Internet Relay Chat

From HFUnderground

Many pirate and other radio enthusiasts hang out on the #PirateRadio IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel. This is a place where you can chat with fellow listeners, as well as share monitoring catches in real time.

Joining the chat is fairly easy. You can use the online chat below until you get an IRC client. The Java chat requires a browser with Java enabled.

In addition to #PirateRadio you may also want to visit #WUNClub for discussions related to utility station monitoring on shortwave.

Click here to be taken to the #PirateRadio chat

There are many free and low cost IRC clients out there.

For windows, here are some IRC clients:

• HydraIRC
• Klient
• mIRC
• Trillian
• X-Chat

For the Macintosh, Snak and [colloquy.info/ Colloquy] are popular. Next, you'll need to tell your client to connect to the Zirc network, which is where the #pirateradio channel is hosted. Some clients will already have the addresses for the Zirc servers built in. If so, select one of them. If not, you'll need to add one or more.

irc.starchat.net is a good default server to use.

Next, have your client connect to the #pirateradio channel. Once you're there, feel free to introduce yourself if you're new to the channel.

There are usually a few dozen people connected to the channel at one time, but not everyone may be around, lots of folks keep connected to the channel 24 hours a day, and maybe away from the computer (or sleeping!). The bulk of the users are from Europe and the USA, but there are users from other parts of the world as well

You probably want to register your nickname. To do this, type:

/msg nickserv register 

Where is the password for your nick you wish to use (to prevent others from using it) and is your email address. You'll get a confirmation email from ZIRC you will need to reply to. Use:

/msg nickserv help commands

to see what else you can do with nickserv.