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 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.
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.
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.
With a lot of relocation activities going right now I was busy, but more importantly I was compromised on the antenna options. That said, I didn’t want to miss out on another opportunity to catch Key Channel Radio, broadcasting from Italy. I was able to receive them on 6285 kHz.
Quality was just good enough to copy a few details like song titles like this Spanish version of The Piano Man by Ana Belén, followed by “Much more music… Key Channel”.
And yes I think I heard Bande Rumorose from Antonello Napolitano in the first part of the broadcast as well.
My report was sent to keyradioam@gmail.com. They also provided some news: “A a new partnership with Doctor Tim Artem World Music and Radio Monique since this year we have been collaborating with “Bande rumorose” of DX Fanzine. At the beginning of each of our broadcasts we broadcast it in a one-hour version. We’ll definitely be on the air at Easter when they’re hosting “Pirate Hunter 2026.”
An e-QSL with lots of details from Moonair Radio, a Free Radio station from Central Europe. DJ Mike is from Holland, and the show I listened to was mainly in Dutch, but from the announcements made it was clear the the location is not in The Netherlands, but somewhere in “Central Europe”. I will not disclose the location, but given the distance I am surprised about the signal strength given an output power of only 250 W. Must be a decent antenna! And I understand why there was a bit of fading.
Mike also shared a nice video of the studio and transmitter equipment. Apparently he is also the operator of Radio Magdalena, a station that broadcasts in AM-stereo.
My reception of Mustang Radio on 6280 kHz, a Free Radio station from the east part of the Netherlands was confirmed with a kind email reply by station owner Herman.
About a week after the email bij Herman he sent me the beautiful QSL card!
e-QSL from Radio WDR “Radio from the Bottom of the Sea”
An e-QSL from Radio WDR. No not the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, but Radio WDR on 5800 kHz, a Free Radio station from the Netherlands. One of their slogans is “Radio from the Bottom of the Sea”, which might imply that their QTH is what used to be the former Zuiderzee.
Last weekend Key Channel Radio, broadcasting from Emilia Romagna, Italy, was on air on 6270 kHz. Massimo, who operates the station was so kind to give me a heads up warning. Reception wasn’t easy as propagation conditions were poor and there was quite a bit of noise/interference which required them to change frequency a few times.
Massimo sent me the beautiful e QSL, a friendly email and some photo’s of the stunning scenery in Emilia Romagna:
Dear Peter, thanks for your valuable listening report. In the end you listened to us too. Tough evening, stanag, CW all active. Yes we changed the frequency 4 times. KCR has been broadcasting since January 2016 from a location on the hills of the Emilian Apennines. We use a commercial transmitter with a maximum power of 400 W (in use 250 W) and a self-built Morgain 48/88 Antenna. There are three of us who manage it, I take care of the technical part, programs. My girlfriend takes care of important statistics on listeners and small studies on propagation. A dear friend of ours takes care of the graphics, the promos and QSLs are her creations. We are an open radio, we have collaborated with several German Pirate Radios, Doctor Tim, Radio BZN and more. Now we collaborate with Radio Monique, Bart even made a broadcast and several Jingles for us. (Pirate for Peace Member).
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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