We do follow the bread crumbs to where it leads us and a lot of times we are able to identify the operators and where the studio is and have success in getting the station shut down. 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. Andrew Yoder, author and publisher of the 2012 Pirate Radio Annual, defines pirate radio as: [A]ny unlicensed hobby broadcast operation that is using more power than the legal limit.. And what the pirate radio operators do is they don't obtain a license, they don't go through this process, and they try to find vacant spectrum between these stations. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, the legitimate one, the licensed station. 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. Revealing the history of pirate radio from 1925 to today, author Andrew Yoder, pirate radio aficionado and long-time writer on radio, electronics, and audio subjects:. Well media bureau was on there, they are the ones that license FM stations, and I kind of chose that as kind of my eighth choice. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, if it's imported. 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. He got the craft back and kept at pirate radio for nearly another quarter century. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And we're talking about air traffic control? He was out of Berkeley, California, and his station was called Radio Free Berkeley. 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). 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 not only interference, but we also have issues of interference to other radio services. Just browse the pirate radio category: https://swling.com/blog/category/pirate-radio/. Though pirates can be located anywhere on the planet, and therefore can broadcast, hypothetically, anywhere on the radio dial, patterns are actually fairly predictable in order to draw a listening audience. Liverpool vs Wolves will kick-off on Wednesday, March 1 at 8pm. And that's a pretty big deterrent when you show up with police officers threatening to arrest somebody because they are operating a pirate radio station. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. 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. 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. This little book by Andrew Yoder is the equivalent of the WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook) of the pirate radio world. And so that impedes the investigation a little bit because it is difficult to find where that studio is located, but we do, we do a lot of interviews. 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. Even as many legacy international broadcasters are abandoning the shortwave bands, shortwave remains active and vibrant in another quadrant: namely, on shortwave pirate radio. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So you could cause like a catastrophe if we, you know, let this continue. And as a bonus, Radio Caroline still exists though, ironically, it's gone legal. We call them Notices of Apparent Liability where we will fine the operator. So hopefully that's enough for them to get the station taken down and maybe share some information about who the real operator is. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we don't have a rule in the books that prohibits that from happening. The U.S. has had its share of pirate broadcasters over the years as well. It would identify what are the legitimate stations and also identify what stations we sanctioned so they could better get an understanding, you know, is this a legitimate station I am hearing or not. They came and seized all of my equipment. 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. Many of our links now function as affiliate links. 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. That's really helpful because then we can note when to send the agents out. Let's say they are listening, they think something is suspicious they get a tip, they see something weird in their building, what can they do to help you and the FCC tackle this problem? Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Patrick J. Kiger MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, it's -- Pirate radio has been around for decades. So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? Ive had great results in the past with an old Icom IC-735 and a 40-meter dipole antenna. Yes, they come with weapons. We also get the other federal agencies involved, the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, where we can seek a warrant. 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. He then obtained another ship, a German trawler called the Ross Revenge, which continued to host the station until it ran aground along the British coast in 1991. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: We're not using an FM spectrum for this podcast. It will also help to have some sort of adjustable bandwidth filter (wide/narrow). And so when a station operates say on 95.5 megahertz they now have potential to cause interference to other stations on 95.5 that may be a little distance away. Very old school, and cheap enough for anyone's budget. Winning a con. And an overall limit of $2 million. 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. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: No, it doesn't have -- It's not marked with pizza delivery guy either. Pirate radio stations are a crucial part of British music culture. This radio in a single case is also capable of re-broadcasting any audio source. They spent the fees to get the license. Yes, so it's kind of like a cascade of options --. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? ACTIVITY. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well it depends what level we are at with the investigation. Pirate Radio goes on the air in Los Angeles by "taking over" K-Lite 100 (KIQQ). PIRATES RADIO NETWORK AFFILIATES Pennsylvania PITTSBURGH: KDKA-FM 93.7 Altoona: WVAM-AM 1430 Ambridge: WMBA-AM 1460 Beaver Falls: WBVP-AM 1230 Bradford: WESB-AM 1490 Butler: WISR-AM 680 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. 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. And then he had, you know, he was on the internet. 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. 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. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. If you've been binge-watching movies lately, you may have come across "Pirate Radio." And so he brought this argument up when we tried to get his station off the air by using the court proceedings and he fought that we were violating his First Amendment rights. "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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Oh, yes. 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. Meanwhile, the Ross Revenge was repaired and converted into a floating museum for tourists. We do let stations operate with low power transmitters but they have to comply with the technical requirements of Part 15 of our rules. 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. 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. "He was waiting several months to come back on the air (and therefore was only willing to speak off the record to me). 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. And converted into a floating museum for tourists is the equivalent of the pirate in... Affiliate links gone legal as a bonus, radio Caroline still exists though, ironically, it 's of... 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