Borderhunter Radio is one of the strongest Euro Pirates Ive ever heard. 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. The important thing here is that you invest in a receiver with a respectable degree of sensitivity and selectivity. Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. So that is quite a large area. 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. And so he brought this argument up when we tried to get his station off the air by using the court proceedings and he fought that we were violating his First Amendment rights. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And so they said well because we were here before it was colonized our federal laws don't apply to us. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: That's some great local cooperation right there. Now if you go that menu there are several options of different radio services. So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? Violators faced two years of imprisonment and fines. I will put in the show notes a link to the FCC complaint page and the phone number if you would like to get involved. Join. I was hired into an engineering training program down in Norfolk, Virginia, where we got classroom orientation on all the different radio services and the bureaus and offices for the FCC. If you've been binge-watching movies lately, you may have come across "Pirate Radio." They can be just talk radio stations, they could be religious broadcasters, or they could be full-fledged stations that have a staffing of 20 people that make commercials, that create the jingles for their station ID, and the ones that have more money and the money advertisers are the ones that are very hard to distinguish. The U.S. has had its share of pirate broadcasters over the years as well. Like me, you might just get hooked! Hover over one of the three pirate radio neighborhood zones (the center zone has the most stations) and click for a list of stations that broadcast to those areas. To determine the wavelength of your signal in inches, divide 11811 by your transmitter's frequency in megahertz (MHz). But please note that we will never create a post and product link explicitly to receive a commission. I am Evan Swarztrauber. 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? In 1967, Parliament enacted the Marine Broadcasting Offenses Act, which made offshore broadcasts from ships illegal, on the pretext that their broadcast interfered with marine weather radio and distress signals, as this contemporaneous New York Times account notes. If you click on "radio" you'll come to a page where you can input your address and your phone number and email and a description of like what, you know, what you are experiencing. That would allow us to increase the fine to $100,000. MR. DOMBROWSKI: You know, that's hard to say. Evan is joined by David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. 19. r/HamRadio. Loggings are in real time and there are very fewif anyoff-topic posts. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It's not, you know, and we didn't talk about, there are other legal ways to go about it. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Well at least you are recycling. 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. 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. We want them to be as descriptive as possible. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? What can the average person do? This metal-focused platform is available entirely online, so you can access the music from a lot of different locations, even though the station is based in San Francisco. 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. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. "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. Radio Caroline founder Ronan O'Rahilly had another claim to fame, in that he influenced actor George Lazenby to give up the role of James Bond after playing in just one film, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," in 1969. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Pirate radio. A new, raw, grassroots kind of pirate radio exploded from 1992 onwards. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So the complainant needs to tell us where they hear the station. Collection Info. Hobby Broadcasting Blog: http://hobbybroadcasting.blogspot.com/. The British government, though, didn't appreciate what Radio Caroline and other pirate broadcasters were doing. We also get the other federal agencies involved, the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, where we can seek a warrant. It is portable, but can also be used as a permanent FM radio station. While the magic of shortwave radio can transport a small signal vast distances, to hear pirates regularly and clearly, some precision is required. We also had a case in Queens, New York, where several pirate radio stations got involved together and they were using each other's equipment in order to change location to avoid detection. 2022-03-13 23:21:58 Storage_size 430.7 GB (in 25,393 files) Title Pirate Radio Airchecks. Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. Well, I can't say exactly what it is, but, yes, they're --. Unlike trying to locate China Radio International, Radio Australia, or the BBC World Service, hunting pirates requires a decent-quality radio and antenna. This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of The Spectrum Monitor Magazine. They could stream. Radio and electronics were my hobbies. That would be not a good practice. Pirates Week: http://shortwavepirate.info. The frequency spectrum is a natural resource and so all of our decisions that we make when we allocate spectrum is for the public interest. We also recommend that the complainant contact the station that they are getting interference to --. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So we have fines that we could issue. 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. "In Haiti during the Duvalier regime, people depended on radio to get news from independent sources off the island. They are not considered an operator by investing in that. Has it evolved over the years? 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. VIEWS. Other times though you might have reason to suspect that they are in on it, they are getting a kickback. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Do the pilots only complain if it's a song that they don't like? Marshal Service actually and that allows us to go in with the U.S. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. And so it ranges from Maine down to Virginia and all the States east of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. There was a case that I worked back in Philly back in the day --. 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 I started as a field agent doing inspections and doing pirate radio enforcement was one of my jobs and then I moved into a senior agent position and then eventually the District Director, which the manager of the Philadelphia office. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, so you have options. We have been at in rem seizures we call them where the U.S. marshals come with the local law enforcement and there is 20 of them and they have to secure the whole block off, the have to secure the building for our protection. 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. Select a station from the list and it will play on the tuner. Over the past few years, Ive found that one of my favorite listening activities has become searching for unique pirate radio stations, and readers of my blog appear to have followed suit. 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 --. And he had some good backing, financial backing, by the ACLU who were fighting for him, and he was a microbroadcaster and he tried to encourage others to follow in his footsteps and protect our First Amendment rights, so he was --. And another thing, also, we would have to direct our attention annually to five markets that are most affected by pirates and we would do some step-up enforcement. Thank you, too, for your support of these sites. