Tune into the world outside

Posted on March 20, 2020 by onedeckpete

We may be locked out from the outside world for a short while but don’t worry, that interesting thing called radio will help us through this mad time.

The next episode of DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird will be aired on Sunday 29th March at 1100 UTC (1200 UK) on 6070 kHz via Channel 292. The show will be rebroadcast on Sunday 5th April at 1100 UTC (1200 UK) on 6070 kHz also. If you haven’t got a shortwave radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on Channel 292’s site here .

The programme will feature Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and One Deck Pete presenting the Skybird Mailbag. There’ll also be an airing of Pete’s “Radio fanatics of the world unite” mix that has tunes from Nadezha Orlova, Duce Haus and Yemanjo and the Monarch Duo. Also in the next couple of months Free Radio Skybird will take to the air a little bit more. We will keep you posted!

And further radio help can be obtained from this week’s instalment of This is a music show available below. As usual there’s a mix of excellent music in a cross genre style, image data and a corker of a dub track. Our kind of radio show!

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-056

What? The sun is shining again?

Posted on March 8, 2020 by onedeckpete

A massive thanks to all at the Thompson and Morgan gardening blog for the box of Beneficial Flower seeds containing all sorts of great stuff for bees and pollinators including cornflower, cosmos, dill, foxglove, catmint and wild poppy. After the last frost (have a look at this site here for estimated dates) we’ll be sowing them in the bed at the bottom of the garden. We’ll even mix some of the other box we got from the pound shop (nowhere as good as the T&M box but it was a quid!) the other week for added effect! Cheers again T&M, we’ll keep you posted!

Prompted by the person who said to us the other month: “Why don’t you write a blog and keep track of what you planted where and when”, yesterday we sowed a row of golden acre cabbages and a row of red salad bowl lettuce (both from the free seeds from Kitchen Garden Magazine). It may be a bit early but they are sown under glass. This bit of window was found in a skip many many moons ago and is still in use at Weeds HQ. Waste not want not!

And to celebrate the sun coming out again here’s a belter of a tune that’ll if all goes well will be getting an airing later this month on the next episode of Free Radio Skybird as part of a mix called “Radio Fanatics of the world unite”. The tune is from Yemanjo & Monarch Duo called Roma (Yemanjo remix) on Jumpsuit Records. Any record label that describes itself as a “curation project of The Polish Ambassador and his cohort of scientists, spirit animals and vibe consultants” is alright by us! May the sun shine on all day.

Music to soothe the storm

Posted on February 9, 2020 by onedeckpete

It’s been dreadful here today, the wind and rain lashed against the windows, there’s been horrible dark skies and we’ve been watching the news on the telly with stories of people who have suffered some very bad luck due to Storm Ciara. And the storm still ain’t ended yet…

https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/free-radio-skybird-february-2020-shortwave

To soothe those storm nerves, here’s a sneak preview of Free Radio Skybird that’s scheduled to be transmitted via Channel 292 on Sunday 16th February at 1400 UTC/UK on 6070 kHz shortwave including at 42 minutes in One Deck Pete‘s “Less is more” mix. There’s some new tunes from Mai, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian & Seventh Soul and Blanco. Tune in and blank out that wind and rain!

Free Radio Skybird coming to you soon…

Posted on February 1, 2020 by onedeckpete

It seems like it’s been a while since DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird was last on the shortwaves. Don’t worry, it won’t be long until the next one on Sunday 16th February at 1400 UTC/UK on 6070 kHz via Channel 292. The show will be rebroadcast on Sunday 23rd February at 1100 UTC/UK on 7440 kHz. If you haven’t got a shortwave radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on Channel 292’s site here .

The programme will feature Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory and One Deck Pete (from Weeds up to me knees) presenting the Skybird Mailbag. There’ll also be an airing of Pete’s “Less is more” that has new tunes from Mai, Mohammad-Reza Shajarian & Seventh Soul and Blanco.

Mixes from previous shows are available at our audio podcast page here. The programme will be available on DJ Frederick’s Soundcloud page a day or so before transmission date if you want to hear it in true stereo but we here prefer the show with added noises from the ionosphere. Tune in and turn on! #shortwavesnotdead #madtone #freeradioskybird

Channel 292, Where are you?

Posted on December 8, 2019 by onedeckpete

Today One Deck Pete‘s “Bouncing off the ionosphere” mix was broadcast on Free Radio Skybird in the 49 meter band on shortwave. Due to interference and unfavourable conditions there was no recording off the airwaves today so here’s the studio version for your listening pleasure. #shortwavesnotdead #shortwavesnotdead

Festive free radio fun

Posted on December 1, 2019 by onedeckpete

Next Sunday 8th December at 1700 UTC/UK will be a new transmission from DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird on 6070 kHz shortwave via Channel 292 and if you haven’t got a suitable radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on their site here. The show will be rebroadcast the week after on Sunday 15th December at 1100 UTC/UK also on 6070 kHz.

This month’s programme will feature: Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory, Steve with Indie Science Radio and our very own One Deck Pete presenting the Skybird Mailbag. Also there’ll be an airing of Pete’s “Bouncing off the ionosphere” that has new tunes from: UK DD, Koko, Maxime Tisne-Versailles, Amy Root and Ernest Freeman.

