Handbag Heaven - One year on

Last year I put up an appeal for Galaxy Radio "Handbag Heaven" shows on behalf of a reader.

Thanks to Steve Baker who has just added a couple of comments to the original post, we now have a couple of shows to share with you...

SWU FM - 87.7 MHz - 1st May to 27th May 2016 (RSL)

http://swu.fm/

https://twitter.com/SWUfm

https://www.facebook.com/swu.fm/

In May 2016 SWU will be celebrating Bristol music culture with an exclusive radio station dedicated to the city’s Urban, Electronic & Dance music.

Finally, a decent station in Bristol, if only temporarily.

Unfortunately, I don't think the FM has been set up to work at it's best. This may be an Ofcom ruling that the aerial should be located on a low building or it could just be a lack of decent transmitter site. It could also be lack of experience in setting up.

This signal isn't all that good outside central Bristol. The 10 Watt rig is putting out a stereo signal with RDS 'SWU FM' and the aerial (gold plated dipole from the looks of it) is located on top of Hamilton House in Stokes Croft / Cheltenham Rd, so this is one reason for the poor signal. It's surrounded by hills and taller buildings. The aerial is also only half way up the thick white flag pole it is on, and may do better with the boom fastened at the top of the pole. I had trouble hearing it on my mp3 player's radio once I started heading towards Whiteladies Rd from Park Street, not that far away! I can only just hear it on my SDR setup at home in North Bristol / South Gloucestershire, the signal gets pretty weak by the time you get to Horfield Sports Center (I was using the Tecsun PL310 on the top deck of a bus for this). That said, if you get onto the M32 at Frenchay and travel into Bristol you'll have decent reception on a car radio all the way in. I've not yet explored how well it does going in other directions.

I've been listening on the stream (link below) and I like the pirate sound of the station. No jingles that I've heard, no ads, just back to back shows.

A lot of Bristol legends are involved, Roni, Krust, Die, Jakes, etc...

Handbag Heaven (Galaxy 101)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I've just had an email asking if I have any recordings of Handbag Heaven on Galaxy Radio from around 1997/8.

Has anybody else got any? If so, leave a comment below....

North Bristol Bandscan 23rd July 2015 - IQ Files

Here's 5 IQ files covering the complete 87.5 to 108 band taken late July 2015. It's taken a while to upload them as they are 1gig each. They span 8MHz each as they were made at home using my SDRPlay...

https://mega.nz/#F!bd8lxCaC!DxO2rpzvO9jdO7lhQe7W5Q

More...

AcerOne has done it again - http://www.mixcrate.com/djacerone/dj-cridge-dj-bunjy-ragga-105fm-9594-9006009

More Passion from AcerOne

Thanks to AcerOne again for these...

http://www.mixcrate.com/djacerone/dj-die-passion-104fm-12995-8999672

http://www.mixcrate.com/djacerone/dj-manic-dj-felony-mc-jakes-passion-104fm-15795-9000029

Passion - Donovan Badboy and Jakes - 1995

Many thanks to Acerone for uploading this one...

http://www.mixcrate.com/djacerone/donovan-badboy-smith-mc-jakes-02041995-8995988

Fem FM @ M-Shed, Saturday 8th March - 3 til 5pm

In 1992, over 200 women made history in Bristol by setting up the UK's first women's radio station - Fem FM. Bristol Record Office has digitised the original broadcast tapes, now available for research as part of the Fem FM archive of recordings, photographs and other material.
On International Women's Day, M Shed will mark the launch of the archive by hosting a panel discussion about women's achievements in radio over the past two decades. Is the climate better for women broadcasters in 2014?
The event is open to anyone interested in the media and how to get more women's voices on air. Guest panellists (all originally involved in Fem FM) will include:

• Sue Clark, Sony award-winning radio producer
• DJ Ritu, DJ and world music guru who has broadcast with BBC London and the World Service
• Ali Grant, chair of Bristol community station BCFM
• Jacqui Wilson, manager of the internet station Passion Radio Bristol
• Erin Riley, Senior BBC Producer

Chair: Caroline Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Radio at the University of Sunderland and one of the founders of Fem FM.
Free admission. Please reserve your place by emailing bro@bristol.gov.uk or phoning 0117 922 4224 (Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am to 4.30pm)

Listen online: audio documentary about Fem FM



Here is something that may not be in the archive, a recording of their test broadcasts..

