how to find pirate radio stations

But O'Rahilly was undeterred, even after his ship was seized briefly by Dutch authorities. Dont believe me? March 13 2022 . Answer (1 of 14): Why I am qualified to answer this question. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Right. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It's not, you know, and we didn't talk about, there are other legal ways to go about it. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Because you don't know what you are running into. Wolves are looking to climb up the table (Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) This will be the fourth time this year the two . 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. Note:Even though it is illegal to broadcast on the shortwave bands without a license, and those who do so are subject to hefty fines, it is not illegal to listen or to send and receive QSL cards from such operators. 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? And as a bonus, Radio Caroline still exists though, ironically, it's gone legal. 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. Pirate stations want listeners to discover them, so they broadcast in various "watering holes." The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. And while pirate radio stations can be found across the radio spectrum, especially on AM and FM in urban areas, in this primer Ill be focusing on those that inhabit the shortwaves. 16 days ago. And so, yes, we may -- We have a warrant for the property. We get them in Virginia, we get them out in Illinois, even just remote areas of West Virginia they pop up. Pirate radio stations are unlicensed broadcasters. Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. It's not. So for that period of time they lose communications and they have to try to find another available channel to keep that communication line open. 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. Before we talk about where to hunt pirates, however, we need to talk about the necessary equipmenti.e., your radio and antenna. 123. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we talked a little bit about why this is a problem. They don't know how to reach us? Radio Caroline. 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. And, of course, just finding the antenna is not the end of the story, because it's not like when you find the antenna the DJ is standing right next to the antenna being like, uh, you got me. After that when we don't get compliance from somebody he gets a warning letter and comes back on the air and then we do get the warrant with the U.S. marshals. Enter the dawn of pirate radio. Searching for an FM radio station on your car radio is quite easy. 2. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. Even then, though, Radio Caroline wouldn't go away. 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. Unauthorized stations are particularly prolific in the New York City area, where a 2016 study by the New York State Broadcasters Association (NYSBA) found that there actually were more pirates then on the FM band than legal licensed stations. Back in the 1980s, before the Internet and its online bulletin boards, I thought finding pirates was truly a huntrandom and altogether unpredictable. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. Many of you have suggested in the past that the SWLing Post join an affiliate links program. Not all the illegal stations are pirate stations! 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. Jason Scott Archivist. And then he had, you know, he was on the internet. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Raise it all the way up 100 feet and our director at the time rode up there and got the antenna down. But it worked out great, it was a great career in the media bureau. They came and seized all of my equipment. They are not advertising. Do you hear it any other time, you know, at night time? 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. Listening to pirate radio is perfectly legaland frequently an ear-opening experience. So how do you escalate the situation, you know, what tools do you have to say, okay, we're not getting cooperation let's take this up a notch? So it's not the -- In terms of size wise for mileage it's the smallest region, but it's the most populated. 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. 14 July 2020. Pirate radio guru Andrew Yoder started his own pirate blog last year, and has already began populating it with regular updates, QSLs, and recordings. It's something we have been doing as long as the equipment has been available we've always had pirate radio operators. 10. What can the average person do? So we have had the most success in getting stations off the air when the district attorney is involved, because the U.S. Attorney's Office when we do the in rem seizures, they have a lot of case work and very high profile cases so there is a little reluctance sometimes because of the case precedence for the U.S. attorneys to take on our cases. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well that's what I went up with. But they secure the property for us so that we feel safe going in there and then we help them identify what equipment we need to seize. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well it depends what level we are at with the investigation. While you can hear some on weekdays, your best bet is Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, local time. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It is. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. Buy me a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/ringwaymanchester Email: ringwaymanchester@mail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m3hhyofficial Facebook:. Back when KIWI was on the air regularly in the 90s, I assumed that pirate radio would explode in Oceania and Asia. 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. Pirates Week: http://shortwavepirate.info. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. So a pirate radio by simple terms is a broadcast station operating in the FM band, 88 megahertz to 108 megahertz that you dial up on your car radio, that is operating without a license. We have had cases where we have gone in on in rem seizures and found drug paraphernalia inside the building and so that becomes now a law enforcement issue and they take care of that, they handle that situation. Please leave us a review because it will help others find this show. And that's it, we will catch you next time. Everyone should agree that pirate radio stations - by any definition - are completely illegal. comment. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And those, and I think we mentioned New York, we mentioned Philadelphia, are there other hot spots in particular where this seems to just be a bigger problem than elsewhere in the country? Find this podcast in the iTunes store or Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. Last updated: December 2022 David Goren, a veteran radio producer who's created programming for National Public Radio, has spent years studying pirate broadcasters. Many of our links now function as affiliate links. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, the legitimate one, the licensed station. