They are not considered an operator by investing in that. Recycling is good. 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. David, thanks so much for joining. 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. Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It's not, you know, and we didn't talk about, there are other legal ways to go about it. Many of our links now function as affiliate links. 19. r/HamRadio. 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. 10. Pirate cards are among the most unusual of QSL cards, that often incorporate obscure or vintage imageryhumor, horror, or other graphic oddityor cast the pirate in a unique character representation. We Owe It All to Radio: The Inside Story of CES, Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Pictures, Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security, Radio Caroline: The True Story of the Ship That Rocked. 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? Well joining me to discuss this topic is David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. 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. But so when we say Region One I think even most people in the FCC are not necessarily aware of how the country is carved up when it comes to enforcement and the field offices, et cetera, so can you give the listeners a brief sense of what do we mean by Region One, what areas do you cover? That would be not a good practice. Borderhunter Radio is one of the strongest Euro Pirates Ive ever heard. 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. The history of pirate radio stations is inextricably linked with the development of countless genres, including hip-hop, garage, punk, and grime. 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. An excellent and active pirate radio forum hosted by Chris Smolinski. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. So it's not just that a pirate radio station might be harming other radio stations, which is bad in and of itself and could pose a public safety risk with emergency communications, but we're talking serious stuff when we talk about FAA and air traffic control. If you live in other parts of the world, pirate hunting can pose serious DX challenges. So, the F. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We only waited 15 minutes into the episode to get to the fun part so I hope you are listening. 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. Of course, the chaos of the radio spectrum was one of the reasons this agency was created in the first place, including our predecessor agency The Federal Radio Commission, but there are other issues that broadcasters in particular complain about. I am Evan Swarztrauber. We also recommend that the complainant contact the station that they are getting interference to --. . They have a bill circulating around called the PIRATE Act. Radio 510 International - European relay station broadcasting every weekend on short-wave to all of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East on 13840 kHz. The Who actually paid homage to Radio Caroline and other offshore broadcasters by parodying them on their 1967 concept album "The Who Sell Out," as music historian John Atkins has written. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. They also cover your wireless routers in your house. It's something we have been doing as long as the equipment has been available we've always had pirate radio operators. The Moody Blues are one example of this." When do you hear the station? And those parameters, you know, restrict your operation and the coverage of your station because we have a whole engineering study that needs to be done so you don't cause interference to other stations. Just browse the pirate radio category: https://swling.com/blog/category/pirate-radio/. 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. Enter Ronan O'Rahilly, who learned that the U.K. government's jurisdiction ended 3 miles (5 kilometers) off the coast, and that stations from other countries already were exploiting that loophole by putting transmitters on offshore ships, according to Moore. 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. 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 if we sign it into law we would have some additional resources, first increasing the fines. Right now it is $10,000 per day per occurrence. Want to know why the usually run them out at sea. So we have a lot of those stations operating, so it's big revenue for them. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, and some of these are in high crime areas where there is a lot of drugs. 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. The HF Underground: http://www.hfunderground.com. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And there is a lot of digital FM stations out there that are looking for programming so they could maybe work out at least an arrangement. Unlike trying to locate China Radio International, Radio Australia, or the BBC World Service, hunting pirates requires a decent-quality radio and antenna. 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. So I have -- In terms of population I manage 20 States in the Northeast area of the United States. He got the craft back and kept at pirate radio for nearly another quarter century. 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. That's part of it, right, and you rely on some cooperation in some instances to get it done. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? They also have potential to cause interference to the adjacent channel stations, you know, up above their frequency and below their frequency. Not just Aussie and NZ pirates, but stations in places like The Phillipinesmaybe Japan, South Korea, or Thailand. "He was waiting several months to come back on the air (and therefore was only willing to speak off the record to me). "The government decided that radio was too influential as a means of mass communication to be in private hands," Peter Moore explains in an email. March 13 2022 . Want to buy me a cup of coffee? 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: Right, he's no the public face of it. 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 it's not the -- In terms of size wise for mileage it's the smallest region, but it's the most populated. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And it's important to clarify that FCC enforcement agents are not law enforcement agents, but I was struck by how some of the work that goes into identifying and shutting down a station is like good old-fashioned police work, like knocking on doors saying, hey, have you seen anything weird, have you seen people carrying around transmitters or antennas. Collection Info. This station was operated in Pennsauken, New Jersey, which is right across the river from Philadelphia, and it covered the entire Philadelphia area. Be careful to. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So some States have laws on the book that prohibit pirate radio operation, States like New Jersey and New York and Florida. Carl McIntire, a fundamentalist preacher who briefly broadcast fire-and-brimstone sermons from a converted minesweeper off the coast of New Jersey, as this 2014 NJ.com article details. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. They don't know how to reach us? "Caroline now has two stations, one playing album music and one playing the original pop music for which the station is remembered," Moore explains. KQLZ Pirate Radio stormed the Southern California airwaves in 1989, and listeners "flushed" their former stations as they. Everyone should agree that pirate radio stations - by any definition - are completely illegal. "One is cost. Jason Scott Archivist. My most recent logging of a Euro pirate from North America was Radio Borderhunter on 15,500 kHz; his signal was quite amazing. There is a reason that those devices operate in an unlicensed manner because they are not transmitting very far. Now this is not just a focus of the FCC, Congress is also interested in this. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. 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. 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. Liverpool vs Wolves will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1 at 8pm. 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 --. ( Disclaimer) Transcript: MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Welcome to "More Than 7 Dirty Words," the official FCC podcast. And it was good media coverage, too. Weve now covered the who, what, where, when, and how of pirate huntingbut what about why? These pirate stations pose a host of problems for public safety, including interference with emergency alerts and air traffic control. 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. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: That's some great local cooperation right there. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: There is not a sign on the box that says illegal pirate radio transmitters. I know at least in our region we get them everywhere. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we have a lot of stations in New York, in particular. 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. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So everyone can now breathe a deep a sigh of relief, you are not going to have to go out and get a license for your security camera and you garage door opener. 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: The majority of the people do not give us truthful information and so our agents have to be trained to do interviews to know when people are telling the truth or not and it may just require keep asking the right questions and keeping after it. Radio GDay came on from Australia occasionally, but no one else. 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. Where are you hearing this interference problem? So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? And so these transmitters that they are purchasing and pirate stations are using do not go through the equipment process, the equipment authorization process, and that is a problem. ACTIVITY. Additionally, you can always tune a remote receiver, via the Internet on the Global Tuners website, or via the University of Twentes SDR in the Netherlands. 2022-03-13 23:21:58 Storage_size 430.7 GB (in 25,393 files) Title Pirate Radio Airchecks. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. In January, President Donald Trump signed into law the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (PIRATE) Act, which gives regulators the ability to hit pirate stations with fines of up to $2 million, according to this summary from Radio World. And that is where we ask for the public's help. One of the FCC's top enforcement priorities is cracking down on pirates. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. 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. And did I mention the cool QSL cards? We want them to be as descriptive as possible. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. 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. 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. Searching for an FM radio station on your car radio is quite easy. Our agents are pretty smart on the tricks. I keep a copy handy as it helps me identify stations and better understand their format. 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