Radio Skywave International Archives - Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive

Radio Skywave International was a shortwave station that broadcast from Baldoyle in northeast Dublin on Sunday mornings from 1985 to 1988. Skywave was one of many hobby shortwave stations broadcasting from Ireland during the pirate era. It was heard on 6260 kHz in the 48-metre band for the first two years or so and later moved to 6850 kHz.

These recordings were made on Sunday 1^st December 1985. The first hour above runs from 1100-1200 and is an edition of the Free Radio Programme presented by Dominic Dillon and Fergal. The show includes historical recordings including Radio Leinster on its final day, 19^th May 1983, a Christmas Day pantomime from Sunshine Radio (undated but possibly 1984) and Radio Dublin from Christmas Day 1984. There are the usual features on the medium wave, FM and shortwave bands. Free radio news includes mention of a test broadcast by Skywave later in the month on 7475 kHz. The address of PO Box 1686, Dublin 1 is given and there is a promo for Anoraks Ireland.

Sunday shows on Radio Skywave International — Original cassette from Anoraks Ireland Collection.

The second hour below consists of the Mailbag Show presented by station operator Michael Caine (Hegarty) from 1200-1300. He reads out letters and reception reports from Sweden, England and several from East Germany. There are more promos for Anoraks Ireland and Wavelength magazine.

Mailbag show from 1200.

Radio Skywave International began broadcasting on 29^th July 1985 and continued intermittently on Sunday mornings until 12^th June 1988. Both recordings are studio copies and are from the Anoraks Ireland Tapes Collection, donated to us by Paul Davidson. Radio Skywave International itself donated a large collection of recordings to Pirate.ie.

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Full recording: Radio Skywave International

We are processing hundreds of hours of recordings made by Radio Skywave International on an ongoing basis, and the Skywave Tapes Collection is one of the largest donations made to Pirate.ie.

Today we feature Radio Skywave International itself, as part of a mini-series this week on shortwave pirates of the 1980s. Like the many Irish shortwave pirates, Skywave was a part-time operation, usually on air on Sunday mornings. the first broadcast on was 28^th July 1985 on 6260 kHz and they were first logged by Anoraks UK on August 11^th. The address was 58 Seagrange Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13 and later and later PO Box 1686, Dublin 1.

Skywave broadcast almost every Sunday for the rest on 1985 on 6260 kHz and into 1986. There were occasional forays onto other shortwave frequencies. On 12^th October 1986 the station was noticed relaying the religious programme Good News Radio on 6261 kHz which appeared to become part of their regular Sunday schedule from then on. Skywave seemed to take a break for a few weeks around April 1987 and was not logged until 17^th May 1987 when noted on a new frequency of 6850 kHz.

An Anoraks UK report of 31^st May 1987 included a letter from station operator Michael Caine (Hegarty) stating that shortwave was being suspended in order to concentrate on an FM station called Downtown Radio. It had a 50-watt transmitter operating on 88 MHz and aimed to be a community station serving Dublin’s north inner city. There was another operation called the Irish Radio Relay Service that carried mostly an English pirate called Falcon Radio (which also used the PO Box in Dublin). This mainly used 6850 kHz, but Skywave appeared there on 23^rd August 1987 and became regular towards the end of the year. The station continued into 1988 but was not logged every week. The final logging was on 6850 kHz on 12^th June 1988. We thank Ian Biggar from compiling this station history.

This recording is from 6260 kHz from 1045-1200 on 2^nd November 1986 and features Dominic Dillon on air, who beings his programme with the Radio Dublin theme song. For more information about the shortwave pirates see the DX Archive and Pirate Memories websites.