On 1 September 2013, a shortwave radio enthusiast, Thomas Witherspoon, posted a blog entry on The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. He reported that on the previous evening, Chris Smolinski, an admin of HF Underground forums, discovered a new shortwave pirate radio station: BOCHF (Boards of Canada HF Pirate Radio).

First Broadcast

BOCHF's first broadcast began on 30 August 2013 at 23:10 UTC on 6,925kHz USB. Witherspoon recounts his experience in the blog post, reproduced below:

Friday night (30 August 2013), I came across a new shortwave pirate radio station: BOCHF. BOCHF started broadcasting around 23:10 UTC on 6,925 kHz USB, and after about a twenty-five minute set, took a five minute break, then returned with a forty-two minute set, ending with an SSTV QSL. The signal, as you can hear below, is fairly strong, but interference was also strong at times; especially from "SSB pescadores" (fishermen) and the usual summer static crashes.

The entire mix consisted of Boards of Canada music from Tomorrow's Harvest. There were no vocal ID's, but there were messages in CW (Morse code) which clearly identifies this pirate as BOCHF. The artists Boards of Canada have always had an affinity with shortwave radio, so I find a shortwave pirate station playing their music to be an appropriate tribute. Due to sound card problems, I was unable to decode the SSTV QSL, but thankfully a great copy was posted on HF Underground's pirate radio forum (see above) by forum contributor, Chris Smolinski.

The station's digital QSL card is a grainy image of the Tomorrow's Harvest album, with superimposed Spanish words, "cosecha transmissiones [sic]" ("harvest transmissions") which consistently align with the themes of BoC's marketing of the album. It is also worthy to note that "SSB pescadores" is active, primarily Spanish-speaking, freeband radio traffic and fishing fleets operating on SSB (Single Sideband) frequencies between 6-8 MHz. The use of a radio frequency for fishermen could be a clever reference to Jesus and His apostles, the "Fisher of Men", another biblical reference related to Tomorrow's Harvest.

Chris Smolinski, discusses the BOCHF discovery with other members on the HF Underground forums pages below, along with some of the translated Morse Code (forum messages reproduced as posted):

Topic: BOCHF 6925 USB 2310 UTC 30 Aug 2013

ChrisSmolinski: Came on with what could have been PSK125, music now. Good signal, S8. Closed with CW, perhaps something close to GET A DRINK GET NITE B BACK SHORTLY 4 BRK BOCHF BOCHF BOCHF BOCHF. So I am naming this station BOCHF. The op can correct me if I am wrong :-)

rdla4: Good into GA at 2316 UTC, kind of a new age sounding piece of music. Signal is topping S8 here.

hsmith77: "White Cyclosa " Boards of Canada at 2318 Nice S5/7 signal "JacQuard Cowboy " " " at 2322 off2335 after CW. No Id Heard . QSL appreciated Station back at 2342 Playing music by Boards of Canada . Slight interf. from pesties S5/7

LighthouseOhio: Decent / fair into NE Ohio. Lots of noise. New age music, No IDs heard thus far in the first 15+ minutes. Became Much stronger later on. At 0005 fairly clean signal with a lot less atmospheric noise, etc.

ChrisLobdell: 2356 "Split Your Infinities" by Boards Of Canada 0000 "Nothing Is Real" by Boards Of Canada S-9 +10 here 0006 "Sundown" by Boards Of Canada 0008 "New Seeds" by Boards Of Canada 0012 "Come To Dust" Boards Of Canada

ID might stand for Boards Of Canada HF? !

Beerus Maximus: Extremely heavy interference from the Azores peskie net. Nice signal, but destroyed by peskie QSO. Ops: please consider operations off of 6925 KHz, which is completely 0wned by the Azores peskies and render most stations on 6925 KHz inaudible.

RCCI: 00:06 Just tuned in - Signal strength about 2-3 - Terrible static crashes here from a storm which passed about 40 minutes ago. 00:11 can hear some music in background but it has odd sounding pitches. Couldn't identify to save my life…

Mentholyptus: Good S7-S9 here, nice signal 2353, tune in progress 2355, atmospheric tune 0000, atmospheric tune ---peskies starting to act up briefly--- 0006, atmospheric tune 0008, pulse-y tune 0013, atmospheric tune w guitar 0021, SSTV tones 0022, ---off--- Thanks for the k00l tunes!

hammarhead: S9 into NE Ohio tonight with some static to go along. Funky spacey music format that I would guess to be a new age format. Thanks for the show!. - CW ID as BOCHF RADIO at 00:19 UTC

Dr. Strangelove: Steady S7 signal, sounding good. Interesting music, Thanks for the show!

Sealord: 6925 USB Good to decent signal here with fading conditions. 00:20z new age music w/someone sending morse as well 00:21z Scottie 2 SSTV: 00:22z Off

Audio (23:41z-00:23z): [404 Not Found]

Audio (23:11z-23:36z): [404 Not Found]

Thanks BOCHF Radio!

ChrisSmolinski: I wrote up a short blog entry about the station: [404 not found]

hammarhead: The recording was great, I copied the last part I missed last night when I couldn't find a pen: "We plant the new seeds but forget the old a lesson learned the seeds of the dead are watching reach for the dead the old, the fading save them from the forgotten sew [sic] the harvest"

Second Broadcast

The next day, on 1 September 2013, BOCHF transmits again. Witherspoon reports again:

Again this morning (1 September 2013) at 2:20 UTC-and last night, during a very active night of pirate radio activity-BOCHF crept onto the airwaves, this time on 6,920 kHz USB. Yesterday, BOCHF played the Boards of Canada album Tomorrow's Harvest; this morning, they played their album In a Beautiful Place out in the Country. And how did it sound? Combining the music of the Boards of Canada with the sonic texture of the shortwave ether is a winning combination, in my opinion. But don't take my word for it: take a listen yourself.

BOCHF also sent me this hi-resolution QSL card after hearing the off-air recordings.

Many thanks, BOCHF!

The SSTV QSL of broadcast 2 is album artwork from In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country with interesting verbiage:

6920kHz - 0220z - from the Causeway

1/9/2013 - remember waco

Transmitting at 6925kHz and 6920kHz or 6.9mHz could be a nod to 1969, Sixtyniner, June 9th, and many other "69" references in BoC's discography. The Causeway is a reference to "Jacquard Causeway" in Tomorrow's Harvest. Remembering Waco points to the Federal raid on the Branch Davidians in 1993, as well as numerous samples and references In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, Geogaddi and elsewhere in BoC's music catalog.

Current Status

After these two transmissions, BOCHF goes offline without a trace. It is unknown if Boards of Canada themselves or someone from the Hexagon Sun Collective broadcast these two pirate radio transmissions. However, the timing in 2013, the branding and the verbiage of the SSTV QSL cards, plus the subtle nods to BoC's discography, make it plausible that these are legitimate Boards of Canada events.

Recordings

Recordings of the BOCHF Pirate Broadcasts can be found at Archive.org

See Also

• Tomorrow's Harvest
• Tomorrow's Harvest Viral Marketing
• In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
• Discography
• Hexagon Sun

External Links

• Recordings of the BOCHF Pirate Broadcasts (archive.org)
• HF Underground forums (Shortwave Pirate Radio in North America and around the world)
• The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive (Shortwave radio recordings and blog)
• Tomorrow's Harvest Pirate Radio Station (twoism.org)
• Shortwave radio (wikipedia)
• SSTV (wikipedia)
• QSL (wikipedia)
• Morse code (wikipedia)
• SSB (wikipedia)