Do you hear it on the weekends or is only a station that operates during the weekends? A few of them broadcast from ships, such as Rev. Weve now covered the who, what, where, when, and how of pirate huntingbut what about why? Last updated: December 2022 We usually go with the police just for our protection and also for the protection of the occupants inside the residence. Now all those things have one thing in common. Thank you! comment. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And so they said well because we were here before it was colonized our federal laws don't apply to us. Pirate radio guru Andrew Yoder started his own pirate blog last year, and has already began populating it with regular updates, QSLs, and recordings. And so we need to make sure that we stop the importation of this equipment, we stop the marketing of these illegal transmitters. They lose advertisers because of it, they lose coverage area because of it, and it all comes down to dollars and cents. Marshals actually seize it. And it was good media coverage, too. Chasing pirates has also increased my technical know-how. They spent the fees to get the license. Though Channel Z was broadcasting in AM, as many do, its best to hunt pirates with an SSB-capable portable. Additionally, youll find contact information for QSL requests and mail-drop addresses as well. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. Tracking a Pirate Radio Station The Modern Rogue Discovering Secret "Numbers Stations" The Modern Rogue Detecting a Wire and Hidden Spy Cams The Most Notorious TV Hijack of All Time Rodney P -. Some of those, you know, if you tune your dial and find some spaces where there is some dead air, well those are intentionally put there in order so that stations don't cause interference to each other. Everyone should agree that pirate radio stations - by any definition - are completely illegal. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So this equipment helps us track us down. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Got you. Having that exposure helped boost the careers of scores of British bands whose music eventually made it to America. I was glad to be here, it was a great opportunity. We have had meetings with broadcast associations where we went a room with other broadcasters and that's a very big concern of them, the financial end of it. So what is pirate radio? Jason Scott Archivist. The SWLing Post now participates in two affiliate advertising programs with two large retailers that still sell shortwave radios, the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the eBay Partnership, designed to provide a means for sites like ours to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to these retailers of radio products. Ive hunted pirates with a range of such radios, among them the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, the Grundig G3, the Grundig G5, the Tecsun PL-600 and PL-660, and even the new Tecsun PL-880. Now, of course, my favorite thing that I want to ask you is what are some fun examples, maybe not fun, but interesting examples of cases that you have closed where maybe the circumstances were a bit bizarre or interesting that might help a listener understand just how weird some of this stuff can get and just how interesting some of these operations can be. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Probably just workload is another challenge in addition to folks moving the antennas around or taking them down during the day or only operating on weeknights and weekends, as you have said, which forces agents to work overtime. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, in those dense urban areas because the FM band is already pretty clogged up with legitimate stations that might be one of the reasons that people throw up their hands and say, well, I guess I'm just do an illegal station because I am frustrated by the legal process for getting a station, but that is not a justification in any sense of the word. Created on. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we talked a little bit about why this is a problem. Here's a test shot without the line or antenna attached. More areas, more just the urban areas. David Goren, a veteran radio producer who's created programming for National Public Radio, has spent years studying pirate broadcasters. The original 60s pirate station, playing fresh pop / rock music to Britain's young masses from a boat in the North Sea, floating in international waters four and a half miles off the Essex coastline. A new, raw, grassroots kind of pirate radio exploded from 1992 onwards. The British government, though, didn't appreciate what Radio Caroline and other pirate broadcasters were doing. We have pirate radio there, too, not as bad as we did in New York. I was still a teenager. MR. DOMBROWSKI: There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And then just out of those four offices you then have to dispatch agents to 20 different States, so it's quite a big chunk of the country in terms of population. So we eventually went to the courts and fought. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. Pirate stations want listeners to discover them, so they broadcast in various "watering holes." "He created Radio Caroline operating in that way and the station was at once called a 'pirate,'" Moore says. They can be highly entertaining or thought-provoking, and thus are, themselves, a unique art form. North American Pirate Radio Frequencies By far the most active ranges in North America are 43 meters (6800-7000 kHz), 46 meters (6200-6400 kHz) and 73 meters (4000-4200 kHz), with some activity in the 60 meter band (4700-5300 kHz) as well. