Do you hear it any other time, you know, at night time? The Pirates flagship radio station, SportsRadio 93.7 THE FAN, will air extended local pre-game and post-game coverage before and after every broadcast. They lose advertisers because of it, they lose coverage area because of it, and it all comes down to dollars and cents. We also would be required to file a report to Congress annually on our enforcement activities in pirate radio. Last updated: December 2022 Find this podcast in the iTunes store or Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. "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. Yes, so it's kind of like a cascade of options --. But what hast made the problem really expand is the equipment is readily available with the internet now. And while pirate radio stations can be found across the radio spectrum, especially on AM and FM in urban areas, in this primer Ill be focusing on those that inhabit the shortwaves. 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? Now I know that finding pirates is reasonably achievable; at least, it is possible to know roughly where, and generally when, to find them. April 8, 2015 - 10:43 am. bclc lotto app not working; signs your internship will turn into a job; mary suehr schmitz. It's about $200,000 worth of equipment. KQLZ Pirate Radio stormed the Southern California airwaves in 1989, and. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: All right. 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. Powerful, uncertified transmitters manufactured in foreign countries easily slip through customs at U.S. ports. 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. If they are getting interference to a station they would like to listen what station is that, give the call sign. 1. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, to lease some air time off these legitimate stations. The antenna is not where the people are necessarily or where the rest of the equipment is. As soon as there were laws on the books, there were pirate radio stations on the air. To have a radio station here helps to establish the station's operator as an important source of information and influence in the community.". Give us a little of your background. What can the average person do? Created on. 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. So that's why the licensing process is so important to avoid that interference. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And those, and I think we mentioned New York, we mentioned Philadelphia, are there other hot spots in particular where this seems to just be a bigger problem than elsewhere in the country? 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And let them know. 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. Euro pirates typically broadcast in the 48 meter band (6,200 6,450 kHz), but the HF Underground notes that you will also hear Euro pirates on the 75 meter band between 3,900-4,000 kHz, on the 19 meter band (15,000-15,100 kHz and 15,700-15,900 kHz), and even on the 13 meter band (21,000-25,000 kHz). One of the FCC's top enforcement priorities is cracking down on pirates. 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. Other times though you might have reason to suspect that they are in on it, they are getting a kickback. I am Evan Swarztrauber. Recycling is good. MR. DOMBROWSKI: A lot of these stations are streaming at the same time so it really boggles my mind why an FM station that's unlicensed, you know, has its stream content and then also it's broadcasting over the airwaves. So we eventually went to the courts and fought. Weve now covered the who, what, where, when, and how of pirate huntingbut what about why? They can be highly entertaining or thought-provoking, and thus are, themselves, a unique art form. 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. It's not. 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. This radio in a single case is also capable of re-broadcasting any audio source. If you've been binge-watching movies lately, you may have come across "Pirate Radio." I am Evan Swarztrauber. Hobby Broadcasting Blog: http://hobbybroadcasting.blogspot.com/. We usually go with the police just for our protection and also for the protection of the occupants inside the residence. Bruce will host a new daily show for Bauer's station Greatest Hits Radio, taking his iconic PopMaster game with him. They have a bill circulating around called the PIRATE Act. Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). Not all the illegal stations are pirate stations! 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. 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? Ive also been encouraged by pirates to hone my weak-signal DXing using exalted carrier reception (ECR)zero-beating an AM signal in SSBin an attempt to hear weak AM pirate stations. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. 16 days ago. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So you could cause like a catastrophe if we, you know, let this continue. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. You know, is this a massive national problem, are there particular areas where it's a problem? Hover over one of the three pirate radio neighborhood zones (the center zone has the most stations) and click for a list of stations that broadcast to those areas. 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. 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). Meanwhile, the Ross Revenge was repaired and converted into a floating museum for tourists. Total Views 29,573 (Older Stats) ITEMS. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, if it's imported. 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. I keep a copy handy as it helps me identify stations and better understand their format. Of course, it's called the PIRATE Act, and that stands for Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act. That's part of it, right, and you rely on some cooperation in some instances to get it done. So what is pirate radio? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we're talking about air traffic control? Listening to pirate radio is perfectly legaland frequently an ear-opening experience. For many of the people in those communities, who may not be able to afford a computer or a smartphone and a broadband connection, pirate radio is an affordable medium. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, that's probably why they are complaining, right? 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: Yes. "These transmissions can interfere with licensed radio signals including broadcasters' sharing of vital public safety information with their communities," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. A lot of times the studio is not co-located with the transmitter. But the FCC, Congress and the commercial broadcasting industry don't see the pirates as serving such a benign purpose. So a transmitter that complies with the Part 15 requirements has a very small operating range, about 100 feet. We'd like to contact you. Radio and electronics were my hobbies. Tribute to Pirate Radio, KQLZ 100.3 FM Los Angeles. Pirates are always active during holidays, too, most especially on Halloween (31st of October), which seems to be pirates favorite holiday. 