Has anyone _heard_ a Pirate or a Part 15 station locally?

[stormy01]

This is a bit different than another recent post: Has anyone heard an unlicensed radio signal on AM or FM in their local area? (non-DX)

For me it has been a while. There was an FM broadcasting in Spanish in the late 1990's from the Waukegan area on 99.9 that I could pick up as far away as Lindenhurst. I reported it to the FCC and within a few days it was gone. In the 70's there was "WLVE" on 1520 from the Northwest side of Chicago, someone from Cary was on 99.7 with "Saddle Oaks Radio" [a subdivision] (why they were on the next channel from US-99 escapes me, that would gain attention, why not use 99.9?) They did have jingles and had a great sounding signal, they were playing music from the 70's and 80's and about 3 years ago there was a pirate on 87.9 from what I read located near Midway airport that I could hear almost up to Northbrook on the Tri-State tollway. I have never heard a Part 15 AM or FM but I have heard a "Talking House" from about 5 miles away on my car radio...

 

[radioman148]

This is a bit different than another recent post: Has anyone heard an unlicensed radio signal on AM or FM in their local area? (non-DX)

For me it has been a while. There was an FM broadcasting in Spanish in the late 1990's from the Waukegan area on 99.9 that I could pick up as far away as Lindenhurst. I reported it to the FCC and within a few days it was gone. In the 70's there was "WLVE" on 1520 from the Northwest side of Chicago, someone from Cary was on 99.7 with "Saddle Oaks Radio" [a subdivision] (why they were on the next channel from US-99 escapes me, that would gain attention, why not use 99.9?) They did have jingles and had a great sounding signal, they were playing music from the 70's and 80's and about 3 years ago there was a pirate on 87.9 from what I read located near Midway airport that I could hear almost up to Northbrook on the Tri-State tollway. I have never heard a Part 15 AM or FM but I have heard a "Talking House" from about 5 miles away on my car radio...

There was a rock & roller out of Glenview in the late 60s. He was operating on 1620 only at night. Good signal considering there was nobody else on that frequency in those days. He lasted a few months before the FCC shut him down on New Years Eve.

 

[quadraphonic]

In Knightdale NC, contiguous to Raleigh, about four years ago there was somebody running a dance signal on 92.9. It sounded technically pretty good for six or eight miles in either direction. Once or twice I heard it 15 miles away, faintly. If it was any other format, it would have blended in with other signals that far out, but the club/techno/dance music stuck out. They did it for probably a year, usually on Friday afternoons I'd hear it going to work, then it would be on for a few hours at a time on the weekends usually. They had IDs and sounded like it might have been an Internet feed, but never could tell for sure. Something like "The Dance Station" or some name like that. It was nice while it lasted, not that I enjoy dance/techno/club music, but it was "different."

 

[BobOnTheJob]

There were a few fairly potent pirates on 1610 around Cincinnati in the late 60's. And there was a night time only on 1580 or 1590 in Cincy that only operated on weekend nights. While I didn't see the antenna, it reportedly was a 1/4 wave vertical wire help up by a weather balloon. "Supposedly" the one with the weather balloon could be heard in St Louis at night...holy smokes.

 

[FreddyE1977]

about 10 yrs. ago there was an FM pirate here in Pittsburgh called Radio Carson. They played a techno-club dance mix. Their signal initially only covered the pub crawl neighborhood up and down East Carson St. on the city's South Side. Then slowly their signal started to bleed across the river and into the university areas. And then the areas a bit east of that. By the time they started coming in loud and clear at my home, seven miles to the south, I knew they were in trouble and indeed they were raided shortly afterwards.

I have also picked up an AM pirate while driving in Baldwin, PA on 890AM. Very strong, they were playing Beatles music. And there is an intermittent pirate in the same area at 88.7 that is pirating Howard Stern. And one other a few miles away that plays old-time piano music and olde-tyme radio programs on 105.3.

 

[Mid West Clubber]

Ive heard a few on FM,,,, All of them Dance Music... One which I volunteer for, but we are Part 15 AM and Net Only now.... In Chicago South Side on 87.9 around 2003-2004 playing dance music, and another in gary Indiana near Chicago and lake Michigan, also on 87.9 with 80s Dance Music called The Harber Beat..

Another in Louisville Kentucky on 99.3 with dance Music called Energy Dance Radio..... no talk, just music,,, lasted from late 2006, till feb of 2008....... Covered all of Greater Louisville,, out about 15 miles,, signal near the University and Downtown. Very good punchy stereo Audio,, no interference, but impossible to hear on an Analog radio, as the locals WDJX 99.7 and WZKF 98.9 squashed it out.

Ive heard the one near Raleigh too,, in fact it was a net feed of the former www.TheDancestation.com ,, when I heard it I think it was on 99.1, or 99.3,,, but it may have been 92.9...?????

Miami had 93.5 Universe FM with Dance music as well,,, just a few months ago they were busted after only a few weeks on air.....

 

[quadraphonic]

Ive heard the one near Raleigh too,, in fact it was a net feed of the former www.TheDancestation.com ,, when I heard it I think it was on 99.1, or 99.3,,, but it may have been 92.9...?????

