MR. DOMBROWSKI: There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. Total . The Moody Blues are one example of this." MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So don't bother looking for it. Stations such as Weekend Rush, Kool FM, Pulse and Innocence wanted to represent the streets and promote local scenes.. 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. "While Radio Caroline is no longer 'illegal' the philosophy is unchanged," Moore says, noting that the station's staff has the motto "New Technology, Same Ideology.". (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). 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. KQLZ Pirate Radio stormed the Southern California airwaves in 1989, and. 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. Pirates tend to occupy swatches of the shortwave spectrum that are relatively quiet, avoid intentionally broadcasting on top of one another, and typically operate at fairly low power. Are people generally cooperative or are people just like I have no idea what you are talking, I have never seen anything, what is this, I don't want to deal with this? 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 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. Pirate radio operators usually have day jobslike most of usthus only transmit while home from work. 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. ACTIVITY. Now you usually get one of your top, you know, first or second choice. 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. 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. Yoder actually addresses this apparent restriction, to some degree, in the 2013 Pirate Radio Annual, which has only just been released. "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. 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). 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. And so when a station operates say on 95.5 megahertz they now have potential to cause interference to other stations on 95.5 that may be a little distance away. 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. For example, though Im a ham radio operator, I had never even attempted to decode the SSTV (slow-scan TV) mode until prompted to do so by Wolverine Radio: at the end (and sometimes in the middle) of their broadcasts, Wolverine is known to send electronic QSL cards via SSTV. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. 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. It had a 20-mile range. They spent the fees to get the license. And then they said to me well here is ten jobs that you potentially could have which one is your top choice? Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. If we get that information we have a vehicle, it's called a direction-finding vehicle and it has specialized equipment in it. The U.S. has had its share of pirate broadcasters over the years as well. Select a station from the list and it will play on the tuner. 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. HowStuffWorks may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. In the U.S. the most famous example of a Pirate Radio station was Mexico's XERF. But if we sign it into law we would have some additional resources, first increasing the fines. Ragnar Daneskjold hosts an occasional podcast serving the shortwave pirate community; it includes pirate radio news, off-air recordings, and more. 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. DOMBROWSKI: No, and some of these are in high crime areas where there is a lot of drugs. Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well they had their antenna up really high. They can be highly entertaining or thought-provoking, and thus are, themselves, a unique art form. I know that lots of pirates operate there, mostly on AM and FM, but no one is on SWand if they are, they arent sending QSLs, [or] operating in places where radio hobbyists would hear them. 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. Dont believe me? And so he kind of gets shielded, right, you know the operators who are operating the station because they advertise their phone numbers in social media and so we can easily identify them, but you always have somebody that's the money guy that's safely hiding behind all these other staff and --. But merely the act of purchasing this equipment is illegal and partly that's because it comes from overseas and it's not been tested by the FCC, correct? The most popular frequency used by U.S. and Canadian pirate radio stations is 6925 kHz, transmitting in the AM or upper sideband (USB) modes. I asked him why he would still take the risk to go back on air and he said he wanted to reach the homeless, the shut-ins, the elderly who couldn't access the internet.". MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Well at least you are recycling. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It doesn't say FCC pirate agent? Join. 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. 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. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. 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. And it was good media coverage, too. Finding Shortwave Stations and Broadcasts. They also have potential to cause interference to the adjacent channel stations, you know, up above their frequency and below their frequency. So when they say, oh, I don't need a license to operate I'm a Part 15 transmitter, well we have to do studies and measurements to see if that's true. . Buy me a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/ringwaymanchester Email: ringwaymanchester@mail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m3hhyofficial Facebook:. So we have a team here in the Enforcement Bureau that does that, our Spectrum Enforcement Division. So that's been great because now we can work with the local authorities, such as the police or the district attorney's office, and get them involved in the investigation, and they have the power to arrest and fine people. I know at least in our region we get them everywhere. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, not the public face, but he's all the behind the scenes guy. Listening to Other Stations: Click on the tuning arrows ( TUNE >) to listen to stations up and down the dial. There is a studio somewhere. The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. It is portable, but can also be used as a permanent FM radio station. Compared to big-gun broadcasters, pirates are much more elusive game as very few announce their broadcasts in advance, and theres no telling where a pirates transmitter is located: it could be in their home, on a boat, or a portable one dropped in a remote location and later retrieved. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, that's probably why they are complaining, right? You might need that sensitivity and an outdoor antenna to pull these relatively low-powered signals from the ether. So that's why the licensing process is so important to avoid that interference. 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. A lot of times the studio is not co-located with the transmitter. About Google Maps. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. In 1971 I was ordered to Cease and Desist by our friends at the FCC. 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 sometimes the apartment owner, the building owner, or whatever, is totally in the dark about this, didn't know about. And those rules dictate a lot of restrictions and cover your wireless transmitters that we use every day, remote controls for you car, your headset, bluetooth sets. 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. Https: //www.paypal.me/ringwaymanchester Email: ringwaymanchester @ mail.com Instagram: https: //www.paypal.me/ringwaymanchester Email ringwaymanchester. 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