The plot is based loosely on the saga of an actual former pirate station, Radio Caroline, that was founded by an offbeat Irish entrepreneur named Ronan O'Rahilly, the inspiration for the character portrayed by Bill Nighy. They label the equipment as something else. Andrew Yoder, author and publisher of the 2012 Pirate Radio Annual, defines pirate radio as: [A]ny unlicensed hobby broadcast operation that is using more power than the legal limit.. You have somebody that puts a station on the air and then what that person does is he leases air time for his station for other DJs and they come in and so he is getting a kickback from the DJs and he is getting advertising revenue. Created on. 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. 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. I mean stream --. So we have a team here in the Enforcement Bureau that does that, our Spectrum Enforcement Division. * Explains how to buy and use equipment to listen to pirate stations. In addition to this 2019 BBC documentary, Goren also has created the Pirate Radio Map, which documents pirate radio stations in Brooklyn and even includes brief samples from their broadcasts. Ive also been encouraged by pirates to hone my weak-signal DXing using exalted carrier reception (ECR)zero-beating an AM signal in SSBin an attempt to hear weak AM pirate stations. But what hast made the problem really expand is the equipment is readily available with the internet now. To prove my point, here are some MP3 recordings of some of my favorite recent pirate radio stations/broadcasts: Though pirates can be located anywhere on the planet, and therefore can broadcast, hypothetically, anywhere on the radio dial, patterns are actually fairly predictable in order to draw a listening audience. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, just 20. Give us a little of your background. Pirate Radio goes on the air in Los Angeles by "taking over" K-Lite 100 (KIQQ). 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.". It will also help to have some sort of adjustable bandwidth filter (wide/narrow). 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. There is always a building manager they call the supra and he has a shop down in the basement and a lot of times we find the equipment down in his shop. 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. I know out on the West Coast in California we have more significant numbers than other areas, so that probably would be one of the five markets identified, maybe the L.A. area would probably be another market that we would look at. The price of the equipment is $2,960.51. It helps to show that -- That's a deterrent in itself right there when you get media coverage. Collection Info. I am a Philadelphia native, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I graduated Temple University and my first job was the FCC right out of college and interestingly --. Yoder actually addresses this apparent restriction, to some degree, in the 2013 Pirate Radio Annual, which has only just been released. 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. 1. We get them in Virginia, we get them out in Illinois, even just remote areas of West Virginia they pop up. 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. 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. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. Alan Roes Music Programmes on Shortwave, List of QRP General Coverage Amateur Radio Transceivers, List of VHF/UHF Multimode Amateur Radio Transceivers, How To Tune In Pirate Radio Broadcasts on Shortwave, https://swling.com/blog/category/pirate-radio/, LRA 36 (Arcangel San Gabriel, Antarctica) Test Broadcasts on March 1st and 4th, 2023, Radio Waves: AM Buzzkill, AM FEMA Push, AM Devitalization, and RFI-Blocking Chips, Bob Zanottis presentation to the Fairlawn Amateur Radio Club (Part 2), Radio Waves: The DLARC, NASA Citizen Science, PopShopRadio DRM to Europe, Hackers Disrupt Russian Radio, and Afghan Radio Closures, LRA 36 (Arcangel San Gabriel, Antarctica) Test Broadcast Today at 20:00 UTC. But if you are buying something off of the dark web or whatever and it's coming into the U.S. you don't know, and when we talked before the show you mentioned that a lot of times with these FAA complaints it's a malfunctioning transmitter. So when we finally are able to pick up the signal in our car we then drive in the area in kind of a circle around the source and we plot lines, we call them lines of bearing on a map, and where they intersect is where this transmission source is originating. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. The antenna is not where the people are necessarily or where the rest of the equipment is. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. 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). We'd like to contact you. 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. Additionally, pirate broadcasters don't have to deal with all the legal complexities of setting up and running a streaming internet service, such as writing terms of service or meeting contractual obligations, he notes. Sweet! Marshal Service actually and that allows us to go in with the U.S. "He convinced me to not stay on as Bond I'd be in danger of becoming part of the Establishment," Lazenby wrote on in an Instagram tribute after O'Rahilly's death in April 2020, noting that he had no regrets about taking that advice. "He created Radio Caroline operating in that way and the station was at once called a 'pirate,'" Moore says. Unlicensed radio broadcasters have been around practically since governments started trying to control and regulate the airwaves. I was glad to be here, it was a great opportunity. What's more, pirate radio stations gave us access to some of the most pivotal figures in UK music . Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. "In Haiti during the Duvalier regime, people depended on radio to get news from independent sources off the island. We take it all. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. Has it evolved over the years? Back in the 1980s, before the Internet and its online bulletin boards, I thought finding pirates was truly a huntrandom and altogether unpredictable. Having that exposure helped boost the careers of scores of British bands whose music eventually made it to America. No, not the Pirates of the Caribbean or East Africawe're talking about pirate radio. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. Before we talk about where to hunt pirates, however, we need to talk about the necessary equipmenti.e., your radio and antenna. Listening to Other Stations: Click on the tuning arrows ( TUNE >) to listen to stations up and down the dial. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It's not working properly and that's why it's going into air traffic control. So, the F. 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. 3. Of course, it's called the PIRATE Act, and that stands for Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act. They can be highly entertaining or thought-provoking, and thus are, themselves, a unique art form. Now stop your Googling right now because that is illegal, right? This includes the FM, AM and shortwave radio bands. "How Pirate Radio Rocked the 1960s Airwaves and Still Exists Today" MR. DOMBROWSKI: You know, that's hard to say. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, yes. So those are some of the challenges that you all have to tackle in taking on this important enforcement function. . It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360 interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning . A lot of times you can tell by the audio quality. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: They could stream it just like this podcast we're doing. Right now it is $10,000 per day per occurrence. Marshals went in with us and we seized the equipment. