So a transmitter that complies with the Part 15 requirements has a very small operating range, about 100 feet. (Disclaimer). 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. Again, they are not law enforcement, so we don't have weapons. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, well just in the FM band particularly, if we just let everybody operate where they want it just creates chaos, and that's always been our argument that it creates chaos it the spectrum. And I have had to make this clarifying point on other podcasts that I have done at the FCC. That was right when the internet really started exploding so he was able to get his message out. Pirate radio stations are a crucial part of British music culture. Our agents are pretty smart on the tricks. The British government, though, didn't appreciate what Radio Caroline and other pirate broadcasters were doing. They could stream. After that we just destroy it through an electronics recycler. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. 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. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. MR. DOMBROWSKI: You know, that's hard to say. Wolves are looking to climb up the table (Picture: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) This will be the fourth time this year the two . Ive noticed increased pirate radio activity during the winter months, as well. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360 interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, well, you know, they operate in the AM band so it sounds really distorted when you are trying to listen to FM radio on an AM radio. Is it when you are driving in, you know, to and from work? MR. DOMBROWSKI: We do make them aware that they are contributing to this illegal activity. MR. DOMBROWSKI: It's kind of sad to see, but --. A new, raw, grassroots kind of pirate radio exploded from 1992 onwards. Give us a little of your background. Buy me a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/ringwaymanchester Email: ringwaymanchester@mail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/m3hhyofficial Facebook:. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. They also have potential to cause interference to the adjacent channel stations, you know, up above their frequency and below their frequency. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, everyone's dream job. They don't know how to reach us? And one of the reasons that they are causing harmful interference, in particular to the FAA operations, is because they are not tested, right. And then he had, you know, he was on the internet. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes. In January, President Donald Trump signed into law the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (PIRATE) Act, which gives regulators the ability to hit pirate stations with fines of up to $2 million, according to this summary from Radio World. 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. Click here to donate via PayPal. 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. If you've been binge-watching movies lately, you may have come across "Pirate Radio." Some pirates have even shown in in the SWBC bands, including 49, 31 and 25 meters. I keep a copy handy as it helps me identify stations and better understand their format. "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. DOMBROWSKI: And so that's not practical for somebody that wants to operate a radio station to cover an entire community. Has that happened? 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 --. Unlike major broadcasters, many pirates dont stick to AM as a preferred mode. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, just 20. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. 123. Ask your local radio club or search the Internet for local/regional pirate stations. Revealing the. I know at least in our region we get them everywhere. The original 60s pirate station, playing fresh pop / rock music to Britain's young masses from a boat in the North Sea, floating in international waters four and a half miles off the Essex coastline. Other times though you might have reason to suspect that they are in on it, they are getting a kickback. The HF Underground: http://www.hfunderground.com. That doesn't prohibit somebody from filing an anonymous complaint, we still take those. They have a bill circulating around called the PIRATE Act. 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. And those rules dictate a lot of restrictions and cover your wireless transmitters that we use every day, remote controls for you car, your headset, bluetooth sets. Collection Info. Enter ZIP code or city, state as well. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Well that's what I went up with. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Hometown. They came and seized all of my equipment. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And there is a lot of digital FM stations out there that are looking for programming so they could maybe work out at least an arrangement. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, very creative on that, wasn't it? While the magic of shortwave radio can transport a small signal vast distances, to hear pirates regularly and clearly, some precision is required. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And obviously as a good citizen I have never to my knowledge listened to a pirate radio station. 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: So we have fines that we could issue. That was particularly true on the other side of the Atlantic, where the U.K. allowed only state-controlled radio from the 1920s through the mid-1960s. Back when KIWI was on the air regularly in the 90s, I assumed that pirate radio would explode in Oceania and Asia. Total Views 29,573 (Older Stats) ITEMS. But it worked out great, it was a great career in the media bureau. Additionally, we always try to include links to other retail options if they are available, as we support and freely advertise independent ham radio retailers. So that's why the licensing process is so important to avoid that interference. We get them in Virginia, we get them out in Illinois, even just remote areas of West Virginia they pop up. Has it gotten worse, has it gotten better? 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. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. Pirates Week: http://shortwavepirate.info. It takes a lot of time to process just one complaint and so it is distracting our agents of getting into the database and populating all the fields and calling the complainant. To track pirates, you'll need a radio with both AM and SSB modes. It helps to show that -- That's a deterrent in itself right there when you get media coverage. ACTIVITY. 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. 2 talking about this. Once you get a license it restricts you where you can operate, how much power you can use, what antenna you can use, and how high your antenna is. Finding Shortwave Stations and Broadcasts. If we get that information we have a vehicle, it's called a direction-finding vehicle and it has specialized equipment in it. 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. Created on. But merely the act of purchasing this equipment is illegal and partly that's because it comes from overseas and it's not been tested by the FCC, correct? They lose advertisers because of it, they lose coverage area because of it, and it all comes down to dollars and cents. "Private radio was prohibited and only the British Broadcasting Corporation, which was part of the political establishment, sent radio to the British people with the remit to be morally uplifting, informative and educational," Moore says. Created on. In fact, it's possibly more widespread than it was in the 1960s, even in an age when streaming internet services such as Spotify and Pandora put the equivalent of a jukebox in the pocket of everyone with a smartphone. Stations such as Weekend Rush, Kool FM, Pulse and Innocence wanted to represent the streets and promote local scenes.. Many of you have suggested in the past that the SWLing Post join an affiliate links program. 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.. Not just Aussie and NZ pirates, but stations in places like The Phillipinesmaybe Japan, South Korea, or Thailand. I am Evan Swarztrauber. If they are getting interference to a station they would like to listen what station is that, give the call sign. Yoder actually addresses this apparent restriction, to some degree, in the 2013 Pirate Radio Annual, which has only just been released. 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. 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. They were also changing frequency. 1. 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 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. Pirates are always active during holidays, too, most especially on Halloween (31st of October), which seems to be pirates favorite holiday. I started as a field agent doing inspections and doing pirate radio enforcement was one of my jobs and then I moved into a senior agent position and then eventually the District Director, which the manager of the Philadelphia office. To track pirates, youll need a radio with both AM and SSB modes. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Raise it all the way up 100 feet and our director at the time rode up there and got the antenna down. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. Back in the 1980s, before the Internet and its online bulletin boards, I thought finding pirates was truly a huntrandom and altogether unpredictable. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. So that is a big concern for the broadcasters in those areas. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. That would be not a good practice. Broadcasting at 250,000 watts, XERF was five times as powerful as the most high-powered Top 40 AM stations on the West Coast. Many of our links now function as affiliate links. "He created Radio Caroline operating in that way and the station was at once called a 'pirate,'" Moore says. 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. We have been at in rem seizures we call them where the U.S. marshals come with the local law enforcement and there is 20 of them and they have to secure the whole block off, the have to secure the building for our protection. The U.S. It will also help to have some sort of adjustable bandwidth filter (wide/narrow). MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, so you have options. It's covert surveillance equipment. Where are you hearing this interference problem? You know, is this a massive national problem, are there particular areas where it's a problem? Coffee helps fuel the SWLing Post! And so we need to make sure that we stop the importation of this equipment, we stop the marketing of these illegal transmitters. You might need that sensitivity and an outdoor antenna to pull these relatively low-powered signals from the ether. 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