I'm looking for a pirate... arrrG

[TomZ]

I've been asked to help a broadcaster locate the source of a 'new' FM broadcast signal.

I don't have any special equipment that's designed to locate, so I'm wondering what 'you' would grab in order to attempt to locate a pirate...?

How about a homebrew directional antenna..

Another thread discusses horrible aftermarket receivers and I'm willing to invest a few dollars for one that's mostly deaf.

What say you?

 

[richard.vanderveen]

I used to locate pirate stations with a directional antenna, a portable radio, a car radio and my own two eyes

1. roughly establish the area the transmission is originating from with the directional antenna
2.start driving around in that area with a small portable radio with the antenna retracted, you'll find out soon whether you're driving to the signal or driving away from it.
3. when you are too close for the portable radio to fade, pull the antenna from your car radio and start driving again.
When the reception is good even without an antenna use your eyes and logic...

I've found several pirates that way, got home-brew transmittters on the shelf to prove it to! ;-)
Mind you, these were all FM-pirates, I have no experience with AM

 

[RadioMan203]

No to be a wise guy, but once you find the pirate then what? We've got an FM pirate operating in the Bridgeport, Connecticut area in excess of two years and it appears the FCC is powerless to do anything about it. If they can't do anything about it what then?

 

[TomZ]

@ Bill, It's in a part of the US that's always been called "no man's land"

Horse> check
Rope> check
Tree> damn......

 

[nocomradio]

I'd be careful there. Some pirates might not take kindly to someone just knocking and asking questions, or threatening. Armed and dangerous comes to mind here, especially if they are engaged in some other illegal activity on the same premises, which oft times is the case.

Proceed at your own risk.

Finding and reporting probably won't do much, if the FCC even cares, and if so worst case, they may just shut down and move and start up again in short order. Its like stamping out cockroaches. Squash one and three more pop up later.

 

[TomZ]

I either read (or dreamed) that some states have given their local law enforcement departments the authority to search/seize illegal broadcast equipment that operate on public service frequencies...

 

[ChiefEngineer]

We used to have df parties in the Indianapolis area. Best devices to use are yagi antennas (4 element) and a radio with a vu meter, along with an inline rf pad. Even the cheap ones at Radio Shack work if they have additional padding in line.

Get close enough so that all the padding has the signal weak on a mobile antenna, then use the beam. Lots of projects for roof mounted quarter wave elements. I really liked the old regency units used on boats that had 4 mounted to a single unit.

Then for purpose. Lots of whiny broadcasters concerned about inventory. Whining is universally unacceptable. If the pirate is interfering with the 60dbu of any facility you have your reason, even if whining is the real root. These days an unused frequency not in a 60 is highly difficult to locate.

 

[fm-engineer]

Over the years I have been contracted to find pirates a few times for different stations. I use a portable spectrum analyzer, NMO magnetic mount 1/2 wave whip, and a yagi for when I need to determine direction. I record the illegal signal on the analyzer at several resolutions, photograph the building, house, antenna, coax, etc with a telephoto lens, and then file a written report to the station that hired me. In this day and age I would never knock and ask what they are doing, too dangerous for sure.

 

[technodj]

Finding pirate stations is easy... I use a pocket radio, and my car stereo. Much like a previous poster, I leave the antenna on the pocket radio collapsed, and drive until the signal is solid. