how to find pirate radio stations
The British government, though, didn't appreciate what Radio Caroline and other pirate broadcasters were doing. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So don't bother looking for it. I know at least in our region we get them everywhere. "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.". Is this something that plays a role in alerting you to these stations that broadcasters themselves are identifying them and complaining about them? 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. 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. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. Nothing. The FCC argued that we were here to regulate the airwaves. It's about $200,000 worth of equipment. And when KIWI went silent, that was it. We were able to prove that it wasn't a violation of the First Amendment rights and so that set the precedence for any future case for that argument. "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. They also have potential to cause interference to the adjacent channel stations, you know, up above their frequency and below their frequency. We have language to kind of consider them an operator, so they could be liable for a fine and we do issue them a warning letter. 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. These pirate stations pose a host of problems for public safety, including interference with emergency alerts and air traffic control. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? 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. We try to interview them. Shortwave DX Blog - A blog with loggings and information relating to shortwave pirate radio in Europe. March 13 2022 . So sometimes the apartment owner, the building owner, or whatever, is totally in the dark about this, didn't know about. We'd like to contact you. Powerful, uncertified transmitters manufactured in foreign countries easily slip through customs at U.S. ports. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. Radio plays such an important role when you talk about hurricanes striking or other natural disasters, people turn to their local broadcast, including radio for information, and to have that be interfered with is a public safety concern let alone the FAA issues which are very serious. 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. Most pirates transmit using SSB with modern ham radio equipment, others use AM utilizing vintage or homebrew equipment. It's covert surveillance equipment. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we talked a little bit about why this is a problem. Sweet! Now when we talk about enforcement actions, you know, I'd like to kind of paint a picture for our listeners. Chasing pirates has also increased my technical know-how. 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? Marshals went in with us and we seized the equipment. Let's say you don't get cooperation from a building owner, you don't get cooperation from the eventual studio, maybe it's in their apartment and they're not opening the door, obviously, because they don't want to get caught. Has it evolved over the years? 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. (Listen to one of Ronins broadcasts below.). 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. He's the station manager for today's legal, land-based version of Radio Caroline, which obtained a license to broadcast at 648 Khz on the AM band in 2017, but still strives to preserve the rebellious spirit of the original operation. 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. We would also have to create a database for the public access. Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. 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. 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. Pirate Radio goes on the air in Los Angeles by "taking over" K-Lite 100 (KIQQ). And I have had to make this clarifying point on other podcasts that I have done at the FCC. 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. But it worked out great, it was a great career in the media bureau. They were also changing frequency. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, in those dense urban areas because the FM band is already pretty clogged up with legitimate stations that might be one of the reasons that people throw up their hands and say, well, I guess I'm just do an illegal station because I am frustrated by the legal process for getting a station, but that is not a justification in any sense of the word. Wolves are looking to climb up the table (Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) This will be the fourth time this year the two . MR. DOMBROWSKI: That's not going to be my cell phone is it? Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So some States have laws on the book that prohibit pirate radio operation, States like New Jersey and New York and Florida. It's something we have been doing as long as the equipment has been available we've always had pirate radio operators. Pirates broadcast a wide variety of content, but are usually motivated by sharing their messageor favorite musicon the air. Stations such as Weekend Rush, Kool FM, Pulse and Innocence wanted to represent the streets and promote local scenes.. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. I am Evan Swarztrauber. But they secure the property for us so that we feel safe going in there and then we help them identify what equipment we need to seize. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. It eventually regrouped and resurfaced as an internet station, which gave it a global reach. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: -- and you always try to go with the least destructive one. 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. But with customs and border patrol seeing so much equipment coming in through the ports it's hard to identify. Evan is joined by David Dombrowski, Regional Director for Region One in the FCC Enforcement Bureau. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well they had their antenna up really high. Please leave us a review because it will help others find this show. Now some folks might be asking themselves this is all great, I totally agree that pirate radio is bad, and I think that you should absolutely go after it, but what about the First Amendment? They can be highly entertaining or thought-provoking, and thus are, themselves, a unique art form. And so it ranges from Maine down to Virginia and all the States east of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. If you just use an internet browser and search FCC complaint you will come to the link for filing a complaint. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, the legitimate one, the licensed station. "He created Radio Caroline operating in that way and the station was at once called a 'pirate,'" Moore says. As this 2009 article from the Independent, a British newspaper, details, O'Rahilly obtained a 63-ton (57-metric ton), Danish passenger ferry, the MV Frederica, and renamed it Caroline, after the daughter of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Right now it is $10,000 per day per occurrence. Given other responsibilities and obligations, however, the Commission's resources are stretched, and it seems that stopping pirate radio is not at the top of the priority list. So, for example, if youre listening for North American pirates from Europe, youll need to plan accordingly. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Well at least you are recycling. Note:Even though it is illegal to broadcast on the shortwave bands without a license, and those who do so are subject to hefty fines, it is not illegal to listen or to send and receive QSL cards from such operators. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well that's what I went up with. . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. So we get complaints from the FAA quite often, more than a few times a month in New York, and that the pilots are flying over the city and they are trying to communicate with air traffic control and all of a sudden they pick up a radio station. * Shows you how to find pirate stations on your AM/FM, shortwave, and online radios. 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