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So the complainant needs to tell us where they hear the station. Broadcasting at 250,000 watts, XERF was five times as powerful as the most high-powered Top 40 AM stations on the West Coast. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So all that good equipment just gets recycled. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, and it's also I assume illegal for these advertisers to be advertising on pirate stations, they just might not know that they are pirates. Buy me a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/ringwaymanchester Email: ringwaymanchester@mail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m3hhyofficial Facebook:. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. Pirates are always active during holidays, too, most especially on Halloween (31st of October), which seems to be pirates favorite holiday. I was still a teenager. If we get that information we have a vehicle, it's called a direction-finding vehicle and it has specialized equipment in it. It's covert surveillance equipment. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So when it comes to local law enforcement are they generally uninterested in taking this on or, you know, because you mentioned federal agents are often involved, it's federal courts, U.S. 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 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. It takes a lot of time to process just one complaint and so it is distracting our agents of getting into the database and populating all the fields and calling the complainant. In the United States, the term pirate radio implies the unlicensed broadcasting use of any part of the radio spectrum that is reserved for use by governmental, public or commercial licensees by the Federal Communications Commission. MR. DOMBROWSKI: A lot of these stations are streaming at the same time so it really boggles my mind why an FM station that's unlicensed, you know, has its stream content and then also it's broadcasting over the airwaves. Recycling is good. Created on. PIRATE RADIO Once you remove the idea of pirate radio from its mythology, you. And then they said to me well here is ten jobs that you potentially could have which one is your top choice? (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). Across the country FCC officials are working to identify and take action against illegal unlicensed radio operators using frequencies allocated for legitimate radio operators that are causing interference and other issues. Meanwhile, the Ross Revenge was repaired and converted into a floating museum for tourists. Liverpool vs Wolves will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1 at 8pm. 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. But please note that we will never create a post and product link explicitly to receive a commission. Is it when you are driving in, you know, to and from work? Our agents are pretty smart on the tricks. Are we talking about U.S. marshals with machine guns kicking in doors, are we talking about politely knocking on a door and saying, hey, guys, your time is up, we found you, you know, what's the image that essentially you see when this goes down in your experience or is there kind of a spectrum of different cases, some are a little bit more intense than others? When do you hear the station? "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. While debunking myths about pirates, I can say that in my years of pirate radio listening Ive never heard a pirate intentionally jam a legal broadcaster. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. That was right when the internet really started exploding so he was able to get his message out. We try to interview them. Yes, so it's kind of like a cascade of options --. "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. Marshal Service and seize all of the equipment that is associated with the operation of a radio station, really anything physically connected to the transmitter. Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. PROMAX designs several monitoring and spectrum surveillance systems. We do let stations operate with low power transmitters but they have to comply with the technical requirements of Part 15 of our rules. These pirate stations pose a host of problems for public safety, including interference with emergency alerts and air traffic control. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So you could cause like a catastrophe if we, you know, let this continue. One of the first pirate radio operators we know of was Ronan O'Rahilly. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, well, you know, they operate in the AM band so it sounds really distorted when you are trying to listen to FM radio on an AM radio. Radio GDay came on from Australia occasionally, but no one else. If they are getting interference to a station they would like to listen what station is that, give the call sign. There is a reason that those devices operate in an unlicensed manner because they are not transmitting very far. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Sure. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: All right. 1. And that's a pretty big deterrent when you show up with police officers threatening to arrest somebody because they are operating a pirate radio station. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It is. 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, there was a case back in the 1990s, late 1990s. They are not considered an operator by investing in that. You can sign up for the newsletter by emailing any of their edittors: John Brewer ([emailprotected]), Ragnar Danskjold ([emailprotected]), Harold Frodge ([emailprotected]), Dave Turnick ([emailprotected]) or Larry Will ([emailprotected]), OK, I suppose I must also mention my own humble blog, where I continue to amass numerous pirate radio loggings and off-air recordings. Finding Shortwave Stations and Broadcasts. You know, is this a massive national problem, are there particular areas where it's a problem? And I am glad you mentioned call signs because that could be a potential suspicious signal is that pirate radio stations, because they are illegitimate by their very nature, are not doing typical radio station things like announcing their call sign at the top of the hour or doing, you know, certain regular scheduled activities, so that could be something that might mean you are listening to a pirate station. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So let's say that either a broadcaster or a listener files a complaint, what happens then, what tools do you, your colleagues in the FCC, have to go about finding a station, shutting it down, bringing people to justice? So we eventually went to the courts and fought. But O'Rahilly was undeterred, even after his ship was seized briefly by Dutch authorities. ACTIVITY. Each issue also contains a CD of sound clips from various pirates, several articles about the state of pirate radio, and other relevant info. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So what is the current state of pirate radio? For consistencys sake, I will use the term pirate radio in this article. And one of the reasons that they are causing harmful interference, in particular to the FAA operations, is because they are not tested, right. So the avenues of working with the district attorneys is a great way to get the injunctions, the court orders, for the pirate station to cease operating permanently. Its a simple technique, and although it takes some practice, will work on most any radio with a stable BFO (beat frequency oscillator). This means that by clicking on these links, a small percentage of the purchase price for goods you purchase from these sellers will help support our sites running costs. MR. DOMBROWSKI: There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. 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