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well there was a version of the bill that passed the House first and now there is a similar bill being considered by Senate. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it may not start to cause interference as soon as you open up and out of the box and operate it, but over time with the heating up of the electronics inside it starts to malfunction and cause what we call spurius emissions where signals are operating outside your intended band and cause interference to other radio services. If you live in a geographic hotbed of pirate activity (again, eastern/central North America and Europe) you might find a portable radio ample for hearing a number of pirates. That would be inappropriate, particularly given my employer, but is it hard for the average listener, particularly in a dense metro area, you're dialing your car radio or your home radio to even know the difference? There was an operator named Stephen Dunifer. They also spent the regulatory fees that they have to, you know, spend I think yearly, and so they have an investment in their service and these unlicensed stations NP that. Collection Info. This is likely due to the early sunsets and cold winter nights of the northern hemisphere that tend to keep people indoors, which in turn encourages pirates to hit the air. In fact, it's possibly more widespread than it was in the 1960s, even in an age when streaming internet services such as Spotify and Pandora put the equivalent of a jukebox in the pocket of everyone with a smartphone. Click here to view a list of all sponsors. He then obtained another ship, a German trawler called the Ross Revenge, which continued to host the station until it ran aground along the British coast in 1991. URL Here: https://dkng.co/rogue-----For entertainment purposes only. Want to buy me a cup of coffee? MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, well just in the FM band particularly, if we just let everybody operate where they want it just creates chaos, and that's always been our argument that it creates chaos it the spectrum. Back in the 1980s, before the Internet and its online bulletin boards, I thought finding pirates was truly a huntrandom and altogether unpredictable. You might need that sensitivity and an outdoor antenna to pull these relatively low-powered signals from the ether. For many of the people in those communities, who may not be able to afford a computer or a smartphone and a broadband connection, pirate radio is an affordable medium. PIRATES RADIO NETWORK AFFILIATES Pennsylvania PITTSBURGH: KDKA-FM 93.7 Altoona: WVAM-AM 1430 Ambridge: WMBA-AM 1460 Beaver Falls: WBVP-AM 1230 Bradford: WESB-AM 1490 Butler: WISR-AM 680 Enter ZIP code or city, state as well. But the easiest way to file a complaint is go online. He has taken, you know, money from under the table to allow the station to operate from the rooftop without the property owner's knowledge. "One reason I've found as to why people are still using pirate radio is that these communities have very strong cultural and historic connections to radio," Goren explains. To have a radio station here helps to establish the station's operator as an important source of information and influence in the community.". So it's not the -- In terms of size wise for mileage it's the smallest region, but it's the most populated. If we can't get in touch with the property owner we try to use a locksmith and if we can't get the locksmith then the door comes breaking down and then we try to secure it before we leave. PROMAX designs several monitoring and spectrum surveillance systems. We would also have to create a database for the public access. MR. DOMBROWSKI: The majority of the people do not give us truthful information and so our agents have to be trained to do interviews to know when people are telling the truth or not and it may just require keep asking the right questions and keeping after it. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Do the pilots only complain if it's a song that they don't like? Yes, they come with weapons. On Easter Sunday in 1964, the station went on the air, playing the Rolling Stones' single "It's All Over Now" as its first song. Well, I can't say exactly what it is, but, yes, they're --. We get them in Virginia, we get them out in Illinois, even just remote areas of West Virginia they pop up. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. But if we sign it into law we would have some additional resources, first increasing the fines. Now many listeners as you know have the experience of tuning their dial and there appear to be vacant channels you have said that one of the reasons for that is to guard against interference, but someone listening might say well why do we care, right. It helps to show that -- That's a deterrent in itself right there when you get media coverage. It's eminently cheaper to purchase or build an unlicensed radio station than it is to set up a robust streaming channel online, especially if you're looking to cover a local area. So we typed up this -- They showed me a license and it was something typed up on the computer that said we're licensed by their statutes of the Moors people and so they felt that they have a right to operate. Indeed, this past November, I listened to the pirate Channel Z while sitting in my truck; I was only using a Tecsun PL-660 with the antenna extended out of my opened drivers-side window. Euro pirates typically broadcast in the 48 meter band (6,200 6,450 kHz), but the HF Underground notes that you will also hear Euro pirates on the 75 meter band between 3,900-4,000 kHz, on the 19 meter band (15,000-15,100 kHz and 15,700-15,900 kHz), and even on the 13 meter band (21,000-25,000 kHz). Pirate radio broadcasting on shortwave radio in North America is mostly done in a frequency range just below the 40 meter amateur radio band, from about 6815 kHz to 6970 kHz. We do a field strength measurement to see if their power exceeds that threshold and if they meet the Part 15 requirements or not. