Ragnar Daneskjold hosts an occasional podcast serving the shortwave pirate community; it includes pirate radio news, off-air recordings, and more. 40. r/HamRadio. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. Pirate radio operators usually have day jobslike most of usthus only transmit while home from work. Is it when you are driving in, you know, to and from work? Right now it is $10,000 per day per occurrence. 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. 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. Weve now covered the who, what, where, when, and how of pirate huntingbut what about why? Director Richard Curtis' 2009 comedy-drama stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count, a disc jockey for an unlicensed rock radio station that broadcast from a rusty, decrepit ship off the British coast in the mid-1960s, defying government authorities to spin the rock records that weren't allowed on the BBC at the time. The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. They use either the internet or a wireless source to get the signal back to the transmitter. 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. 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. Revealing the. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And let them know. Revealing the history of pirate radio from 1925 to today, author Andrew Yoder, pirate radio aficionado and long-time writer on radio, electronics, and audio subjects:. Well we did go to the courts, we got the warrant, and the U.S. 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. I have four offices, it includes Chicago, it includes Boston, New York, and Columbia, Maryland. Additionally, youll find contact information for QSL requests and mail-drop addresses as well. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: All right. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And that is obviously at the highest importance when we are talking about public safety. Do we have a right under the first amendment to speak via a radio station even if it is unlicensed by the FCC and is there potentially a case that can kind of exemplify why pirate radio is not protected under the First Amendment? With that said (and for reasons I dont fully understand) depending on where you live in the world, you will either find it very easy to locate piratesor extremely difficult. 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. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. Jason Scott Archivist. So, for example, if youre listening for North American pirates from Europe, youll need to plan accordingly. These include Amateur Radio Newsline, a weekly audio news [] We also get the other federal agencies involved, the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, where we can seek a warrant. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we have a lot of stations in New York, in particular. For his new show, Bruce promises "me and my musings and all the great . 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. 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. 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. As a self-proclaimed content DXer, what interests me in pirate radio is that the listener never knows what to expect, but you can guarantee that the content will be different from that of the major broadcasters. This book makes it easier for you to locate and tune in pirate stationsand tells you all about the unlicensed broadcasters who play David to broadcasting conglomerates' Goliath. He has taken, you know, money from under the table to allow the station to operate from the rooftop without the property owner's knowledge. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So don't bother looking for it. Collection Info. Marshal Service actually and that allows us to go in with the U.S. They could stream. Additionally, pirate broadcasters don't have to deal with all the legal complexities of setting up and running a streaming internet service, such as writing terms of service or meeting contractual obligations, he notes. And then he had, you know, he was on the internet. 1. 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. comment. So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? If we are out there just gathering evidence for the first time our agents will go to the door, they will identify themselves with their badge. This station was operated in Pennsauken, New Jersey, which is right across the river from Philadelphia, and it covered the entire Philadelphia area. We would also have to create a database for the public access. There is a reason that those devices operate in an unlicensed manner because they are not transmitting very far. Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. Now all those things have one thing in common. As soon as there were laws on the books, there were pirate radio stations on the air. So when we license stations, you know, I used to work in the FM branch so I am very knowledgeable about the process, but there is a whole legal and engineering study that has to be done before you get a license and it takes resources to do that, financial resources. Keep in mind that pirates are relatively low-power broadcasters. 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. Not all the illegal stations are pirate stations! Back when KIWI was on the air regularly in the 90s, I assumed that pirate radio would explode in Oceania and Asia. 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. The history of pirate radio stations is inextricably linked with the development of countless genres, including hip-hop, garage, punk, and grime. PROMAX designs several monitoring and spectrum surveillance systems. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. Total . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, just 20. This radio in a single case is also capable of re-broadcasting any audio source. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: My guest has been David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It doesn't say FCC pirate agent? Recycling is good. That's part of it, right, and you rely on some cooperation in some instances to get it done. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. I keep a copy handy as it helps me identify stations and better understand their format. "How Pirate Radio Rocked the 1960s Airwaves and Still Exists Today" And when KIWI went silent, that was it. 