I looked that up on the internet once and thought the site looked like the station sounded like, but could never tell for sure.
They might have been on other frequencies but I only ever heard them on 92.9. They sounded good, then they were gone. :-\

 

[gr8oldies]

Before they either bought or LMAed Northridge High School's WGXM and a translator, The Univiversity of Dayton's "Flyer Radio" had a Part 15 that got out a few miles on 1550. In Frankfort, IN, there's apparently several synchronized Part 15s on 107.5..they may fit into the pirate category as they seem to have a better signal than I would think for a Part 15. When I lived in Lafayette, IN I heard a "kids playing radio" pirate just once doing a continuous loop promoting a supposed sex therapist who would be on this station. On Shortwave, i got an unsolicited QSL from "The Voice of the Purple Pumpkin".

 

[LibertyNT]

Ive PickUp KLSR 1650 [part 15 station] Whenever I Drive Near Lake Ray Hubbard.

 

[tomservo]

My "local" story is in the other thread, but where I live now in Mississippi I've heard nothing other than a car in a parking lot relaying that Mad Dog guy on someone's Sirius radio.

I've got a part 15 that I used to toy with but it only got out a few hundred feet.

 

[kenglish]

We had an FM pirate in Salt Lake a few years ago. Local Hams even used it for DX'ing practice. The broadcasters pretty much left them alone, since they weren't interfering with anybody, and most liked their music format.
Eventually, though, some evangel's....looking for a vacant channel...discovered the frequency, and quickly filed on top of them for a CP.

 

[jd]

Ive PickUp KLSR 1650 [part 15 station] Whenever I Drive Near Lake Ray Hubbard.

Not a bad little station, with pretty good coverage, too. They also stream at www.klsr1650.com/

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

I forget the exact date ... maybe the late Sixties ... when WFAT 1620 broadcast from Brooklyn NYC, Top 40 with some progressive thrown in. I couldn't speak for the signal, inasmuch as I didn't drive yet (and car radios weren't apt to tune that high anyway). But it came in well where our crew used to DX, near JFK Airport.

A closer one was WEJP 730. They were from Richmond Hill, in south-central Queens. I believe this was 1967 or 1968. They were Top 40, and word was that they just sailed right across Jamaica Bay into Rockaway. I was DXing one night and first heard them on 1460. I called my buddy and he heard them too, but they IDed as 730. We did a little triangulation over the phone, then found them in maybe 10 minutes. It was quite a clubhouse for a few weeks. Then they got a visit from The Man. He signed the station off and -- iirc -- confiscated the transmitter. Story goes that one of the staffers told the FCC guy he was overmodulating as he made the sign-off.

We had a little Part-15 FM on the air a few times up here. And I mean *up* here -- we're 1540 feet up.
It was the usual casette-deck-into-the-jack and let's see how far it went. We didn't do well at all in the town iteself, which is in a bowl. But PAST the town, there we were in the mall parking lot, on the next hill south. All that distance was done operating on a weak 9-volt battery and rabbit ears sitting on the living room floor.

 

[TheDingo]

I heard a pirate on I-65 outside of Decatur AL, just before you cross the Tennessee River heading north, on 102.7. I only found it because I was using 102.7 for my XM. When I go to the beach I usually set my good part 15 transmitter on the balcony, and on a good frequency away from anything I have been able to hear it about a mile away, when I was on the top floor.

 

[stormy01]

I heard a pirate on I-65 outside of Decatur AL, just before you cross the Tennessee River heading north, on 102.7. I only found it because I was using 102.7 for my XM. When I go to the beach I usually set my good part 15 transmitter on the balcony, and on a good frequency away from anything I have been able to hear it about a mile away, when I was on the top floor.

That's a great setup - set it and forget it at the condo and then all you need is a radio at the beach. Now if you could change the satellite channels remotely from the beach that would be the ultimate!

 

[radioman148]

I heard a pirate on I-65 outside of Decatur AL, just before you cross the Tennessee River heading north, on 102.7. I only found it because I was using 102.7 for my XM. When I go to the beach I usually set my good part 15 transmitter on the balcony, and on a good frequency away from anything I have been able to hear it about a mile away, when I was on the top floor.

That's a great setup - set it and forget it at the condo and then all you need is a radio at the beach. Now if you could change the satellite channels remotely from the beach that would be the ultimate!

Your own FM station 24/7.

 

[TheDingo]

I heard a pirate on I-65 outside of Decatur AL, just before you cross the Tennessee River heading north, on 102.7. I only found it because I was using 102.7 for my XM. When I go to the beach I usually set my good part 15 transmitter on the balcony, and on a good frequency away from anything I have been able to hear it about a mile away, when I was on the top floor.

That's a great setup - set it and forget it at the condo and then all you need is a radio at the beach. Now if you could change the satellite channels remotely from the beach that would be the ultimate!

I actually can if I hook it up to my laptop and play iTunes or something online, the wifi signal from my router gets out just as good as the FM signal, and I can connect to it via remote desktop from my iPhone and control it.

 

[stormy01]

I actually can if I hook it up to my laptop and play iTunes or something online, the wifi signal from my router gets out just as good as the FM signal, and I can connect to it via remote desktop from my iPhone and control it.
[/quote]

That is very cool - I'm sure a number of us are gonna try that setup!