So I have -- In terms of population I manage 20 States in the Northeast area of the United States. I received this QSL from the amazing Radio Ronin Shortwave shortly before he received the knock from the FCC and stopped transmitting. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: That's some great local cooperation right there. But the easiest way to file a complaint is go online. March 13 2022 . 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. That was right when the internet really started exploding so he was able to get his message out. Now you usually get one of your top, you know, first or second choice. The station is capable of running off of 13.8/28 volts DC battery, which can even be charged with solar power. Well joining me to discuss this topic is David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. Do you hear it on the weekends or is only a station that operates during the weekends? 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. And one of the reasons that they are causing harmful interference, in particular to the FAA operations, is because they are not tested, right. In the U.S. the most famous example of a Pirate Radio station was Mexico's XERF. So, the F. 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. "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. The most popular frequency is arguably 6,925 kHz, but I often log pirates on 6,935 and 6,950 kHz. My most recent logging of a Euro pirate from North America was Radio Borderhunter on 15,500 kHz; his signal was quite amazing. Pirates broadcast a wide variety of content, but are usually motivated by sharing their messageor favorite musicon the air. Yoder actually addresses this apparent restriction, to some degree, in the 2013 Pirate Radio Annual, which has only just been released. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Welcome to "More Than 7 Dirty Words," the official FCC podcast. MR. DOMBROWSKI: You know, that's hard to say. What's more, pirate radio stations gave us access to some of the most pivotal figures in UK music . Thank you! These include Amateur Radio Newsline, a weekly audio news [] 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? To have a radio station here helps to establish the station's operator as an important source of information and influence in the community.". 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. They label the equipment as something else. ACTIVITY. One of the first pirate radio operators we know of was Ronan O'Rahilly. We have language to kind of consider them an operator, so they could be liable for a fine and we do issue them a warning letter. 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. 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.". 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. 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. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. More areas, more just the urban areas. 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. So somebody that hasn't invested a lot of money in equipment and the single processing to make it sound richer you could tell if you have an ear to it, our agents can do that. Some pirates simply key down their mike and begin talking, sharing their political or social views; others offer near-professional music productions, complete with listener feedback, and often acknowledge listener reports with QSLs (radio postcards). Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. They inventory it all and then they sign it over to the FCC to hold and then we finally get the courts to order that it's released to the federal government and it's our property. A few of them broadcast from ships, such as Rev. Wolves are looking to climb up the table (Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) This will be the fourth time this year the two . Has it gotten worse, has it gotten better? Join. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. Do you hear it any other time, you know, at night time? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: No. And they could also --. Now one thing I want to talk about is Part 15. David Goren, a veteran radio producer who's created programming for National Public Radio, has spent years studying pirate broadcasters. Stations such as Weekend Rush, Kool FM, Pulse and Innocence wanted to represent the streets and promote local scenes.. 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. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. 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? "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.". Most are run by hobbyists purely for fun, although some have political or other agendas. We take it all. The antenna is not where the people are necessarily or where the rest of the equipment is. 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. I mean you got to give it to Congress for the bill naming that they do. Ragnar Daneskjold hosts an occasional podcast serving the shortwave pirate community; it includes pirate radio news, off-air recordings, and more. Pirate stations want listeners to discover them, so they broadcast in various watering holes.. And an overall limit of $2 million. We do let stations operate with low power transmitters but they have to comply with the technical requirements of Part 15 of our rules. Now all those things have one thing in common. 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. Just browse the pirate radio category: https://swling.com/blog/category/pirate-radio/. Created on. To the contrary, though, more than a half-century later, pirate radio is still a thing. So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? We'd like to contact you. Unlike trying to locate China Radio International, Radio Australia, or the BBC World Service, hunting pirates requires a decent-quality radio and antenna. 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. Jason Scott Archivist. March 13 2022 . 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. Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. . One of the FCC's top enforcement priorities is cracking down on pirates, and, no, not the Pirates of the Caribbean or the Pirates of East Africa, we're talking about pirate radio. (Disclaimer). It has become more common for pirates to transmit images using SSTV.A few have experimented with FM or digital modes like RTTY, PSK31 . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, to lease some air time off these legitimate stations. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well it depends what level we are at with the investigation. If you are given ten choices make sure the one you actually one is your eighth choice because that's going to be the one that you get. Enter the dawn of pirate radio. 19. r/HamRadio. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It's not working properly and that's why it's going into air traffic control. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we talked a little bit about why this is a problem. It will also help to have some sort of adjustable bandwidth filter (wide/narrow). We have pirate radio there, too, not as bad as we did in New York. 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 --. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well that's what I went up with. 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. I used a pneumatic spud gun to launch an arborist's bag to deploy my 50' end fed antenna 40' up into a tree. That's really helpful because then we can note when to send the agents out. It eventually regrouped and resurfaced as an internet station, which gave it a global reach. The important thing here is that you invest in a receiver with a respectable degree of sensitivity and selectivity. Well we did go to the courts, we got the warrant, and the U.S. Ads are what helps us bring you premium content! Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. MR. DOMBROWSKI: There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. But the interesting thing about this was that it was operated by a group of people who considered themselves Moors, which are indigenous people of the United States who were here before the United States was colonized. Whether youre a QSL collector, a content DXer, or the casual SWLer, I find theres something in pirate radio listening for everyone. 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. PIRATE RADIO Once you remove the idea of pirate radio from its mythology, you. Not all the illegal stations are pirate stations! If you live in other parts of the world, pirate hunting can pose serious DX challenges. 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. They don't know how to reach us? "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. Its a simple technique, and although it takes some practice, will work on most any radio with a stable BFO (beat frequency oscillator). MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. Ive had great results in the past with an old Icom IC-735 and a 40-meter dipole antenna. 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. I am Evan Swarztrauber. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. Radio GDay came on from Australia occasionally, but no one else. But the FCC, Congress and the commercial broadcasting industry don't see the pirates as serving such a benign purpose. Click here to donate via PayPal. 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. 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