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. Dont believe me? "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. 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 --. 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. Addeddate 2022-03-13 23:21:58 . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. 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? MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, and some of these are in high crime areas where there is a lot of drugs. I received this QSL from the amazing Radio Ronin Shortwave shortly before he received the knock from the FCC and stopped transmitting. 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. We get them in Virginia, we get them out in Illinois, even just remote areas of West Virginia they pop up. Now when we talk about enforcement actions, you know, I'd like to kind of paint a picture for our listeners. 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. This book makes it easier for you to locate and tune in pirate stationsand tells you all about the unlicensed broadcasters who play David to broadcasting conglomerates Goliath. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, if it's imported. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, everyone's dream job. Listening to pirate radio is perfectly legaland frequently an ear-opening experience. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Ten times as much, that's big, yes. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. To determine the wavelength of your signal in inches, divide 11811 by your transmitter's frequency in megahertz (MHz). MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. They don't know how to reach us? It has become more common for pirates to transmit images using SSTV.A few have experimented with FM or digital modes like RTTY, PSK31 . You know, is this a massive national problem, are there particular areas where it's a problem? All you need is a location to host the antenna and access to electricity unless you've got batteries, then just the location.". MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, it doesn't have -- It's not marked with pizza delivery guy either. Multiply the answer from #1 by the fraction of wavelength of your antenna's design (most antennas are 1/2 (.5) or 1/4 (.25) wave; the popular Comet is a 5/8 (.625) wave antenna). Pirates are always active during holidays, too, most especially on Halloween (31st of October), which seems to be pirates favorite holiday. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It's kind of sad to see, but --. Why? Pirate radio stations are a crucial part of British music culture. David Goren, a veteran radio producer who's created programming for National Public Radio, has spent years studying pirate broadcasters. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So all that good equipment just gets recycled. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. Liverpool vs Wolves will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1 at 8pm. It lasted three years there and then I had an opportunity to get to the Philadelphia Office Enforcement Bureau with the field work and that's been -- I was there for 20 years. 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. 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. Has it gotten worse, has it gotten better? 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. About Google Maps. Our agency was delegated by Congress to allocate frequencies and allocate it in the public interest and it's a resource. Each issue also contains a CD of sound clips from various pirates, several articles about the state of pirate radio, and other relevant info. ACTIVITY. Unlike trying to locate China Radio International, Radio Australia, or the BBC World Service, hunting pirates requires a decent-quality radio and antenna. 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. Radio Caroline. 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). 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. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. 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: Okay. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Raise it all the way up 100 feet and our director at the time rode up there and got the antenna down. Ive noticed increased pirate radio activity during the winter months, as well. 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. But what hast made the problem really expand is the equipment is readily available with the internet now. Give us a sense of the universe of this problem given that it is such a priority for this FCC to crack down on it. 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. 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. It was the strongest pirate station I have ever witnessed. Now stop your Googling right now because that is illegal, right? So we have a team here in the Enforcement Bureau that does that, our Spectrum Enforcement Division. 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. I used a pneumatic spud gun to launch an arborist's bag to deploy my 50' end fed antenna 40' up into a tree. Is this something that plays a role in alerting you to these stations that broadcasters themselves are identifying them and complaining about them? Bruce will host a new daily show for Bauer's station Greatest Hits Radio, taking his iconic PopMaster game with him. 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. Loggings are in real time and there are very fewif anyoff-topic posts. Now you usually get one of your top, you know, first or second choice. * Explains how to buy and use equipment to listen to pirate stations. They are not considered an operator by investing in that. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, this is the fun part, the (inaudible). Finding Shortwave Stations and Broadcasts. 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. Listening to Other Stations: Click on the tuning arrows ( TUNE >) to listen to stations up and down the dial. 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. But please note that we will never create a post and product link explicitly to receive a commission. And that is where we ask for the public's help. So that's why the licensing process is so important to avoid that interference. Has it evolved over the years? MR. DOMBROWSKI: It is. They lose advertisers because of it, they lose coverage area because of it, and it all comes down to dollars and cents. So that is quite a large area. 