KMUD
KMUD is one of the few pirate radio stations broadcasting from the west coast of the USA. They have been heard recently on 4060 kHz. KMUD is rumored to broadcast from the county of Inyo, in the desert of eastern California. They were active in the early 00s. However the station went on hiatus after receiving a warning from an FCC agent in the early 2000s. (Reports differ on the date, some mentioning November 2001, others specifying December 16, 2002.)
According to a 2010 FRN discussion regarding the November 2001 incident involving the FCC, KMUD was not on-air during the agent's daytime visit and only a warning was given. In an earlier discussion the date of the FCC warning was given as December 16, 2002.
In discussions of this incident it was noted that photographs of the station setup and location - posted to an operator's website - may have assisted the FCC field agent in discovering the station location and operator:
Via the Internet Archive...
[Before 91.1 KMUD (FM) Garberville (Humboldt County) Calif. went on with a tiny 110 watts around 1991 (I enjoyed them from Westport Union Landing SP in August 1992 whilst camping in a camper-van) - KMUD on shortwave began from a houseboat in southern Marin County. Later, the ops. changed and the location of KMUD-sw changed to a north Marin location and later into the Mojave Desert, but KMUD-sw is rarely heard today, however there is now a really cool drama play in the UK and Europe remembering the infamous KMUD Mojave Phone Broadcast in the Millennial Year of 2000...]
On the weekend of March 24th to the 26th of 2000, Three intrepid radio-enthusiasts ventured into the Mojave National Preserve and set-up a 20-watt shortwave transmitter (AM) - an old TCS-13 built in 1944, along with a huge battery and an inverter, as well as an end-fed antenna wire.
The three guys at KMUD-shortwave (Ed, Kirk, and Steve) received an ongoing barrage of telephone calls, as the world-famous and remote Mojave Phone Booth constantly rang with callers from around the World to the now defunct telephone number +1 (760) 733-9969.
One of the KMUD dudes (Ed) actually made it onto the Art Bell Show the first evening of their arrival to the Booth, and announced to listeners the upcoming pirate-radio "live-call-in" broadcast they were preparing to do the next evening.
These recordings were made live, before and during the broadcasts, and there are a few recordings of the segment of the Art Bell Show that Ed called into.
You may have seen many internet postings, photos, and have seen a movie about this remote phone booth, but this was the real-deal - KMUD-shortwave.
As this telephone installation employed very lengthy, above-ground telephone steel wires (old-style), it had a tendency to pick-up Earth's "natural VLF radio" signals - we actually heard very faint "whistlers" and lightning-static during the weekend we were there!
You will also be able to hear clips of KMUD-shortwave as heard in two locations in Arizona, by two different DXers on 43M (AM) and 73m (AM/SSB).
Also are recordings of those p-hifer (A1A) desert-beacons from various locations.