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. The original converted ferry sank in 1980, but the five DJs on board and the ship's canary, Wilson, named after British Prime Minister Harold Wilson all were rescued, according to O'Rahilly's New York Times obituary. 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. Want to know why the usually run them out at sea. Total . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Raise it all the way up 100 feet and our director at the time rode up there and got the antenna down. If they have some skin in the game, an operator or a landlord or a property owner that let somebody put a station up on their rooftop, you know, it's illegal for them to have that station there. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. 14 July 2020. 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? We have a call center, it's 888-CALL-FCC where we have staff there during business hours to take your complaint. A lot of stations conceal their antennas, they hide behind things, they take the antennas down during they day, so they try avoid detection. Even as many legacy international broadcasters are abandoning the shortwave bands, shortwave remains active and vibrant in another quadrant: namely, on shortwave pirate radio. Once you get a license it restricts you where you can operate, how much power you can use, what antenna you can use, and how high your antenna is. Marshals went in with us and we seized the equipment. But just as the British government's stiff penalties didn't deter Radio Caroline, at least so far, the U.S. government's crackdown doesn't seem to have deterred the pirates. Listening to Other Stations: Click on the tuning arrows ( TUNE >) to listen to stations up and down the dial. Gimme Radio (for online listeners) Gimme Radio is one of the more modern American rock radio stations available today. As soon as there were laws on the books, there were pirate radio stations on the air. In the U.S., pirate stations have popped up in recent years all over the country, from West Virginia to Washington state, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which plays a continual game of whack-a-mole in an effort to keep them off the airwaves used by licensed broadcasters. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So there are no doubt some good samaritans listening to this show that want nothing more than to help with the scourge of pirate radio. There was an operator named Stephen Dunifer. Speaking for myself, Im passionate about pirate radio listening because it combines my listening/technical skills, my appetite for highly unique content, and for building a collection of quirky QSL cards. 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. Now some folks might be asking themselves this is all great, I totally agree that pirate radio is bad, and I think that you should absolutely go after it, but what about the First Amendment? Click here to donate via PayPal. The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. Having that exposure helped boost the careers of scores of British bands whose music eventually made it to America. Shortwave DX Blog - A blog with loggings and information relating to shortwave pirate radio in Europe. 1. If you live outside of North America and Europe, that doesnt mean there arent pirate radio stations to be found. But the FCC, Congress and the commercial broadcasting industry don't see the pirates as serving such a benign purpose. PIRATE RADIO Once you remove the idea of pirate radio from its mythology, you. You know, when they do that they get a ticket number when they file the ticket online so the broadcasters can call us and find out, let us know that they filed the complaint and follow up with us. 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? Yes, they come with weapons. 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. Sometimes we find stations that just access the rooftops without anybody knowing and put the transmitter kind of hidden in a wall somewhere or a crevice and the antenna on the roof and remain anonymous for months without anybody knowing that the station is there. It could be computers, antennas, coaxial cables. But if we sign it into law we would have some additional resources, first increasing the fines. "One is cost. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It's not working properly and that's why it's going into air traffic control. It might be illegal in terms of IRS about the taxes that aren't be collected off the exchange of funds in the business that's going on behind doors. 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. Additionally, youll find contact information for QSL requests and mail-drop addresses as well. 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: Right. 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. Use promo code ROGUE to get a shot at MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in total prizes! Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. I mean they have a significant financial investment in their stations, they have gone through proper FCC process, and now they are competing for listeners with stations that did not go through that process, did not necessarily bear the same financial burden to get up and running, and they are not maybe just competing with listeners, as we have mentioned we've been competing with, they are competing with advertisers as well. I decoded this Wolverine Radio SSTV QSL on the SSTV iOS App. They spent the fees to get the license. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, yes. 123. We would also have to create a database for the public access. And what the pirate radio operators do is they don't obtain a license, they don't go through this process, and they try to find vacant spectrum between these stations. Give us a little of your background. It has a radio receiver in it, it has a computer screen with a map, and it has a little compass rose that tells us what direction the signal is coming from. I mean stream --. Each issue also contains a CD of sound clips from various pirates, several articles about the state of pirate radio, and other relevant info. Addeddate 2022-03-13 23:21:58 . And it was good media coverage, too. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. Radio Caroline because so influential that, pretty soon, other ships were broadcasting rock off the coast as well. But they also encroach on those legitimate stations that made significant investments and secured the necessary regulatory approvals to obtain a license. 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. 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: Yes. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And so that's not practical for somebody that wants to operate a radio station to cover an entire community. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. Now stop your Googling right now because that is illegal, right? This includes the FM, AM and shortwave radio bands. The bulk of the pirate radio broadcasters I log transmit just below the 40-meter amateur radio band: anywhere from 6,850 kHz to 6,970 kHz and typically on a frequency spaced at 5 kHz. So you couldn't be blamed for assuming that it depicts a long-vanished phenomenon, like Nehru jackets with iridescent scarves and psychedelic-patterned paper mini dresses. 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By the term pirate radio or a pirate radio airchecks to tell us where they hear the station broadcasts... Others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment cheap enough for anyone 's budget David DOMBROWSKI Regional.
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