"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. 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? It could be harmful if we let a pirate radio station operate because sometimes they cause interference to other services, like aeronautical communications. Radio GDay came on from Australia occasionally, but no one else. So if they don't meet the Part 15 requirements they need a license. 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. Tracking a Pirate Radio Station The Modern Rogue Discovering Secret "Numbers Stations" The Modern Rogue Detecting a Wire and Hidden Spy Cams The Most Notorious TV Hijack of All Time Rodney P -. I apologize to the listeners in advance if I make any horrible, corny jokes throughout the course of this podcast, but it would probably help to start with a definition, right. MR. DOMBROWSKI: You know, that's hard to say. 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. Ive noticed increased pirate radio activity during the winter months, as well. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. And that's it, we will catch you next time. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Right. Hobby Broadcasting Blog: http://hobbybroadcasting.blogspot.com/. "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. 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. Ive had great results in the past with an old Icom IC-735 and a 40-meter dipole antenna. The Radio Informer - The latest info on the world of radio including:world,shortwave . 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. 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. 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). MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, the legitimate one, the licensed station. 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. Be specific. Total Views 29,573 (Older Stats) ITEMS. They label the equipment as something else. 19. r/HamRadio. They also spent the regulatory fees that they have to, you know, spend I think yearly, and so they have an investment in their service and these unlicensed stations NP that. 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. * Explains how to buy and use equipment to listen to pirate stations. Once you get a license it restricts you where you can operate, how much power you can use, what antenna you can use, and how high your antenna is. That would be not a good practice. Unlike the rock 'n' roll hipsters of 1960s British pirate radio, who aimed at a mass audience, most of Brooklyn's unlicensed broadcasters seem to be immigrants and members of ethnic and religious minorities trying to reach their own groups and neighborhoods. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, yes. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we're talking about air traffic control? It was a three bay antenna for any of the those tech-y's out there, so it was a high efficient antenna and a very high powered transmitter. 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. 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. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. 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. About Google Maps. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Is that a point of pride for you from Philadelphia? Finding Shortwave Stations and Broadcasts. They were also changing frequency. I received this QSL from the amazing Radio Ronin Shortwave shortly before he received the knock from the FCC and stopped transmitting. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, there was a case back in the 1990s, late 1990s. There is a lot of misconception about what a low power transmitter is. There is a studio somewhere. And so we need to make sure that we stop the importation of this equipment, we stop the marketing of these illegal transmitters. (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). 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. And it was good media coverage, too. 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. 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. 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. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, not the public face, but he's all the behind the scenes guy. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, this is the fun part, the (inaudible). To the contrary, though, more than a half-century later, pirate radio is still a thing. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Welcome to "More Than 7 Dirty Words," the official FCC podcast. Pirate radio stations are unlicensed broadcasters. The U.S. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Ten times as much, that's big, yes. That's part of it, right, and you rely on some cooperation in some instances to get it done. Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It's not working properly and that's why it's going into air traffic control. Violators faced two years of imprisonment and fines. 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. Open up the transmitter Locate the seam on the transmitter's case and pry it open with a putty knife (if your transmitter is screwed shut, you'll need a screwdriver to open it). 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). 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. Ask your local radio club or search the Internet for local/regional pirate stations. Here's a 12-minute recording of Radio Caroline DJ Tony Blackburn's show in 1965, which includes both a breakfast cereal commercial and the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" and "For Your Love" by the Yardbirds: Because the station had to fill so much airtime DJs had to come up with 2,500 tracks to play each week Radio Caroline helped foster what Moore calls "an explosion of new artists and bands who may have started recording conventional pop music, but who then expanded their musical abilities. We call them Notices of Apparent Liability where we will fine the operator. Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right, he's no the public face of it. Now one thing I want to talk about is Part 15. And they could also --. Many of our links now function as affiliate links. It has a radio receiver in it, it has a computer screen with a map, and it has a little compass rose that tells us what direction the signal is coming from. In the U.S. the most famous example of a Pirate Radio station was Mexico's XERF. "I spoke with a pastor of a church in the community which had a station and the antenna was taken down by the FCC," Goren says. Listening to pirate radio is perfectly legaland frequently an ear-opening experience. And so it ranges from Maine down to Virginia and all the States east of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. Collection Info. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. Is this something that plays a role in alerting you to these stations that broadcasters themselves are identifying them and complaining about them? 