AM Pirate station on 1700

[nd2023]

This weekend I noticed a pirate station on 1700 AM with a strong signal in Brooklyn. I could still hear it at the Nassau/Suffolk border with a weaker signal. It had foreign language music.

The FM band must have been so full of pirate stations that they're now using the AM band.

 

[xmradiopro]

Today Tuesday I'm hearing foreign language broadcaster on 1690 AM with music from South Queens...fair to good reception.

 

[nd2023]

Maybe it's the same pirate that changed its frequency. It had way too much range to be a Part 15, it had to have caught a skywave to make it 35 miles at night.

 

[jhguthlac]

Wow. Haven't heard a pirate on AM in years.

 

[BarryATL]

Are AM pirates easier to track down than FM?

 

[nd2023]

I'd assume it's harder to track down an AM pirate because near the transmitter there are so many things that can reradiate and throw off a direction finder. Plus the skywave goes really far at night so you could hear an AM pirate station in Chicago when it's broadcasting from New York, especially on a clear frequency like 1700.

There could be a ship located over 100 miles offshore in international waters broadcasting a pirate AM station, and it'll have a strong signal on the coastline of an entire region because saltwater conductivity is so good. The FCC will first look for the signal on land. If it's in international waters, the US can't do anything about it.

 

[BarryATL]

That's interesting. I believe there was a pirate AM that operated off the UK coast for years.

 

[TimeIsTight]

I believe there was a pirate AM that operated off the UK coast for years.

Yes, in the 60s there were several rock and roll, and even beautiful music commercial pirates broadcasting into the UK from ships offshore.

I once met an American DJ named Jerry Smithwick, who then worked at WFUN in Miami, who had worked on the offshore pirates in England. It was not the most pleasant job, living on a rusty old boat, and dealing with waves and sea sickness while trying to sound upbeat on the radio. It was exciting but he didn't stay over there long.

The most famous pirate station was Radio Caroline, but there were several others including one on a Texas tower anchored on the ocean floor near London. That tower had been installed for antiaircraft defense use, and there was no sea sickness problem there.

There was even a radio pirate on a ship off Long Island. The guy who owned it now has a legal US shortwave broadcasting station, WBCQ, The Planet, broadcasting from Maine.

 

[TimeIsTight]

I'd assume it's harder to track down an AM pirate because near the transmitter there are so many things that can reradiate and throw off a direction finder.

Nick, you're probably correct that it is a "little" harder to track down an AM pirate, but the FCC has done it before on 1700-khz.

The result was:

The Philadelphia Office received information that an unlicensed broadcast
radio station on 1700 kHz was allegedly operating in Phillipsburg, New
Jersey. On November 1, 2007, agents from this office confirmed by
direction finding techniques that radio signals on frequency 1700 kHz were
emanating from your residence.

Here's a link to the whole page on the FCC website:

http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-278979A1.html

 

[Ai4i]

Are AM pirates easier to track down than FM?

Much easier: Easy to null by turning a portable radio around and no picket fencing issue.
You do that twice from two different locations and then go to where the lines on the map meet.
If the signal is strong on a car radio, listen on a first adjacent channel and drive until the splatter gets strong, then disconnect the car radio antenna and go back the the right frequency, drive until it is strong, tune to an adjacent channel again and drive until the splatter is strong again. Get out of the car and look for a long wire or tower or mast, probably with nothing on it. If you have a portable world band receiver, listen on harmonics. In the case of a station on 1700, these would be 3.4 MHz, 5.1 MHz, 6.8 MHz, etc. We have found many legitimate stations, pirates, community stations (usually in city parks or on city hall or the local police or fire department), talking homes, and long wave beacons this way. Finding FM's is more a matter of driving around where the signal is perfect with no antenna connected to the radio, and knowing what to look for, typically a four bay vertical array mounted in the clear.

 

[nd2023]

But this is New York City. The AM pirate may be entirely within one apartment, and the building's electrical system may be acting as the antenna. With FM, the antenna has to be outside and high for good coverage, but an AM antenna can be hidden. The nearby buildings will also reradiate the AM signal, so the direction finder will point towards every building. With FM multipath, the direction finder would point towards the reflector of the signal, but once you get to that place that's reflecting the signal, it would point to the source. But AM signals are reradiated for a long distance due to the higher wavelength. That's why AM stations have to plan for other towers within a mile because those reradiate the signal and mess up the directional pattern.

 

[TimeIsTight]

But AM signals are reradiated for a long distance due to the higher wavelength. That's why AM stations have to plan for other towers within a mile because those reradiate the signal and mess up the directional pattern.

Nick, you make very valid points, but don't forget the FCC doesn't use the same methods or the same equipment most of us would use if we were doing the same thing. If you've ever gotten a peak inside one of those unmarked big SUV's with the smoked glass windows and the two small antennae at a specific distance from each other on the roof, you'd know they have some extra big guns for the hunt, and they should. Certainly they can easily tell the difference between an active element and a passive that is re-radiating at a distance. You're right that in an apartment building they might have a problem figuring out which apartment actually has the transmitter in it.

But sometimes they only have to listen to the pirate for clues, like commercials or promos that offer addresses, phone numbers, web sites etc. that are easily traced by other methods.

The bottom line is: if the FCC decides to find somebody using a transmitter, it will. The problem is in getting it to decide to go looking. It now seems obvious that unless somebody complains loud and long, the FCC probably believes it has better things to do most of the time.