how to find pirate radio stations

Listening to Other Stations: Click on the tuning arrows ( TUNE >) to listen to stations up and down the dial. 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. As soon as there were laws on the books, there were pirate radio stations on the air. They lose advertisers because of it, they lose coverage area because of it, and it all comes down to dollars and cents. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: All right. Other times though you might have reason to suspect that they are in on it, they are getting a kickback. 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). "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. I have four offices, it includes Chicago, it includes Boston, New York, and Columbia, Maryland. And another thing, also, we would have to direct our attention annually to five markets that are most affected by pirates and we would do some step-up enforcement. Pirates are always active during holidays, too, most especially on Halloween (31st of October), which seems to be pirates favorite holiday. 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. A lot of stations conceal their antennas, they hide behind things, they take the antennas down during they day, so they try avoid detection. Now that maybe gets us down to the building, you know, where it might be operating. 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. They don't know how to reach us? Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Patrick J. Kiger 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. 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. These guys aren't blowing off their listeners like the other radio stations. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we're talking about air traffic control? Now one thing I want to talk about is Part 15. After the reorganization and modernization of the field I then became the Regional Director and manage several offices now. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. So just keep in mind next time you read some nice hipster article about how great pirate radio is in your community, that there are serious issues at play and what the FCC is doing is really important and that's why it's so great to have you on here to share your perspective and some of your history working on this and we really just want to thank you for your service. Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. 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. It could be harmful if we let a pirate radio station operate because sometimes they cause interference to other services, like aeronautical communications. 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 --. We try to interview them. 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. * Shows you how to find pirate stations on your AM/FM, shortwave, and online radios. 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. 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. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. All you need is a location to host the antenna and access to electricity unless you've got batteries, then just the location.". Radio Caroline because so influential that, pretty soon, other ships were broadcasting rock off the coast as well. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, just 20. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well it depends what level we are at with the investigation. 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. "In Haiti during the Duvalier regime, people depended on radio to get news from independent sources off the island. So if they don't meet the Part 15 requirements they need a license. And they also would be able to contact us and find out where the complaint is in the queue and, you know, what's going on with the complaint and have we investigated it yet. This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of The Spectrum Monitor Magazine. 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. Marshal Service actually and that allows us to go in with the U.S. Violators faced two years of imprisonment and fines. 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. It's covert surveillance equipment. In the late 1980s, unlicensed operators tried broadcasting from a Honduran-flag freighter in the waters off Long Island, according to The New York Times. The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, it doesn't have -- It's not marked with pizza delivery guy either. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. 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. So over the last ten years people get online and purchase a transmitter and get it delivered to their door and so that makes, you know, everybody a hobbiest now and to have an interest to start a pirate radio station because it's so available. One of the first pirate radio operators we know of was Ronan O'Rahilly. 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. Right now it is $10,000 per day per occurrence. After that we just destroy it through an electronics recycler. The price of the equipment is $2,960.51. You still have to go down on foot and go out onto maybe the rooftop where the antenna is to confirm that that is the source. Well joining me to discuss this topic is David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. 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. 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. Is this something that plays a role in alerting you to these stations that broadcasters themselves are identifying them and complaining about them? There was an operator named Stephen Dunifer. And then they said to me well here is ten jobs that you potentially could have which one is your top choice? Powerful, uncertified transmitters manufactured in foreign countries easily slip through customs at U.S. ports. And when KIWI went silent, that was it. It's something we have been doing as long as the equipment has been available we've always had pirate radio operators. Bruce will host a new daily show for Bauer's station Greatest Hits Radio, taking his iconic PopMaster game with him. Created on. 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. Launched just five months ago, Internet Archive's Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications has expanded to more than 61,000 items related to amateur radio, shortwave listening, and related communications. 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 --. It had a 20-mile range. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And obviously as a good citizen I have never to my knowledge listened to a pirate radio station. So, for example, if youre listening for North American pirates from Europe, youll need to plan accordingly. About Google Maps. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We're not using an FM spectrum for this podcast. 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. 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. 2 talking about this. I was glad to be here, it was a great opportunity. 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. Now stop your Googling right now because that is illegal, right? They use either the internet or a wireless source to get the signal back to the transmitter. bclc lotto app not working; signs your internship will turn into a job; mary suehr schmitz. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. Thank you, too, for your support of these sites. comment. If you live in North Americaparticularly on the east coastor in Europe, youre in luck: these are the hottest geographic locations for shortwave pirate radio activity. And they come -- I've worked with them when they have bulletproof vests on and automatic weapons. We also recommend that the complainant contact the station that they are getting interference to --. We take it all. 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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