I think I found another one 100.1 Spanish Religious Pirate, plus notes...

[DJKraze]

Caught this one all around New Britain and Newington with various strengths, not exactly sure where it's from. Unlike the reggae pirate, this one is in Stereo, but is very overmodulated and I didn't hear a single ID out of them.

I also pulled in 97.1 in Hartford and that was mixing in at various times with Z97.1??? and Hot 97 (WQHT). I'm guessing Z97.1 must be in RI, as I was getting a good number of I stations this morning as if they were local.

 

[kms575]

Caught this one all around New Britain and Newington with various strengths, not exactly sure where it's from. Unlike the reggae pirate, this one is in Stereo, but is very overmodulated and I didn't hear a single ID out of them.

I also pulled in 97.1 in Hartford and that was mixing in at various times with Z97.1??? and Hot 97 (WQHT). I'm guessing Z97.1 must be in RI, as I was getting a good number of I stations this morning as if they were local.

No, I think there's a Z97.1 in Rutland, VT. Quite a distance away.

 

[CTListener]

Caught this one all around New Britain and Newington with various strengths, not exactly sure where it's from. Unlike the reggae pirate, this one is in Stereo, but is very overmodulated and I didn't hear a single ID out of them.

I also pulled in 97.1 in Hartford and that was mixing in at various times with Z97.1??? and Hot 97 (WQHT). I'm guessing Z97.1 must be in RI, as I was getting a good number of I stations this morning as if they were local.

No, I think there's a Z97.1 in Rutland, VT. Quite a distance away.

Boston was booming in last night here in Meriden, with WGBH (89.7) and WCRB (99.5) the strongest signals. Must have been some sort of tropo going on.

 

[necrat123]

There was a strong tropo last night.

Using a DX398 radio with the regular stock antenna, in Great Barrington, near downtown, I was hearing Mix 103.7 and 102.1 The Axe from Richmond, VA to name a few.

 

[DJKraze]

That should have said "I was getting a good number of RI stations" seems everything to the East/Northeast was really strong.
But in any case, I'm going to say it was Rutland, VT. It was a top-40 station and very clear many times, though I wasn't able to get it clear constantly, it would fade and Hot 97 would be there. There was a promo about some DJ who was "so short she makes Gary Coleman feel like a giant". I'm checking out the live stream for WZRT-FM, how funny, this is the same song I first heard them with... YES, this is the same station.

Now, has anyone else picked up and/or has an idea where this distorted Spanish pirate on 100.1 is?

 

[Voiceguy123]

The sunspot cycle has been allowing great propagation lately and the VHF bands very open as a result. Anyone with a ham license can see that easily. I've been hitting Central New Jersey (100 miles +) on a mere 50 watts, easily, the last few days on VHF. It comes and goes No idea about the spanish pirate but if the audio is distorted he should edumacate himself and fix the problem. I don't care for pirates much, but if you're going to run a pirate station at least learn basic engineering practice... If you are going to operate an illegal station at least make some effort to sound professional. Ugh. It's not that hard.

 

[DJKraze]

I haven't been really paying much attention to propagation lately, or I'd know as well (been doing overtime).

The listening I was doing was in my car on Monday between 7am & 2pm at various locations in New Britain & Newington as I was playing Taxi Driver for a relative and yes, that 97.1 Rutland VT was around 1:30-2pm. Now I'm wishing I were up even earlier to see what else I would have gotten.

As far as audio quality, the religious pirate had good sound, when a song would start to fade and modulation archived proper levels for a second or two, they seemed very clear, so it's simply a matter of the input into whatever they are using as a transmitter being overloaded (kinda like WESU when they are running the WSHU feed, except WESU is not too bad. Hmm, maybe it's time I take them up on that open invite to rejoin? Is that still open now that most of those I've talk to have graduated?) I'd guess that while WESU is running close to 110% modulation, this spanish pirate is over 200%

 

[Voiceguy123]

Most likely it's not the modulation level but simply a case of overdriving the input to the TX. You don't have to be an engineer to master simple gain structure. One of the worst things you can do is leave the input unprotected. For about a hundred bucks you can get a simple compressor/limiter from Behringer, PreSonus, ART, etc that will protect the input. It's almost invariable that you will get an op who will slam the meters thinking it will make the station/their show "louder" when in effect all it really does is create alot of distortion and splatter. This is part of the reason some stations' audio processing sounds messed up, the fault of incompetent people not watching their levels.

 

[DJKraze]

WESU has (or had?) an Orban Optimod FM. The distortion is happening before it gets to the ISDN line they have to the transmitter (I wonder if they ever pulled all that wire that used to run in the tunnels when they were forced out of Clark Hall?) I don't usually hear it when they are doing local programming, just the refeed of WSHU, which I was told was by Sat. so there could be a number of factors causing it as they use some kind of automation system to do all the switching between the WSHU feed and Pacifica and sometimes pre-recorded local shows (mainly during school breaks).

I highly doubt the pirate has anything in line and just has a raw feed going into whatever kit they are using. I guess of course it depends on the pirate.