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Ever DXed a pirate station?
- Thread starter nd2023
- Start date
Nick said:
I've never captured any for sure, but I've heard some that I have suspected were pirates.
I have heard a few of the "43 meter band" pirates (6800-7000kHz) occasionally, but their audio was terrible or low modulation or being drowned out by Teletype or Morse Code transmissions and/or their signal was weak. Most of the time the signal faded out or they switched off their transmitter only a few minutes after I had started hearing them, so I have never heard any of the Shortwave pirates for any length of time...By the time I got the tape recorder, they were gone...
stormy01 said:
I heard one long ago around the same frequency. I couldn't hear it very long & I believe they quickly left the air.
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Ive Dxed quite a few SW pirates on 6925, and 6950,, you have to keep your rig on 24/7 to hear them, as they often only broadcast for 15 minutes, up to 2 hrs, as some are modified HAM Rigs and heat up quickly.
Ive never heard an FM or Mediumwave pirate anywhere other than locally,, of course Ive caught some unidentifyable ones that I couldnt find on Radio Locator,,,, but they didnt give out an ID or City or License, so I have no proof of their intent, or location.
Ive never heard an FM or Mediumwave pirate anywhere other than locally,, of course Ive caught some unidentifyable ones that I couldnt find on Radio Locator,,,, but they didnt give out an ID or City or License, so I have no proof of their intent, or location.
I once tuned in to one on the AM band, but it was coming from only a couple of (road) miles away. Several guys had a small-watt transmitter up and going from one of their houses and they talked and played rock music. I had told two guys about the broadcasts and when I heard that station on the air one evening, I drove to their house and when I went it, I said, "the pirates are on now". Their dad was sitting there and thought I meant the Pittsburgh Pirates and remakred, "I thought they played this afternoon".
Old people say some of the funniest things. Hold it...I'm one of them now--how did that happen???Cincinnati Kid said:
Do you remember any of the AM pirates around Cincy in the late 1960's?
I dxed my own station in 1991. When I was a SW pirate that year, I listened twice in Nashville while a friend went over to my apartment in Chicago and fired up the 1930's homebrew monster. One time on a super-cheapie pocket analog SW with just the whip antenna, another time at a friend's house on his Collins R390A. That was 100w at 500 miles. I was very pleased with the signal, as Nashville was off the dead end of the antenna.
'Course 500 miles isn't really dx on 40 meters, but it was sure fun hearing my pea-shooter AM sounding "big" if not powerful.
I also remember hearing other 7415 AMs back then, but don't remember any well except KXKVI , which was stunning in signal strength,
production, and polish. It was like a live-remote big band broadcast, very well done.
'Course 500 miles isn't really dx on 40 meters, but it was sure fun hearing my pea-shooter AM sounding "big" if not powerful.
I also remember hearing other 7415 AMs back then, but don't remember any well except KXKVI , which was stunning in signal strength,
production, and polish. It was like a live-remote big band broadcast, very well done.
Tom Wells said:
I heard some pirates on the 40M band back in the 80s, but none recently although I'm told they're still around
Back in the early and mid 1960's, there was quite a bit of AM pirate activity going on in Indianapolis. One pretty well known pirate was on the east side and located in the Arlington High School vicinity.
My buddy and I had no idea where the station was located but we took my Zenith Trans Oceanic with it's directional ferrite antenna and drove around rotating it for the strongest signal until we actually got about a block away from the Pirate. As we were turning down the very street we noticed ahead of us was a car with a round antenna. It pulled over. As we drove past, we noticed a long wire antenna in the back yard of the house the car was parked in front of.
Busted!
My buddy and I had no idea where the station was located but we took my Zenith Trans Oceanic with it's directional ferrite antenna and drove around rotating it for the strongest signal until we actually got about a block away from the Pirate. As we were turning down the very street we noticed ahead of us was a car with a round antenna. It pulled over. As we drove past, we noticed a long wire antenna in the back yard of the house the car was parked in front of.
Busted!