Fem 101 FM - Test Broadcast Music - March 1992 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

And here's a 20 min clip from Lady G.

Fem FM 101 March 1992 - Lady G - Hardcore by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Sub Love sets from Galaxy Radio 1992 / 1993

I've now uploaded all the Sub Love sets I have from early 90s Galaxy Radio, which was on 97.2 FM taken over from FTP and not yet 101 FM.

Here is the link for the whole playlist...

http://www.mixcloud.com/bristolpirates/playlists/galaxy-radio-sub-love-sets/

Unfortunately, Mixcloud don't do a player for playlists. Here is one of my favorite sets though...

Galaxy Radio - Sub Love - DJ Die & MC Rigadig 1992 Set 1 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Tristan B Nov / Dec 1988

So, I'm posting some old stuff that's been here before but disappeared long ago. Here's a couple of recordings of the first Tristan B shows I ever heard on Radio Bristol. The first is from MW as I didn't have an FM aerial at the time, the second from FM. Only a few weeks before I discovered that pirate radio existed in Bristol....

BBC Radio Bristol 95.5 FM - Tristan B - Nov/Dec 1988 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Tristan B 1989 - Interview with KRS ONE

In 1989, BDP released their 3rd album - Ghetto Music. The tour to promote that album had a date in Bristol and Tristan B managed to get KRS ONE into Radio Bristol for an interview. He only just made the end of the show but stayed for a full interview afterwards. This interview was broadcast the following week...

BBC Radio Bristol - Tristan B interviews KRS ONE - 1989 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Merry Christmas :)

OK. It's been a long time since I wrote anything here. Work has kept me very busy this year and I generally don't feel like writing a blog when I get home from work or any other time I'm free. Here goes though...

1 - FEM FM - Fem FM's archives will be available from Bristol Records Office soon as mp3s. I'm not sure how you will be able to access them, but they should be the whole weeks programmes!

2 - There's a small station on in the city ;) I can't really hear it here, the signal is so tiny, but it should be a bit better in some areas.

3 - There is also a an RSL from Wales on 87.7 over Christmas, which is just audiable here. There was a fesitval RSL on earlier in the year with a similar signal level.

SDR# and R820T Dongle Bandscan

I've been getting used to using SDR# (aka SDRSharp) recently, having purchased a cheap DVB TV dongle called an R820T. These, and some other dongles are usable as Software Defined Radio receivers. You need to add an upconverter for freqs lower than 24MHz, which means LW, MW, SW need that extra piece of equipment.

Information - http://www.rtlsdr.org/

This bandscan demonstrates the capability on FM...

Bandscan - April 2013

I thought I'd do a bandscan for North Bristol. Different corners of the city get slightly different results.

This is as thorough as I could make it. Unfortunately, 103.4 BBC Devon didn't want to make an appearance whilst I was recording, although it had done in my trial run 30 mins before. This was done with a slightly longer whip on the Tecsun (I had to replace the whip anyway as the screw fixing fell apart - a common problem with them).

The camera work is pants BTW.

The whole list...

Freq		Station
88.1		R2
88.3		R2
88.6		R2
89.0		R2
89.3		R2
89.9		R2
90.3		R3
90.5		R3
90.8		R3
91.2		R3
91.5		R3
92.1		R3
92.5		R4
92.7		R4
92.9		R4
93.0		R4
93.2		BCFM
93.4		R4
93.7		R4
94.3		R4
94.7		BBC Radio H & W
94.9		BBC Radio Bristol
95.5		BBC Radio Glos.
95.9		BBC Radio Wales
96.3		Heart
96.8		BBC Radio Cymru
97.2		Kiss
97.4		Capital
97.6		Free Radio
97.7		R1
98.0		Ujima
98.2		R1
98.6		R1
98.9		R1
99.5		R1
100.0		Classic
100.2		Classic
100.4		Classic
100.8		Classic
101.0		Kiss
101.4		Classic
101.7		Classic
102.2		Heart
102.4		Heart
102.6		Heart
103.0		Heart
103.2		Heart
103.4		BBC Radio Devon
103.6		BBC Radio Bristol
103.9		BBC Radio Wales
104.3		BBC Radio Wilts
104.6		BBC Radio Bristol
104.7		BBC Radio Glos.
104.8		R4
105.4		Real Radio Wales
105.6		Breeze
105.9		Real Radio Wales
106.2		Sunshine
106.5		Jack
106.8		Nation
107.2		Breeze
107.5		Breeze
107.7		Breeze
107.9		Breeze

