Another catch during the Pirate Hunt 2026 held in the Easter weekend was Radio Alabama on 1620 kHz. Manfred from Radio Alabama was so kind to confirm my request with a kind email. He mentioned that he is broadcasting from the Netherlands with a staggering 2000 Watt homemade mosfet transmitter. But I’m afraid his location is on my null of the loop, and his antenna set-up might imply I’m a little bit in the dead zone.
And no the logo above is not the one from Free Radio Alabama. But I liked it a lot.
A year ago I received free radio station Radio Markies on 6300 kHz from The Netherlands. And as it is a hobby for the operator of Radio Markies as it is for us listeners, it took a little while before my report was confirmed. But this week I received a long personal email from the operator.
Radio Markies is active in the 50 meter band since 2023. The transmitter is fully home made. Below a the recording I made of my reception with the station ID. Reception was a bit noisy, but that might be because my antenna direction wasn’t optimal. You can hear a full ID: “Dus amateurs, luisteraars in het bijzonder, goedenavond, u luistert op dit moment live naar de 6300 Markies International 50 meter band”.
Radio Markies doesn’t have a QSL card, but if they want to make one I would suggest to use the character Markies de Canteclaer conceived by Marten Toonder (Markies is Dutch for Marquis):
During the Easter weekend I received a program of MCB Radio on 1467 kHz. I was quite surprised about this, as I had MCB, and LPAM from the Netherlands, listed on 846 kHz only.
So I sent a report to MCB and Otto from their technical department was so kind to confirm my reception as well as the answer to my question: the MCB program was relayed by Radio Vliegende Hollander from Meppel, The Netherlands, which makes sense as this is only 37 kms from my current QTH in Coevorden.
Below the audioclip of the Easter program I received, with the clear ID “De grootste hits uit de jaren 70… dit is het 70ies weekend op MCB… 1974!”
During the Easter weekend I participated in the Pirate Hunt. One of the stations I received was Radio Zand on 4695 kHz. It was the first time I received this station from the Netherlands, but on the internet it gained some fame as “the 17-year old that was broadcasting on the Russian Buzzer frequency of 4625 kHz”.
My report to radiozand(at)protonmail.com was confirmed with a nice personal eQSL:
eQSL Radio Zand, the Netherlands, 4695 kHz
An interesting part of my reception of Radio Zand was their station ID in the SDR water fall. You can see this in the picture below, but check the video on my YouTube post.
It was my second attempt and but this time my report of a DSC transmission by CGTM Mar del Plata, Argentina on 8414.5 kHz was confirmed. I sent my report to mpla(at)prefecturanaval.gob.ar .
CGTM stands for Centro de Gestión de Tráfico Marítimo (Maritime Traffic Management Center). It is part of the Prefectura Naval Argentina (PNA). The CGTM are the operational centers responsible for the real-time monitoring and management of maritime traffic in Argentine waters.These centers act as Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) stations and coordinate, among other things:
tracking of ships via radar, AIS, and other systems,
providing information and advice to vessels,
coordinating search and rescue operations (SAR),
responding to emergency situations (such as breakdowns, flooding, or man-overboard incidents),
enforcing maritime safety and preventing incidents in ports, rivers, and sea areas.
There are multiple CGTM centers spread across the country. But as far as I know only those in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia and Ushuaia are active with a DSC watch on HF. With three of them confirmed Ushuaia is still on the to-do list.
Radio Caroline North was live from the Ross Revenge with an Easter special. I received them broadcasting via the 648 kHz 4 kW transmitter in Orfordness, United Kingdom. Despite the fact that I’m now living further away from the sea the reception quality was excellent, even during the day.
My report sent to north(at)radiocaroline.co.uk was confirmed by Alan:
Hello Peter,
Thank you for your report which has reached me. I can confirm that you have indeed received Radio Caroline North, live from the Ross Revenge, via 4G link, on 648Khz AM, April 4th 2026, at 14.31 hours. I’m often in Harlingen in Friesland so am familiar with how strong the signal is on the east coast of the North Netherlands, so good to know you get a good signal in the East towards the border. Hope you have enjoyed this weekends special programmes.
Regards, Alan
Their next program from the Ross Revenge is scheduled for 9-10th May. More info on their website.
Radio Argus is a pirate station based in the UK, broadcasting on shortwave 48 meter band, but recently also heard testing on 1431 and 1440 kHz. I was made aware of this station by Henry Poelman via the Benelux DX Club Facebook group. I heard them in the night between Sunday and Monday, 01:00 and 04:38 h UTC (no trace of Radio Regional from Italy). The program consisted of rock music presented by a male ID. After 2 hours the program was repeated as I heard the same songs again. Signal strength was not great, SINPO 24332.
Bert Bridges sent me a brief “thank you” email, stating that my reception report was useful as they were testing on various frequencies. And invited me to suggest a song to be played on the radio.
I’m not an expert on British pirate stations, but sources on the internet state that the transmission on 1440 AM might come from the London area with 20-40 Watts of power.
The function of this beacon is not immediately clear to me. I got no further than: primarily supports air navigation in the Bremen/Hamburg/Bremerhaven region of northern Germany. It is not aligned with any of the runways.
NDB WSN Weser located between Bremen and Hamburg (Skyvector)
The beacon can be observed from some distance at Google Streetview, south of Holste.
An eQSL from Radio Uniek. It was Hugo Matten who made me aware with his post that this pirate station says that they are broadcasting from Coevorden, my ‘temporary’ QTH until our new house is built. It is quite uncommon for radio stations to advertise their QTH, so maybe we should take it with a grain of salt. On the other hand: with the muncipality of Coevorden being almost 300 square kilometers you might wonder how much they really give away.
eQSL Radio Uniek, Coevorden, 1621 kHz
After I sent my report it was confirmed 5 minutes later, live in the broadcast:
A day later the eQSL was delivered in my inbox. Big thank you to Chris and Linda!
UPDATE: First time in 45 years that I got beer coasters for a reception report. Thank you Radio Uniek.
This week I received a QSL for my reception of Harbour Light of the Windwards, broadcasting with 10 kW from Carriacou, Grenada. Mr. Randy Cornelius confirmed my report, apologizing that he was a little bit late. Which is no problem at all, as it just took a few weeks only.
We had a pleasant email conversation about radio history. Mr. Randy Cornelius wrote:
I was born in 1962 in Monrovia Liberia where my parents were working at ELWA radio. We later left Africa and went to Antigua here in the Caribbean in the early 70’s where my parents started another Christian radio station – Caribbean Radio Lighthouse. Then I joined my parents here in Carriacou, Grenada in 1990 to build the Harbour Light. I have been here ever since.
Now the nice thing is that I received ELWA Radio (and got their iconic QSL) and Carribean Radio Lighthouse as well. And this was not my first QSL for Harbour Light of the Windwards. In 1992 they replied to my reception report as well, and most likely it was Mr. Cornelius who replied. Unfortunately as given my relocation my QSL collection is in storage right now I don’t have access to my collection and can’t confirm, but I promised him to check as soon as possible.
My reception report was for a program of Pastor Hunt, in pretty good quality:
If you want to learn more about the transmitter of Harbour Light of the Windwards, you can consult this webpage.
BDXC : SWL 2262 PRe VERON : NL 14228 If you want to get in touch, just leave a message on one of my posts. Please note that I don't publish email addresses of verifiers which are not part of the public domain. So if you don't see the QSL address, just leave a message and I'll get back to you.
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