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Pirate radio. They just twist the dial. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Got you. 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. The reason is, no matter what time of the year it is, no matter what the space weather (yes, I said space weather) or conditions of the ionosphere are--FM stations are relatively few, local, and always broadcast in the same spots on the FM dial. Ive had great results in the past with an old Icom IC-735 and a 40-meter dipole antenna. (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. Its a simple technique, and although it takes some practice, will work on most any radio with a stable BFO (beat frequency oscillator). One of the FCC's top enforcement priorities is cracking down on pirates. The U.S. The BBC played catch-up launching Radio One and recruiting the same pirates for their roster. 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. 19. r/HamRadio. It would create chaos if we allowed them. Again, they are not law enforcement, so we don't have weapons. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. If you live in North Americaparticularly on the east coastor in Europe, youre in luck: these are the hottest geographic locations for shortwave pirate radio activity. MR. DOMBROWSKI: There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. But the FCC, Congress and the commercial broadcasting industry don't see the pirates as serving such a benign purpose. But they also encroach on those legitimate stations that made significant investments and secured the necessary regulatory approvals to obtain a license. Pirate radio stations are a crucial part of British music culture. Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. 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. 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. Last updated: December 2022 Revealing the. A few of them broadcast from ships, such as Rev. 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. Our agents are pretty smart on the tricks. It will also help to have some sort of adjustable bandwidth filter (wide/narrow). It is illegal for companies to market equipment that hasn't gone through what we call a certification process, equipment authorization process, where they get a company to look at their transmitter to make sure it complies with our technical rules and doesn't have potential to cause interference to other radio services. And did I mention the cool QSL cards? 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. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, everyone's dream job. Well, I can't say exactly what it is, but, yes, they're --. 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. ACTIVITY. So when the FCC licenses FM stations those stations are generally not going to interfere with aeronautical operations because we make sure that they are not. 1. 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. Having that exposure helped boost the careers of scores of British bands whose music eventually made it to America. So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? Liverpool vs Wolves will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1 at 8pm. Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. 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. Radio GDay came on from Australia occasionally, but no one else. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Patrick J. Kiger A new, raw, grassroots kind of pirate radio exploded from 1992 onwards. Well joining me to discuss this topic is David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. 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. I am Evan Swarztrauber. 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. Additionally, youll find contact information for QSL requests and mail-drop addresses as well. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, to lease some air time off these legitimate stations. You know, there was a glowing article in a certain New York publication that at least one FCC commissioner was irked by because it seemed to be kind of glorifying this underground practice and making it seem like some interesting thing, but you really got to keep in mind not just the radio stations that are interfered with, but emergency communications. Keep in mind that pirates are relatively low-power broadcasters. Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. We would also have to create a database for the public access. 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. Across the country, FCC officials are working to identify and take action against unlicensed radio operators that illegally use the frequencies allocated for legitimate radio operators. If we get that information we have a vehicle, it's called a direction-finding vehicle and it has specialized equipment in it. 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). They use either the internet or a wireless source to get the signal back to the transmitter. I mean you got to give it to Congress for the bill naming that they do. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So this equipment helps us track us down. Bruce will host a new daily show for Bauer's station Greatest Hits Radio, taking his iconic PopMaster game with him. 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. As this 2009 article from the Independent, a British newspaper, details, O'Rahilly obtained a 63-ton (57-metric ton), Danish passenger ferry, the MV Frederica, and renamed it Caroline, after the daughter of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Additionally, we always try to include links to other retail options if they are available, as we support and freely advertise independent ham radio retailers. My most recent logging of a Euro pirate from North America was Radio Borderhunter on 15,500 kHz; his signal was quite amazing. We call them Notices of Apparent Liability where we will fine the operator. Our agents will contact you. Other times though you might have reason to suspect that they are in on it, they are getting a kickback. A lot of times you can tell by the audio quality. "By playing nonstop current pop music in a situation where this had never before been available, Caroline had within months a larger audience than all the BBC stations combined," Moore explains. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Thank you. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are receivedespecially when the signals cross a national boundary. The important thing here is that you invest in a receiver with a respectable degree of sensitivity and selectivity. So --. Right now it is $10,000 per day per occurrence. One of the first pirate radio operators we know of was Ronan O'Rahilly. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So don't bother looking for it. Total . So we eventually went to the courts and fought. You might need that sensitivity and an outdoor antenna to pull these relatively low-powered signals from the ether. Equipmenti.E., your radio and antenna significant investments and secured the necessary equipmenti.e., best... The media bureau came on from Australia occasionally, but that has fallen... Broadcasts below. ) briefly by Dutch authorities well, I ca n't say exactly what it is 10,000... 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