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It's not working properly and that's why it's going into air traffic control. If you have information about a pirate radio station, you can notify the FCC by calling 888-CALLFCC or filing a complaint online at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov. So --. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It is. Here's a 12-minute recording of Radio Caroline DJ Tony Blackburn's show in 1965, which includes both a breakfast cereal commercial and the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" and "For Your Love" by the Yardbirds: Because the station had to fill so much airtime DJs had to come up with 2,500 tracks to play each week Radio Caroline helped foster what Moore calls "an explosion of new artists and bands who may have started recording conventional pop music, but who then expanded their musical abilities. . They came and seized all of my equipment. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Ten times as much, that's big, yes. Again, I turned to Andrew Yoder for insight about pirate radio activity in the rest of the world; his reply: Im always amazed at how few areas in the world have pirates that are connected to any scene. Where the "modern" history of pirate radio seems to begin, though, is in the 1960s when pirate radio operators would get on the air to spread their music to a wider audience. A lot of stations conceal their antennas, they hide behind things, they take the antennas down during they day, so they try avoid detection. Radio plays such an important role when you talk about hurricanes striking or other natural disasters, people turn to their local broadcast, including radio for information, and to have that be interfered with is a public safety concern let alone the FAA issues which are very serious. While this reality is not surprising, we . Finding Shortwave Stations and Broadcasts. The BBC played catch-up launching Radio One and recruiting the same pirates for their roster. The Pirates flagship radio station, SportsRadio 93.7 THE FAN, will air extended local pre-game and post-game coverage before and after every broadcast. Many are confused by the term pirate radio, otherwise known as free radio. Either term is sufficient, and some stations prefer one designation or the other. These include Amateur Radio Newsline, a weekly audio news [] Not all the illegal stations are pirate stations! MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Welcome to "More Than 7 Dirty Words," the official FCC podcast. Unlike the rock 'n' roll hipsters of 1960s British pirate radio, who aimed at a mass audience, most of Brooklyn's unlicensed broadcasters seem to be immigrants and members of ethnic and religious minorities trying to reach their own groups and neighborhoods. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We only waited 15 minutes into the episode to get to the fun part so I hope you are listening. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. This radio in a single case is also capable of re-broadcasting any audio source. We take it all. The station is capable of running off of 13.8/28 volts DC battery, which can even be charged with solar power. He's the station manager for today's legal, land-based version of Radio Caroline, which obtained a license to broadcast at 648 Khz on the AM band in 2017, but still strives to preserve the rebellious spirit of the original operation. Launched just five months ago, Internet Archive's Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications has expanded to more than 61,000 items related to amateur radio, shortwave listening, and related communications. Do we have a right under the first amendment to speak via a radio station even if it is unlicensed by the FCC and is there potentially a case that can kind of exemplify why pirate radio is not protected under the First Amendment? There was a case that I worked back in Philly back in the day --. But it worked out great, it was a great career in the media bureau. We are not trying to teach you to do something illegal, we are trying to prevent you from doing something illegal, so you can stop your Google search. The FRW is an email-only newsletter devoted to the hobby of pirate radio listening, and is distributed free to those who contribute. As soon as there were laws on the books, there were pirate radio stations on the air. While the magic of shortwave radio can transport a small signal vast distances, to hear pirates regularly and clearly, some precision is required. I keep a copy handy as it helps me identify stations and better understand their format. The Radio Informer - The latest info on the world of radio including:world,shortwave . It had a 20-mile range. