There were helicopters flying over and taking videos, so we got on a little TV, and that helps to go a long way when we get a little media coverage. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we don't have a rule in the books that prohibits that from happening. . MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes, we have a lot of stations in New York, in particular. 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. There was an operator named Stephen Dunifer. "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. Not all the illegal stations are pirate stations! MR. DOMBROWSKI: So some States have laws on the book that prohibit pirate radio operation, States like New Jersey and New York and Florida. Do you hear it on the weekends or is only a station that operates during the weekends? Tracking a Pirate Radio Station The Modern Rogue Discovering Secret "Numbers Stations" The Modern Rogue Detecting a Wire and Hidden Spy Cams The Most Notorious TV Hijack of All Time Rodney P -. Our agents typically work in a certain area so they become familiar with all the pirate radio operators and they kind of started to notice the pattern and so we were able to gather all of the evidence and go to the U.S. Attorney's Office and seize all that equipment and get the station off the air. 10. The result was a border-blaster that covered a wide geographical area. 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. 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. Yes, so it's kind of like a cascade of options --. One of the FCC's top enforcement priorities is cracking down on pirates. If we can't get in touch with the property owner we try to use a locksmith and if we can't get the locksmith then the door comes breaking down and then we try to secure it before we leave. ACTIVITY. April 8, 2015 - 10:43 am. 14 July 2020. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: So what is the current state of pirate radio? Coffee helps fuel the SWLing Post! 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. He was out of Berkeley, California, and his station was called Radio Free Berkeley. Has it gotten worse, has it gotten better? They were also changing frequency. Now when we talk about enforcement actions, you know, I'd like to kind of paint a picture for our listeners. Airchecks from unauthorized broadcast radio stations throughout the years. It has a radio receiver in it, it has a computer screen with a map, and it has a little compass rose that tells us what direction the signal is coming from. I was glad to be here, it was a great opportunity. Note: This podcast was recorded on June 21st. But by the 1960s, the postwar baby boom filled the U.K. with millions of teenagers who were eager to hear the rock 'n' roll records that the BBC declined to play. 1. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: That's some great local cooperation right there. They just twist the dial. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: They could stream it just like this podcast we're doing. Now all those things have one thing in common. Marshals went in with us and we seized the equipment. We would also have to create a database for the public access. Indeed, since pirates are operating at lower power, they get much more bang-for-the-watt out of SSB. Give me an address or an intersection in the town that you are picking it up on. This metal-focused platform is available entirely online, so you can access the music from a lot of different locations, even though the station is based in San Francisco. And then they said to me well here is ten jobs that you potentially could have which one is your top choice? 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? And that's it, we will catch you next time. 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. It was the strongest pirate station I have ever witnessed. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And let them know. Google Maps is a web mapping service developed by Google. Unlike the rock 'n' roll hipsters of 1960s British pirate radio, who aimed at a mass audience, most of Brooklyn's unlicensed broadcasters seem to be immigrants and members of ethnic and religious minorities trying to reach their own groups and neighborhoods. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Okay. If they are getting interference to a station they would like to listen what station is that, give the call sign. They came and seized all of my equipment. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Yes. 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. I mean stream --. If you just use an internet browser and search FCC complaint you will come to the link for filing a complaint. 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. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Right. So, for example, if youre listening for North American pirates from Europe, youll need to plan accordingly. The antenna is not where the people are necessarily or where the rest of the equipment is. A new, raw, grassroots kind of pirate radio exploded from 1992 onwards. It's about $200,000 worth of equipment. 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. 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. That's really helpful because then we can note when to send the agents out. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Yes, so you have options. It's covert surveillance equipment. And it was good media coverage, too. Violators faced two years of imprisonment and fines. Listening to pirate radio is perfectly legaland frequently an ear-opening experience. Unauthorized stations are particularly prolific in the New York City area, where a 2016 study by the New York State Broadcasters Association (NYSBA) found that there actually were more pirates then on the FM band than legal licensed stations. South America was strong for a while in the 90s, but that has also fallen silent. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360 interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning . Is this something that plays a role in alerting you to these stations that broadcasters themselves are identifying them and complaining about them? 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? Oh, it happens a lot, especially in these urban areas like New York. The Moody Blues are one example of this." MR. DOMBROWSKI: There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. Thank you! Pirate radio operators usually have day jobslike most of usthus only transmit while home from work. Well, I can't say exactly what it is, but, yes, they're --. MR. DOMBROWSKI: Raise it all the way up 100 feet and our director at the time rode up there and got the antenna down. They also cover your wireless routers in your house. * Explains how to buy and use equipment to listen to pirate stations. That doesn't prohibit somebody from filing an anonymous complaint, we still take those. But O'Rahilly was undeterred, even after his ship was seized briefly by Dutch authorities. MR. DOMBROWSKI: And so that's not practical for somebody that wants to operate a radio station to cover an entire community. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: And those, and I think we mentioned New York, we mentioned Philadelphia, are there other hot spots in particular where this seems to just be a bigger problem than elsewhere in the country? So what is the state of pirate radio in the U.S. and how is the FCC taking it on? 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. 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. They label the equipment as something else. MR. DOMBROWSKI: We do make them aware that they are contributing to this illegal activity. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Because you don't know what you are running into. 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. Now this is not just a focus of the FCC, Congress is also interested in this. To determine the wavelength of your signal in inches, divide 11811 by your transmitter's frequency in megahertz (MHz). Chasing pirates has also increased my technical know-how. 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. We also recommend that the complainant contact the station that they are getting interference to --. MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Do the pilots only complain if it's a song that they don't like? 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. So I never left, I've been here for over 25 years. 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. Director Richard Curtis' 2009 comedy-drama stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as The Count, a disc jockey for an unlicensed rock radio station that broadcast from a rusty, decrepit ship off the British coast in the mid-1960s, defying government authorities to spin the rock records that weren't allowed on the BBC at the time. Broadcasting at 250,000 watts, XERF was five times as powerful as the most high-powered Top 40 AM stations on the West Coast. The FCC argued that we were here to regulate the airwaves. Before we talk about where to hunt pirates, however, we need to talk about the necessary equipmenti.e., your radio and antenna. 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. And that is where we ask for the public's help. Use promo code ROGUE to get a shot at MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in total prizes! (Disclaimer). 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? MR. SWARZTRAUBER: Well let that be a lesson to the youngsters listening. So they thought that was a way for them to avoid detection by hopping from building to building and frequency to frequency. 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). Pirate cards are among the most unusual of QSL cards, that often incorporate obscure or vintage imageryhumor, horror, or other graphic oddityor cast the pirate in a unique character representation. Where the "modern" history of pirate radio seems to begin, though, is in the 1960s when pirate radio operators would get on the air to spread their music to a wider audience. Set up your Raspberry Pi You'll need to get Raspbian, the Linux-based operating system for the Raspberry Pi. The warrant is issued to the U.S. Total . They have a bill circulating around called the PIRATE Act. 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. "Pirate Radio" is a period piece, set in a time when the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the Who's "My Generation" were still scandalous and controversial rather than nostalgic anthems for today's aging baby boomers. This means that by clicking on these links, a small percentage of the purchase price for goods you purchase from these sellers will help support our sites running costs. 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. Loggings are in real time and there are very fewif anyoff-topic posts. 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). Do we have a right under the first amendment to speak via a radio station even if it is unlicensed by the FCC and is there potentially a case that can kind of exemplify why pirate radio is not protected under the First Amendment? Many of you have suggested in the past that the SWLing Post join an affiliate links program. 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