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. I mean stream --. Now all those things have one thing in common. 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. 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. We also get the other federal agencies involved, the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, where we can seek a warrant. These guys aren't blowing off their listeners like the other radio stations. And so it ranges from Maine down to Virginia and all the States east of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. The bulk of the pirate radio broadcasters I log transmit just below the 40-meter amateur radio band: anywhere from 6,850 kHz to 6,970 kHz and typically on a frequency spaced at 5 kHz. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: All right. 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. Pirate radio stations are a crucial part of British music culture. "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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, and some of these are in high crime areas where there is a lot of drugs. In the quieter winter months, stations seem to pop out of the ether. They label the equipment as something else. So not only interference, but we also have issues of interference to other radio services. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. "To enforce the law and protect American radio listeners and lawful businesses, the Federal Communications Commission has made a concerted effort in recent years to step up our enforcement efforts against pirate radio stations.". MR. SWARZTRAUBER: My guest has been David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. This is likely due to the early sunsets and cold winter nights of the northern hemisphere that tend to keep people indoors, which in turn encourages pirates to hit the air. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. Liverpool vs Wolves will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1 at 8pm. Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. More areas, more just the urban areas. Coffee helps fuel the SWLing Post! So when we finally are able to pick up the signal in our car we then drive in the area in kind of a circle around the source and we plot lines, we call them lines of bearing on a map, and where they intersect is where this transmission source is originating. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So this equipment helps us track us down. These include Amateur Radio Newsline, a weekly audio news [] I was glad to be here, it was a great opportunity. There were helicopters flying over and taking videos, so we got on a little TV, and that helps to go a long way when we get a little media coverage. I mean they have a significant financial investment in their stations, they have gone through proper FCC process, and now they are competing for listeners with stations that did not go through that process, did not necessarily bear the same financial burden to get up and running, and they are not maybe just competing with listeners, as we have mentioned we've been competing with, they are competing with advertisers as well. 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. 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. 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 --. Some stations think that it's best to flood the FCC with complaints. Now that maybe gets us down to the building, you know, where it might be operating. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We only waited 15 minutes into the episode to get to the fun part so I hope you are listening. This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of The Spectrum Monitor Magazine. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, there was a case back in the 1990s, late 1990s. But O'Rahilly was undeterred, even after his ship was seized briefly by Dutch authorities. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, so you have options. 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. Friday March 17, 1989 5:00 am. Unlike trying to locate China Radio International, Radio Australia, or the BBC World Service, hunting pirates requires a decent-quality radio and antenna. That happens a lot. MR. DOMBROWSKI: That's not going to be my cell phone is it? Enter the dawn of pirate radio. As Yoder goes on to explain in his introduction of the 2012 Pirate Radio Annual, pirates are often confused with radio bootleggers (who conduct unlicensed two-way conversations), clandestine stations (usually political stations), and jammers (who intentionally try to block broadcasts). 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. 14 July 2020. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. Unlike major broadcasters, many pirates dont stick to AM as a preferred mode. Is this something that plays a role in alerting you to these stations that broadcasters themselves are identifying them and complaining about them? They don't know how to reach us? 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. And then they said to me well here is ten jobs that you potentially could have which one is your top choice? Radio GDay came on from Australia occasionally, but no one else. 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 sometimes it is very difficult with those stations that have put more investment into the equipment. 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. SWARZTRAUBER: So what is the current state of pirate radio? Pirate stations want listeners to discover them, so they broadcast in various watering holes.. And that is where we ask for the public's help. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We're not using an FM spectrum for this podcast. Has it gotten worse, has it gotten better? It could be computers, antennas, coaxial cables. 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. To determine the wavelength of your signal in inches, divide 11811 by your transmitter's frequency in megahertz (MHz). 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. Everyone should agree that pirate radio stations - by any definition - are completely illegal. They can call their State Broadcast Association to get our contact information. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Do the pilots only complain if it's a song that they don't like? And one of the reasons that they are causing harmful interference, in particular to the FAA operations, is because they are not tested, right. MR. DOMBROWSKI: You know, that's hard to say. For consistencys sake, I will use the term pirate radio in this article. 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. The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. 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