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: My guest has been David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. Has that happened? Interestingly, the antenna was so high up on the tower we had to bring a bucket truck in from a fire station and raise it --. To determine the wavelength of your signal in inches, divide 11811 by your transmitter's frequency in megahertz (MHz). And they also would be able to contact us and find out where the complaint is in the queue and, you know, what's going on with the complaint and have we investigated it yet. Its much better, of course, if you have a table-top receiver, software-defined radio, or ham radio transceiver with a general coverage receiver hooked up to a resonant outdoor antennaespecially if you live outside Europe and North America. David, thanks so much for joining. Let's say they are listening, they think something is suspicious they get a tip, they see something weird in their building, what can they do to help you and the FCC tackle this problem? So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? But by the 1960s, the postwar baby boom filled the U.K. with millions of teenagers who were eager to hear the rock 'n' roll records that the BBC declined to play. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, that's probably why they are complaining, right? bclc lotto app not working; signs your internship will turn into a job; mary suehr schmitz. "I spoke with a pastor of a church in the community which had a station and the antenna was taken down by the FCC," Goren says. "Private radio was prohibited and only the British Broadcasting Corporation, which was part of the political establishment, sent radio to the British people with the remit to be morally uplifting, informative and educational," Moore says. Before we talk about where to hunt pirates, however, we need to talk about the necessary equipmenti.e., your radio and antenna. So we would rather take one single complaint from a broadcast licensee saying, hey, I've gotten 50 listener complaints in this area, here is where we are hearing it, do a little leg work yourself and verify that it's an unlicensed station, and then we can work with them in getting the station off the air. Unlike trying to locate China Radio International, Radio Australia, or the BBC World Service, hunting pirates requires a decent-quality radio and antenna. Ex-Beatle George Harrison was sufficiently appreciative of Radio Caroline's mission that he even wrote a sizable check in the early 1970s to help keep the ship in operation, according to Ray Clark's book "Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Ship That Rocked.". Sweet! Enter the dawn of pirate radio. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. Ads are what helps us bring you premium content! Addeddate 2022-03-13 23:21:58 . The FCC argued that we were here to regulate the airwaves. Now one thing I want to talk about is Part 15. It eventually regrouped and resurfaced as an internet station, which gave it a global reach. We do contact the property owner before we execute the warrant to let them know we are at the door and we don't want to break the door down but we need them there to open it. That was right when the internet really started exploding so he was able to get his message out. Thanks to e-commerce, it's also easier than ever for a would-be pirate to find the necessary equipment and have it delivered to his or her door, as FCC enforcement official David Dombrowski described in this 2019 podcast. Broadcasting at 250,000 watts, XERF was five times as powerful as the most high-powered Top 40 AM stations on the West Coast. So just keep in mind next time you read some nice hipster article about how great pirate radio is in your community, that there are serious issues at play and what the FCC is doing is really important and that's why it's so great to have you on here to share your perspective and some of your history working on this and we really just want to thank you for your service. So not only interference, but we also have issues of interference to other radio services. But most of the current American pirates are based on dry land, broadcasting from clandestine antennas on rooftops in places such as Brooklyn. We try to interview them. "These transmissions can interfere with licensed radio signals including broadcasters' sharing of vital public safety information with their communities," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. The HF Underground: http://www.hfunderground.com. VIEWS. Goren, who's been monitoring the airwaves since the law was passed, notes that on a typical day, he picks up about 26 pirate stations in Brooklyn alone. "Pirate Radio" is a period piece, set in a time when the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the Who's "My Generation" were still scandalous and controversial rather than nostalgic anthems for today's aging baby boomers. Total Views 29,573 (Older Stats) ITEMS. As Yoder goes on to explain in his introduction of the 2012 Pirate Radio Annual, pirates are often confused with radio bootleggers (who conduct unlicensed two-way conversations), clandestine stations (usually political stations), and jammers (who intentionally try to block broadcasts). That happens a lot. We hope you understand, and are grateful for your support. There were helicopters flying over and taking videos, so we got on a little TV, and that helps to go a long way when we get a little media coverage. 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