Tecsun PL-310 and PL-380 dB Meter Comparrison

I use Tecsun radios for portable station finding and listening.

Ujima 98FM is a community station in central Bristol, and just North of Bristol it comes in the weaker of the two community stations currently on air. I used it for this test as it is a good example of a weak but audible station.

First, the PL-310 without being affected by inductance from my hands / body was reading around 4dB on the level and 0 on the S/N meter.

Second, the PL-380 without being affected by inductance from my hands / body was reading around 18dB on the level and 0 on the S/N meter.

With inductance (holding the radio, or trying to record holding the camera close) I can increase these to 6dB level and 1 on the S/N for the 310, and 20 or 21dB and 1 S/N for the 380.

There are major differences in the readings for some reason, yet the reception (though you can't hear it in the video so much as on the 380 I had to hold the camera away and zoom in) sounded roughly the same.

When I get my 2nd 310 in a few weeks, we'll see if there is a difference even on the same model.

NTR 105MHz

NTR are running a test transmission on 105MHz as I write, I'll have a recording up soon-ish. A bit overmodulated, but good tunes and their Twitter account is being mentioned - https://twitter.com/ntr105fm


EDIT : Recording

NTR (Test Transmission) - 105MHz - 09 09 2012 by Bristolpirates on Mixcloud

Pirate Archive Update 4/4/2012

Just one update for the moment. A SPEC Radio recording of Rene and Bacus...

http://www.thepiratearchive.net/spec.html

Bristol Xmas Radio Extravaganza

Wedge posted these on Hijack, thought I'd help spread them around a bit...

Here is the uploaded audio from the Bristol xmas radio extravaganza on the 20th of December 2011. The Audio is in 5 parts and showcases a plethora of bristol bass music artists performing live for 7 hours or so with only mince pies and mulled cider to keep us going! please download from the links below:

Part 1  http://www.sendspace.com/file/chjupd

Part 2  http://www.sendspace.com/file/k2cjkr

Part 3  http://www.sendspace.com/file/o53792

Part 4  http://www.sendspace.com/file/hbv2eu

Part 5  http://www.sendspace.com/file/e7596c

Artists included on the night were as follows, sorry there's no tracklist or running order. Bless up all who locked in at the time and big ups to everyone checking it out for the first time! you're all large!

Wedge b2b Behling (Future Boogie, If Symptoms Persist)
Appleblim (Applepips, Skulldisco)
Gatekeeper (Skulldisco, If Symptoms Persist)
Pinch (Earwax, Tectonic)
Peverelist (Punch Drunk)
RSD (Punch Drunk, Smith and Mighty)
Arkist (Applepips, If Symptoms Persist)
Gemmy (Punch Drunk, Plannet Mu)
Guido (Punch Drunk)
Komonazmuk (HENCH)
Orphan 101 (Saigon, Applepips)
Bloodman (Deca Rhythm)
Kahn (Punch Drunk)

Latest uploads...

Files down. Check thepiratearchive.net instead :)

Multi FM 87.7 RSL

Multi FM is on 87.7 with an RSL from Kingswood. My Tecsun seems to be the only radio capable of a decent signal here in The Stokes, and only in a really odd sweet spot in the house, but then I'm at the bottom of a hill. Expect lots of underground and local music favoured by the yout dem.

No website!??!?!?? Surely the organisers could manage a free site and £5 for a .co.uk with the site designed by some html knowledge equiped youngsters? If you Google Multi FM, the first thing on the page is... this blog!