MR. SWARZTRAUBER: No. 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. These include Amateur Radio Newsline, a weekly audio news [] Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. I was glad to be here, it was a great opportunity. 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. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. 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. 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. 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. 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. Chasing pirates has also increased my technical know-how. To the contrary, though, more than a half-century later, pirate radio is still a thing. They are very low power and the range of them are very small. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well they had their antenna up really high. Unlicensed radio broadcasters have been around practically since governments started trying to control and regulate the airwaves. 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. Hobby Broadcasting Blog: http://hobbybroadcasting.blogspot.com/. It was the strongest pirate station I have ever witnessed. Now when we talk about enforcement actions, you know, I'd like to kind of paint a picture for our listeners. A few of them broadcast from ships, such as Rev. URL Here: https://dkng.co/rogue-----For entertainment purposes only. Back when KIWI was on the air regularly in the 90s, I assumed that pirate radio would explode in Oceania and Asia. Collection Info. 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? Broadcasting at 250,000 watts, XERF was five times as powerful as the most high-powered Top 40 AM stations on the West Coast. 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. Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. Though Channel Z was broadcasting in AM, as many do, its best to hunt pirates with an SSB-capable portable. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. Do you hear it on the weekends or is only a station that operates during the weekends? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: All right. Created on. Many of you have suggested in the past that the SWLing Post join an affiliate links program. 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. If you live in other parts of the world, pirate hunting can pose serious DX challenges. Find this podcast in the iTunes store or Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. The library's newest additions include deep historical resources and contemporary reporting about the world of radio. And then they said to me well here is ten jobs that you potentially could have which one is your top choice? Before we talk about where to hunt pirates, however, we need to talk about the necessary equipmenti.e., your radio and antenna. bclc lotto app not working; signs your internship will turn into a job; mary suehr schmitz. 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. Yes, so it's kind of like a cascade of options --. We do contact the property owner before we execute the warrant to let them know we are at the door and we don't want to break the door down but we need them there to open it. 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. And an overall limit of $2 million. The antenna is not where the people are necessarily or where the rest of the equipment is. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? 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. We get them in Virginia, we get them out in Illinois, even just remote areas of West Virginia they pop up. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we don't have a rule in the books that prohibits that from happening. "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. "How Pirate Radio Rocked the 1960s Airwaves and Still Exists Today" "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. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. 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. Jason Scott Archivist. The important thing here is that you invest in a receiver with a respectable degree of sensitivity and selectivity. 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. 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). Radio Caroline because so influential that, pretty soon, other ships were broadcasting rock off the coast as well. Pirate radio guru Andrew Yoder started his own pirate blog last year, and has already began populating it with regular updates, QSLs, and recordings. Pirate radio broadcasting on shortwave radio in North America is mostly done in a frequency range just below the 40 meter amateur radio band, from about 6815 kHz to 6970 kHz. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. It could be computers, antennas, coaxial cables. I received this QSL from the amazing Radio Ronin Shortwave shortly before he received the knock from the FCC and stopped transmitting. A lot of times you can tell by the audio quality. 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. Dont believe me? 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. You know, is this a massive national problem, are there particular areas where it's a problem? In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are receivedespecially when the signals cross a national boundary. 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. And you have tools to escalate the situation. Is it when you are driving in, you know, to and from work? The station is capable of running off of 13.8/28 volts DC battery, which can even be charged with solar power. We take it all. PIRATE RADIO Once you remove the idea of pirate radio from its mythology, you. 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. And did I mention the cool QSL cards? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. A new, raw, grassroots kind of pirate radio exploded from 1992 onwards. "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.". "One is cost. 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. I decoded this Wolverine Radio SSTV QSL on the SSTV iOS App. Now if you go that menu there are several options of different radio services. 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. In the U.S. the most famous example of a Pirate Radio station was Mexico's XERF. 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. 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