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 --. Evan is joined by David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. Here's a test shot without the line or antenna attached. 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. 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. Now this is not just a focus of the FCC, Congress is also interested in this. VIEWS. It is portable, but can also be used as a permanent FM radio station. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, there was a case back in the 1990s, late 1990s. 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. 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? Pirate radio guru Andrew Yoder started his own pirate blog last year, and has already began populating it with regular updates, QSLs, and recordings. Are we talking about U.S. marshals with machine guns kicking in doors, are we talking about politely knocking on a door and saying, hey, guys, your time is up, we found you, you know, what's the image that essentially you see when this goes down in your experience or is there kind of a spectrum of different cases, some are a little bit more intense than others? We have had meetings with broadcast associations where we went a room with other broadcasters and that's a very big concern of them, the financial end of it. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: No. An excellent and active pirate radio forum hosted by Chris Smolinski. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So some States have laws on the book that prohibit pirate radio operation, States like New Jersey and New York and Florida. Join. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. That would allow us to increase the fine to $100,000. No, not the Pirates of the Caribbean or East Africawe're talking about pirate radio. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We only waited 15 minutes into the episode to get to the fun part so I hope you are listening. Moreover, summer conditions in the North American 43 meter band are often much noisier, thus pirates know theyll be fighting static crashes to be heard during the summer months. 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. And an overall limit of $2 million. So that is a big concern for the broadcasters in those areas. Most are run by hobbyists purely for fun, although some have political or other agendas. 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? MR. DOMBROWSKI: It's not, you know, and we didn't talk about, there are other legal ways to go about it. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. 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. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. 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. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. tyson jost dad; sean penn parkinson's disease; mockingbirds attacking my cat Total . The antenna is not where the people are necessarily or where the rest of the equipment is. . Total Views 29,203 (Older Stats) ITEMS. We have a call center, it's 888-CALL-FCC where we have staff there during business hours to take your complaint. "Pirate radio continues to exist in the internet age for a variety of reasons," John Nathan Anderson, a broadcasting scholar and author who is working on a book about pirate radio, explains via email. Among the most popular queries made by readers is, How can I find and hear pirate radio stations? To help answer this question, Im writing this primer. We hope you understand, and are grateful for your support. April 8, 2015 - 10:43 am. VIEWS. I am a Philadelphia native, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I graduated Temple University and my first job was the FCC right out of college and interestingly --. Marshals, Department of Justice, because we are a federal agency, but have we leveraged the resources and the knowledge of local law enforcement in working on this, are there, you know, different approaches from different States? 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. Let's say you don't get cooperation from a building owner, you don't get cooperation from the eventual studio, maybe it's in their apartment and they're not opening the door, obviously, because they don't want to get caught. 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. Enter ZIP code or city, state as well. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So this equipment helps us track us down. 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. 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. "One is cost. 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. He anchored the ship in international waters in the North Sea, just off Frinton, Essex, and hired a crew of DJs to play music around the clock at the time, a revolutionary concept. It could be harmful if we let a pirate radio station operate because sometimes they cause interference to other services, like aeronautical communications. There is a studio somewhere. Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. 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. Answer (1 of 14): Why I am qualified to answer this question. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Just because it's easy to buy it doesn't mean it's legal. 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. 14 July 2020. 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. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: We do make them aware that they are contributing to this illegal activity. 10. They can call their State Broadcast Association to get our contact information. "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. 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. They have a bill circulating around called the PIRATE Act. 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. 16 days ago. They came and seized all of my equipment. I mean you got to give it to Congress for the bill naming that they do. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. Since FM radio is broadcast as a mono signal, with a left-minus-right signal sent alongside, they can make a two-channel stereo station by recreating the stereo pilot carrier and then adding in. 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. It eventually regrouped and resurfaced as an internet station, which gave it a global reach. 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