on my National Panasonic 1822 receiver, cassette player included, offered what conventional FM(VHF) and Medium Wave(MW) did not. 

There was no frustration which today a lack of a digital tuner would inevitably precipitate; quite simply, I had a rough idea where on the dial the likes of BRT of Belgium, now VRT, Radio Romania International, and the Voice of America(VOA) could be found, so to 'point and shoot' would normally reap the intended dividends. Even with such rudimentary listening equipment, used at this point without a long wire aerial to complement the built-in, as standard telescopic antenna, it was possible to hear stations from all over the world, with whom contact would include the receipt of the at-the-time much coveted QSL card, proof in itself of reception and a trade off with the broadcaster who sought information as to how well, or otherwise, their signal was being received not only by the intended audience, but those who tuned in from far greater a distance away.

I do not recall what motivated me to tune around 6.2 MHz - the 48-metre band - that Sunday morning in early October, 1990. Perhaps I was killing time before the weekly Happy Station Show was broadcast by Radio Netherlands - something at the time which had become a fixture of my listening. As these transmissions from Hilversum were aired on the 5.9 MHz area of the band, it starts to make sense that this gap of approximately 300 kHz would represent at most a couple of millimetres on the dial of my modest listening equipment.

It was therefore a mere nudge of the dial between conventional, dare I say legal broadcasters, and those who were anything but the traditional, formulaic stations I had until this point become accustomed to on the shortwave spectrum. Perhaps part of the attraction was that national broadcasters with big budgets and multi-lingual programming were inadvertently coexisting cheek by jowl with pirate stations operating out of bedrooms, perhaps while the rest of the family were out of the house, and used what to the uninitiated were obscure mail drops by whose location would not give the operators' game away.

That morning yielded three stations: Ozone Radio International from the Republic of Ireland, and the English-based duo Live Wire Radio and Radio 48. Greatly impressed with Live Wire's quality of signal and music, along with the presentation-style of someone I soon knew as Bill Lewis, I jotted down the mailing address and was surprised and delighted in equal measure to receive less than a week later a letter, sticker, and QSL card in the mail. I can only guess at what Bill and other station operators of the time made of a 14-year-old's rather gauche letters, but the novelty of not only hearing these mysterious English-speaking voices but to also be able to communicate with them soon got me hooked. Little could I have known that thirty years later, I would have enough memories of the 1990's shortwave free radio scene to justify creating a writing project dedicated to them.

And so it began. The pattern of Sundays that usually ran along the lines of lie-ins and visiting grandparents had been semi-permanently punctuated by this new strand of my radio-listening hobby. Disappearing upstairs from the lunch table to check 6 MHz became a common occurrence, as too would sneakily listening to receivers in relatives' houses on Sunday afternoons, much to the bewilderment and at times chagrin of my nearest and dearest. Perhaps perturbed that I was listening to and communicating with those who were technically breaking the law, it eventually became apparent to my family that young teenagers often involve themselves in far more damaging pursuits than enjoying album tracks not heard on legal stations constrained by playlists, and listening to QSO's which were often as entertaining, if not more so, as the music programmes themselves.

It took me a while to realize that there was more to free radio on shortwave than just listening on Sunday mornings to 6 MHz, but as a grounding to the scene of the time it was the ideal starting point. As I eventually learned, broadcasting on the Sabbath was in many ways a tradition, but also a means to an end for operators otherwise constrained by personal and local, neighbourhood circumstances. For those equally as interested in reaching as great a number of listeners as possible as to the technical side of broadcasting it was the obvious time to transmit, but atmospheric conditions and avoiding detection would also precipitate the choice of time of day, or night, when some operators would be active, and on which bands they would use. These nuances would all become apparent to me in time, but the early days of regularly hearing, for example, Radio Orangutan on 6206 kHz, and Radio Orion in its usual 6290 kHz berth were what I assumed to be the extent of what shortwave free radio had to offer. 

The Sunday scene was though the tip of the iceberg, merely an aperitif to not only the wider extent of free radio at the time, but to what it has subsequently become. To a callow youth whose appetite for alternative broadcasting had by this time been whetted the limitations of only listening on a Sunday morning hadn't yet dawned upon me, until realizing that I had missed out on several broadcasts at other times by stations I had come to regard as favourites. 

This is a very raw, perhaps unremarkable start to what I hope will become a series of posts over the days and weeks ahead detailing the era I regard as a golden one for UK free radio on shortwave. There will be those who will argue that any or all of the previous three decades to the 90's were more worthy of that epithet, but I can only comment upon what I heard in the context from 1990 to the present day, and the significant effect free radio had on my teenage years, even into my mid-twenties. 

My blog will therefore not serve as a history of UK free radio on shortwave during the 1990's, but my experiences of it. There were stations that existed but whose broadcasts I never heard, as there were those who I was aware of and on occasion did listen to but who will not be written about in this blog, but will be acknowledged by name. I am not seeking to simply detail an A-Z of what the UK scene consisted of from 1990 to the turn of the millennium, but to chronicle what I heard, enjoyed, and greatly miss to this day. There is no other brief or guideline as to how this blog will take shape, but it promises to be for me a fascinating meander down memory lane, and one that I hope you will find interesting and enjoyable, too.