Tag: Free Radio (Page 1 of 4)

QSL Radio Alabama 1620 kHz

April 17, 2026 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

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.

QSL Radio Markies 6300 kHz

April 14, 2026 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

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):

QSL Radio Zand 4695 kHz

April 11, 2026 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

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.

And here is the Radio Zand jingle:

QSL Radio Argus 1440 kHz

April 1, 2026 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

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.

QSL Radio Uniek Coevorden 1621 kHz

March 30, 2026 / Peter Reuderink / 1 Comment

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.

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.

QSL Radio Badger 6040 kHz

September 29, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

A very nicely designed QSL card from Radio Badger. A Free Radio Station on 6040 kHz from the UK. I think I saw the card somewhere and really wanted to add this one to my collection!

Reception was far from perfect, but I was able to copy a few songs (Shazam helped me big time) and with some effort recorded this ID… “Radio Badger”

Radio Badger has a very nice (and a bit funny) website radiobadger.co.uk . Check it out! They announce 6070 kHz as a frequency which might imply that they occasionally use Channel 292. But I never saw them in the Channel 292 program schedule. No problem, the website also offers a live stream as well so you can listen to their excellent music selection in stereo quality. Of course we DX-ers prefer the real short wave sound!

QSL Weekend Music Radio 6325 kHz

August 9, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

Not my first QSL of this station. I received one earlier in 2023. But there is no harm in sending an additional report to a station that keeps a tradition alive. I heard them during the Easter weekend. As last time the QSL was part of a lengthy PDF with lots of history… I sent my report to wmrscotland@mail.com and got a reply after 16 weeks. Hey, it’s a hobby after all, so things can take a bit of time.

A hand drawn QSL used in 1981. That’s when I ran my own Radio Arcadia pirate station and for a teenager the costs of printing a QSL card was quite something.

QSL Moonair Radio 5880 kHz

April 29, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 2 Comments

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.

QSL Mustang Radio 6280 kHz

April 28, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 0 Comments

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!

QSL Radio WDR 5800 kHz

April 27, 2025 / Peter Reuderink / 11 Comments

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.