The programme will be available on DJ Frederick’s Soundcloud page a day or so before transmission date if you want to hear it in true stereo but we here prefer the show via the ionosphere. Tune in and turn on! #shortwavesnotdead #madtone #freeradioskybird

The end is nigh (sort of, until next year)

Posted on December 1, 2019 by onedeckpete

We’ve sadly not been out in the back garden for a good while mainly due to the bad weather and also been busy elsewhere (rediscovering the joy of building crystal sets, contributing to Free Radio Skybird and DIY jobs indoors). We’ve missed being out in the garden! Yesterday was cold but the sun came out after a well misty start and it gave us an opportunity to see what’s what!

The lawn we sowed after pulling up some of the rubbish 1980’s crazy paving in the August bank holiday has taken really well and it’s had a couple of cuts with a flymo and it’s looking good (above: before, during and after). The Dahlias to the left of the lawn don’t seem to have gone black yet (have we actually had a hard frost yet or are the plants getting a bit more tolerant?) but very soon we’ll be digging them up and drying them out for keeping indoors all ready for next year.

The veg bed at the bottom of the garden is looking a bit sorry for itself like an allotment that’s been forgotten about but an hour or two spent pulling up the Nasturtiums and a fork over should do the trick. The Cardoons down there that did so well this year (below) have now died down and the local Parakeets are using the dry heads as food but lo and behold there’s more greenery appearing at the bottom. Brilliant stuff, a plant and a half!And right by the house and up against next door’s extension (so getting the benefit of the heat) are the Garlic we bought back in September here (alongside some succulents and a Egyptian Walking Onion or two) stuck in the great South Suburban storage box we found in a skip up the road. Roll on spring. Please!

We’ve just had a look on the web for any mentions of London based seed swaps, free seeds, garden give-a-ways to cheer us up at this time of year, nothing as yet. But there’s news of a couple of Potato Days that are worth going to:

London Potato Fair
Sunday 9th February 2020
11.00am-2.30pm
Roots & Shoots,
Walnut Tree Walk,
Lambeth SE11 6DN
http://www.rootsandshoots.org.uk
Free Admission.

Potato Day and Seed Fair

Sunday 1st March 2020
11.00am-4.00pm

Garden Museum,
5 Lambeth Palace Road,
London SE1 7LB

http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk

Free Admission to the Potato Day.

Radio, suckers never play me

Posted on November 8, 2019 by onedeckpete

On Sunday 17th November at 1300 UTC there’s a new transmission from DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird on 6070 kHz shortwave by Channel 292 and if you haven’t got a suitable radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on their site here. The show will be rebroadcast the week after on Sunday 24th November at 1200 UTC on 7440 kHz.

This month’s programme will feature: Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory, Steve with Mini-indie radio and our very own One Deck Pete presenting the Skybird Mailbag. They will also play Pete’s “Shortwave mix and match” that has new tunes from: .ihaveaface, Jazzy System, Dabey and Leaking Shell.

The programme will be available on DJ Frederick’s Soundcloud page a day or so before transmission date if you want to hear it in true stereo but we here prefer the show via by ground wave. Tune in and turn on! #shortwavesnotdead #madtone #freeradioskybird

We don’t want no more co-channel interference

Posted on October 8, 2019 by onedeckpete

Here’s the studio recording of One Deck Pete’s “Sunspot minimum but the music’s maximum mix” which was transmitted on Free Radio Skybird on the 5th October 2019. (No recording off the airwaves this time due to poor quality signal and co-channel interference.)

Tracklistings:
Froth Whitlam – “Sheeba”
Dasya – “Tango on the Street”
Andre J Kwenda – “Umbali”
Madtone – “Diamond in the sky” first worldwide play on shortwave radio.

And if you’re longing to hear a bit of distorted audio here’s what Madtone’s “Diamond in the sky” sounded like recorded off an online SDR in Carlow, Ireland. Additional percussion thanks to co-channel interference from Radio China International and fades and noise courtesy of the E and F layers of the Ionosphere.

Saturday night’s radio today

Posted on October 3, 2019 by onedeckpete

https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/free-radio-skybird-5-october-2019

Here’s an advance on Free Radio Skybird‘s Saturday 5th October at 2200 UTC/ 2300 UK transmission on 6070 khz on shortwave if you want to hear it now and without the sounds of the ionosphere.

This month’s programme features One Deck Pete’s “Sunspot Minimum but the Music’s maximum” mix at 11.22 in, at 22.01 Justin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory which is an excellent special on Delia Derbyshire (cheers also to Justin to pointing us to this great Delia Derbyshire resource here), a rerun of a Numbers Stations special at 34.47 featuring Akin Fernandez and Simon Mason and at 42.35 One Deck Pete again with the Skybird Mailbag.

“Solar minimum but the music’s maximum” mix has tunes from: Froth Whitlam, Dasya, Andre J Kwenda and a worldwide exclusive from Madtone with Diamond in the sky.

Big thanks to DJ Frederick for getting us involved in the Skybird project and a big shout to everyone else involved (Justin & Steve). Tune in and drop out (now or later)! #Shortwavesnotdead #Freeradioskybird

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

Tag Archives: Free Radio Skybird