how to find pirate radio stations

The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. 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. 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. That's really helpful because then we can note when to send the agents out. 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 --. Now if you go that menu there are several options of different radio services. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So, David, you are uniquely qualified to talk about this topic and to help listeners to understand just how qualified you are how did you get to this current position at the FCC. And they come -- I've worked with them when they have bulletproof vests on and automatic weapons. 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. It eventually regrouped and resurfaced as an internet station, which gave it a global reach. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. The Moody Blues are one example of this." Oh, it happens a lot, especially in these urban areas like New York. 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. The British government, though, didn't appreciate what Radio Caroline and other pirate broadcasters were doing. "He was waiting several months to come back on the air (and therefore was only willing to speak off the record to me). The library's newest additions include deep historical resources and contemporary reporting about the world of radio. 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. In 1971 I was ordered to Cease and Desist by our friends at the FCC. It's not. And it was good media coverage, too. Want to buy me a cup of coffee? The SWLing Post now participates in two affiliate advertising programs with two large retailers that still sell shortwave radios, the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the eBay Partnership, designed to provide a means for sites like ours to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to these retailers of radio products. 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. Be careful to. 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. 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. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: -- and you always try to go with the least destructive one. 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. Pirate radio stations are unlicensed broadcasters. Radio and electronics were my hobbies. 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. "One reason I've found as to why people are still using pirate radio is that these communities have very strong cultural and historic connections to radio," Goren explains. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we don't have a rule in the books that prohibits that from happening. The FRW is an email-only newsletter devoted to the hobby of pirate radio listening, and is distributed free to those who contribute. It's a very calm, peaceful, that's what our agents are trained to do, because it works a lot more in getting the truth of what's going on rather than being threatening and forceful. These pirate stations pose a host of problems for public safety, including interference with emergency alerts and air traffic control. Like me, you might just get hooked! If you've been binge-watching movies lately, you may have come across "Pirate Radio." Total . They spent the fees to get the license. A lot of times you can tell by the audio quality. As soon as there were laws on the books, there were pirate radio stations on the air. Why? He got the craft back and kept at pirate radio for nearly another quarter century. Fortunately for the beginning pirate-hunter, there are now online message boards, free radio logs, and even publications (like Yoders excellent treatise on the subject) to help guide your tuning (see resource links below). 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. 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. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. 2 talking about this. They are very low power and the range of them are very small. 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. But they also encroach on those legitimate stations that made significant investments and secured the necessary regulatory approvals to obtain a license. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, not the public face, but he's all the behind the scenes guy. Again, I turned to Andrew Yoder for insight about pirate radio activity in the rest of the world; his reply: Im always amazed at how few areas in the world have pirates that are connected to any scene. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. 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. And that's it, we will catch you next time. Coffee helps fuel the SWLing Post! Pirates are always active during holidays, too, most especially on Halloween (31st of October), which seems to be pirates favorite holiday. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. Though Channel Z was broadcasting in AM, as many do, its best to hunt pirates with an SSB-capable portable. And they could also --. 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. And so we need to make sure that we stop the importation of this equipment, we stop the marketing of these illegal transmitters. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Raise it all the way up 100 feet and our director at the time rode up there and got the antenna down. 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. DOMBROWSKI: So you could cause like a catastrophe if we, you know, let this continue. 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. Wolves are looking to climb up the table (Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) This will be the fourth time this year the two . 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. Sometimes we find stations that just access the rooftops without anybody knowing and put the transmitter kind of hidden in a wall somewhere or a crevice and the antenna on the roof and remain anonymous for months without anybody knowing that the station is there. "Caroline now has two stations, one playing album music and one playing the original pop music for which the station is remembered," Moore explains. 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. So hopefully that's enough for them to get the station taken down and maybe share some information about who the real operator is. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: No. "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 it ranges from Maine down to Virginia and all the States east of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. And you have tools to escalate the situation. So we try to shut down, you know, that equipment coming in to the purchasers. He was going around the country and stirring the pot and getting a lot of people excited about microbroadcasting, so that's really where it started to really proliferate. 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. Powerful, uncertified transmitters manufactured in foreign countries easily slip through customs at U.S. ports. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And obviously as a good citizen I have never to my knowledge listened to a pirate radio station. Borderhunter Radio is one of the strongest Euro Pirates Ive ever heard. Do a little pirate radio hunting yourself. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Got you. 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. Has it evolved over the years? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. It would create chaos if we allowed them. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Just because it's easy to buy it doesn't mean it's legal. Total . . Alan Roes Music Programmes on Shortwave, List of QRP General Coverage Amateur Radio Transceivers, List of VHF/UHF Multimode Amateur Radio Transceivers, How To Tune In Pirate Radio Broadcasts on Shortwave, https://swling.com/blog/category/pirate-radio/, LRA 36 (Arcangel San Gabriel, Antarctica) Test Broadcasts on March 1st and 4th, 2023, Radio Waves: AM Buzzkill, AM FEMA Push, AM Devitalization, and RFI-Blocking Chips, Bob Zanottis presentation to the Fairlawn Amateur Radio Club (Part 2), Radio Waves: The DLARC, NASA Citizen Science, PopShopRadio DRM to Europe, Hackers Disrupt Russian Radio, and Afghan Radio Closures, LRA 36 (Arcangel San Gabriel, Antarctica) Test Broadcast Today at 20:00 UTC. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Right. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Pirate radio. 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. 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. They came and seized all of my equipment. 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. The U.S. These guys aren't blowing off their listeners like the other radio stations. "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.". MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, it doesn't have -- It's not marked with pizza delivery guy either. Radio Caroline because so influential that, pretty soon, other ships were broadcasting rock off the coast as well. 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. "Private radio was prohibited and only the British Broadcasting Corporation, which was part of the political establishment, sent radio to the British people with the remit to be morally uplifting, informative and educational," Moore says. Was ordered to Cease and Desist by our friends at the FCC homebrew equipment to obtain license... Another quarter century 's all the States east of Missouri, Iowa and! -- and you always try to go with the least destructive one good citizen have. Options of different radio services listening, and Minnesota at U.S. ports we catch... It happens a lot of times you can tell by the audio quality:! 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