Really quick pirate bandscan in Dublin.
Tumbleweeds except for the 90s Network on 98.4 and even they’re not coming in on their normal signal (conditions do seem to be quite poor).
Not pirate (anymore!) but Caroline quite good on 648. Report from Windy Arbour Luas stop!
The Dundalk station is not relaying Caroline weekend 11/12 December. They are back on 3905 kHz as Radio Sovereign, being heard well on the Carlow SDR. For a few days recently they were on 5770 kHz with continuous instrumental jazz.
Was up near the Hellfire Club in Dublin earlier and noticed Storm NE down on 102.4. I’m guessing they’ve moved to make way for Christmas FM
Quick Wicklow Band scan below, Christmas FM is overmodulating on 106.6, analysis running on that, was ~80Khz, East Coast hasn't changed, bit worse TBH, up in the 90s.
LMFM 95.5 audio all distorted the past few days
What’s happening today fellas?
Retro FM on 92.0, audio levels seemed low. Heard a station called Kiss FM Kildare on 99.0 playing dance music.
Didn’t spot anything else today.
In Dublin today I picked up
92.0 Retro FM
98.4 90s Network
99.0 Kiss FM
102.4 Storm NE
103.0 Energy
107.1 RetroNow
Freedab was on but didn’t last long in the car
Getting some lift today at Pine forest car park in the Dublin mountains
94.2 Xmas FM Longford
94.3 BBC Radio Scotland
94.7 BBC Radio Scotland
97.2 MANX FM Isle of Man
103.0 WestSound Dumfries and Galloway Scotland
105.7 Xmas FM Letterkenny
Yeah some funny ones today in Rathfarnham included Clyde 1, BBC Cumbria and LMFM on 95.8 being replaced by BBC Radio 4.
Likewise in Wicklow, a good few more too that were too noisy for the scan.
I noticed the RDS Tme on Eastcoast FM 96.2 & 99.9 FM is out by about 90 minutes, to get the car radio time back I had to tune to RTE Radio 1.
I was travelling between west Wickow and Dublin today and picked up Christmas FM on various frequencies at different stages. Between Blackhill and Lacken (outside Blessington), the more frequent frequency was 87.9. According to its list of frequencies, that's for Galway City and part of the county! Other frequencies en route included 88.1 (Kildare north which kind of makes sense), 94.2 (Longford or Cairn Hill?), 99.4 (Cavan?), 105.2 (Dublin which makes sense) and 104.2 (Dundalk/Drogheda?). How are some of those frequencies being picked up in the west Wicklow area?
On a different note, I switched over to AM/MW intermittently and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could still pick up Dublin pirate Energy Power AM on 1395 kh as far as the Blessington Lakes and even Lacken and Blackhill (just about) which is beyond it again.
I wonder will there be any tribute station on multiple frequencies in Dublin post Christmas this year? This has been a feature in recent years. The tribute stations tend to look back at pirate stations and jingles and recordings from years gone by. It was 30 years ago (1991) that a number of new influential players entered the pirate scene: DLR, Sunset (and its predecessor), NSR, Coast FM and Alice's Restaurant. There were others at that time, too, who had been around a bit longer such as Radio Dublin, which had defied the 1988 closedown, and Radio Caroline (from Bayside, Sutton) that started in 1989. 1991 was a significant year for increased pirate activity on the airwaves around Dublin.
I can’t explain the Galway one but the 5 others make sense depending on exactly where you are. That part of the country has very variable terrain and sometimes you may receive a weak signal from the obvious transmitter you expect (105.2 Dublin) due to multi path or terrain blocking the signal. Instead, you’ll get one of the others and although the source is quite distant and you’re outside the expected reception area, with terrain involved you may have line of sight in that particular direction or the signal may be diffracting over a nearby mountain top.
94.2, 99.4 and 104.2 are all from high sites with wide coverage areas often beyond their intended areas. 94.2 in particular has very little obstruction between Longford and your location due to the flatness of the midlands.
I can’t explain the exact nature of the local terrain around there but the same thing happens down here in Cork. Driving around mid Cork (eg from Macroom to Millstreet) Xmas switches between 87.7 (North Cork), 105.0 (Kerry), 105.2 (Clare) and 106.7 (Cork City). The uneven terrain and it not being an officially covered area are responsible.
There was reports of good tropo enhancement in recent days. I did notice the Kerry Xmas 105.0 being enhanced a good distance south-eastwards ish
The Cork amateur 2-metre repeater (output 145.7500 MHz nFM) at Mullaghanish on the Cork/Kerry border was being heard/worked on the north-west coast of Spain, France, northwest England (Cumbria), Hastings , Surrey, and the Isle of Lewis (long distance north - across Ireland and then the sea) , as well as nearer places, last Thursday and Friday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDcqqOYc078
I meant to say in my previous post that there tended to be slight variations in the RDS info for the different frequencies for Christmas FM: usually the likes of "Bringing you the Magic of Christmas" or "The Magic of Christmas". However, 99.4 had a bizarre RDS display when it settled down on that frequency: "Nova" displayed a number of times in different positions on the screen! What is causing that?
Very impressive. The usual visitors from the UK were in around Cork as well the last few days, North Hessary Tor at RDS levels in North Cork at the weekend.
I wonder will there any kind of pop-up stations, like above, or, maybe some kind of collaboration of the oldies stations and their mates to share programs, like the Fun Radio idea over the last two or three years.
Rather surprisingly, Star1057 was broadcasting tonight around south Dublin on 105.7.
Happy Christmas Fellas! What’s happening out there?
Star1057 was on again this evening.
P.S. Happy Christmas!
heard it live tonight. Bombing in to clontarf here.
Was able to receive Today FM on 101.6 with RDS today in West Limerick. Anyone know where it’s coming from?
Story out there fellas?
Yesterday around Dublin and in one case* as far away as Drogheda:
92.0 - Retro FM
94.3 - * Relay of Charity Radio
105.7 - Star1057 - I heard a presenter at one stage. He sounded very professional.
Thanks Declan. You’re great at reporting everything! Seems quite these days which is such a shame.
agreed it is a shame, especially when we look back at the good stations we have had over the years (yes there were some horrors as well) but the pro stations and hobbiest ones which were well run on tight budgets and managed to still provide quality content outweigh the bad few by miles.
however with music easier then ever to hear now the audiences targeted by pirates have more choice then ever, which is great for us, as thankfully we the audience will always win the battle for being able to listen to the content we want in the end, so the need for the pirate is probably gone at this stage, and a station online can be set up for very little.
What’s happening out there Declan A ?
you’re the man on the ground !