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So let's say that either a broadcaster or a listener files a complaint, what happens then, what tools do you, your colleagues in the FCC, have to go about finding a station, shutting it down, bringing people to justice? 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. PIRATE RADIO Once you remove the idea of pirate radio from its mythology, you. 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. Why? MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, it doesn't have -- It's not marked with pizza delivery guy either. And he had some good backing, financial backing, by the ACLU who were fighting for him, and he was a microbroadcaster and he tried to encourage others to follow in his footsteps and protect our First Amendment rights, so he was --. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we talked a little bit about why this is a problem. It's covert surveillance equipment. You know, is this a massive national problem, are there particular areas where it's a problem? (Click to enlarge). And, of course, just finding the antenna is not the end of the story, because it's not like when you find the antenna the DJ is standing right next to the antenna being like, uh, you got me. 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. Loggings are in real time and there are very fewif anyoff-topic posts. "He was waiting several months to come back on the air (and therefore was only willing to speak off the record to me). PROMAX designs several monitoring and spectrum surveillance systems. Across the country, FCC officials are working to identify and take action against unlicensed radio operators that illegally use the frequencies allocated for legitimate radio operators. But they also encroach on those legitimate stations that made significant investments and secured the necessary regulatory approvals to obtain a license. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So what is the current state of pirate radio? It eventually regrouped and resurfaced as an internet station, which gave it a global reach. No, not the Pirates of the Caribbean or East Africawe're talking about pirate radio. Pirate radio guru Andrew Yoder started his own pirate blog last year, and has already began populating it with regular updates, QSLs, and recordings. Collection Info. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: That's some great local cooperation right there. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: -- and you always try to go with the least destructive one. 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. The warrant is issued to the U.S. Marshals actually seize it. So those are some of the challenges that you all have to tackle in taking on this important enforcement function. 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. I mean you got to give it to Congress for the bill naming that they do. 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. 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? 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. So, the F. That would allow us to increase the fine to $100,000. Yes, so it's kind of like a cascade of options --. VIEWS. Searching for an FM radio station on your car radio is quite easy. Now many listeners as you know have the experience of tuning their dial and there appear to be vacant channels you have said that one of the reasons for that is to guard against interference, but someone listening might say well why do we care, right. 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? 40. r/HamRadio. So hopefully that's enough for them to get the station taken down and maybe share some information about who the real operator is. Now this is not just a focus of the FCC, Congress is also interested in this. And when KIWI went silent, that was it. 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. So how do you escalate the situation, you know, what tools do you have to say, okay, we're not getting cooperation let's take this up a notch? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: It doesn't say FCC pirate agent? And you have tools to escalate the situation. Bruce will host a new daily show for Bauer's station Greatest Hits Radio, taking his iconic PopMaster game with him. 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. 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. To have a radio station here helps to establish the station's operator as an important source of information and influence in the community.". While debunking myths about pirates, I can say that in my years of pirate radio listening Ive never heard a pirate intentionally jam a legal broadcaster. Sweet! If they are getting interference to a station they would like to listen what station is that, give the call sign. 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.". Many of you have suggested in the past that the SWLing Post join an affiliate links program. "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.". Radio and electronics were my hobbies. . 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 FRW is an email-only newsletter devoted to the hobby of pirate radio listening, and is distributed free to those who contribute. KQLZ Pirate Radio stormed the Southern California airwaves in 1989, and listeners "flushed" their former stations as they. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. 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. That was particularly true on the other side of the Atlantic, where the U.K. allowed only state-controlled radio from the 1920s through the mid-1960s. Recycling is good. Here's a test shot without the line or antenna attached. Pirate radio stations are a crucial part of British music culture. The government authorities in charge of the surveillance of the radio-electric spectrum can use the PROWATCH instruments to detect and locate the pirate and irregular broadcast stations of radio and TV. If we can't get in touch with the property owner we try to use a locksmith and if we can't get the locksmith then the door comes breaking down and then we try to secure it before we leave. 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. These guys aren't blowing off their listeners like the other radio stations. They spent the fees to get the license. Like if a pirate, you know, gets his station up and running, he finds that no one is in a channel, and he says, oh, I guess I'll set myself here, other than the law, which is obviously important to some people, most people it should be, but why should we care that they are using vacant spectrum? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We're not using an FM spectrum for this podcast. MR. DOMBROWSKI: We do make them aware that they are contributing to this illegal activity. I used a pneumatic spud gun to launch an arborist's bag to deploy my 50' end fed antenna 40' up into a tree. He was out of Berkeley, California, and his station was called Radio Free Berkeley. 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. 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