BobOnTheJob said:
The incident I referred to in that story was from 1966 or 1967 and in the late summer as I recall. The broadcasts were understood to be coming from the Kenwood suburb of Cincinnati (about ten or eleven miles northeast of the downtown area for those not familar with it). I later ran into a guy who claimed to have been one of the "pirates". He indicated the only complaint they had received came from a teenager who threatened to report them. He said they just laughed and made very pointed suggestions as to what would happen to him if he did. All in all, the broadcasts only lasted a very short time.
Once upon a time, there was a pirate station from California that broacast on SW called Radio North Star International.
It had so much power that I heard it in New Hampshire with no antenna. It was loud and clear.
One day an inspector from the FCC came knocking on the pirate's door. The pirate was just smoking
a fat one when they showed up at the garage behind his mom's house. Upon opening the door, the
agent was hit by a cloud of pot smoke.
"Welcome to Radio North Star", said the ripped pirate. " What's this?", asked the FCC.
"It's a pirate station on short wave" said the pirate. Wow!!!!!!! The FCC agent exclaimed as he saw the one thousand watt Collins Transmitter all fired up.
"I saw your antenna outside. I thought you were a ham. I was here looking for an overpowered CB causing TVI in the neighborhood. I thought you could help. Now, I am going to have to give you a citation."
The pirate's buzz was ruined.
It had so much power that I heard it in New Hampshire with no antenna. It was loud and clear.
One day an inspector from the FCC came knocking on the pirate's door. The pirate was just smoking
a fat one when they showed up at the garage behind his mom's house. Upon opening the door, the
agent was hit by a cloud of pot smoke.
"Welcome to Radio North Star", said the ripped pirate. " What's this?", asked the FCC.
"It's a pirate station on short wave" said the pirate. Wow!!!!!!! The FCC agent exclaimed as he saw the one thousand watt Collins Transmitter all fired up.
"I saw your antenna outside. I thought you were a ham. I was here looking for an overpowered CB causing TVI in the neighborhood. I thought you could help. Now, I am going to have to give you a citation."
The pirate's buzz was ruined.
Timewarp said:
So did he go back on the air?
I'm sure I've heard some pirates in several cities but didn't know they were pirates at the time.
My first encounted with a known pirate was listening to 87.9 in Berkeley, California. Apparently that station has quite the history fighting the the FCC.
While on the job in Birmingham a few years back I was hauling a customer's order to the airport in the company truck and stumbled on a pirate on 100.1 MHz. After I got off work at 2am I beelined back into the city in my own car and was able to track the station down. It was a bunch of kids outside a building in southside sitting on the front steps playing dance music!
Since then I've heard the same station once or twice more. It seems they only operate on holidays and other special events. They're within eyesight of a second adjacent, a 100kw station on 99.5 MHz but I don't guess anyone's complained about them. The furtherest I was able to get the station (just past the airport) was about 5 miles; it was significantly terrain-limited to the north and south. Dunno what kinda power output they had but the antenna appeared to be about 30 feet off the ground atop a roof.
My first encounted with a known pirate was listening to 87.9 in Berkeley, California. Apparently that station has quite the history fighting the the FCC.
While on the job in Birmingham a few years back I was hauling a customer's order to the airport in the company truck and stumbled on a pirate on 100.1 MHz. After I got off work at 2am I beelined back into the city in my own car and was able to track the station down. It was a bunch of kids outside a building in southside sitting on the front steps playing dance music!
Since then I've heard the same station once or twice more. It seems they only operate on holidays and other special events. They're within eyesight of a second adjacent, a 100kw station on 99.5 MHz but I don't guess anyone's complained about them. The furtherest I was able to get the station (just past the airport) was about 5 miles; it was significantly terrain-limited to the north and south. Dunno what kinda power output they had but the antenna appeared to be about 30 feet off the ground atop a roof.
Not sure if it was E-skip or Tropo or what, but I heard a pirate here in Vermilion, OH broadcasting on 87.9 one evening a couple summers ago playing reggae type music. Only heard it one time. There also used to be a pirate station broadcasting from the area of state route 60 and state route 2 in Vermilion on 93.5 calling itself '93.5 the Urge' The station could only be heard from about a mile around. You also had WRQN/Bowling Green, OH and CBCL/London, ON both trying to come in on that freq and would mix with the pirate station unless you were within about 1,000 feet of SR 60/SR 2 interchange. 93.5 the Urge played a mix of alternative and pop hits.
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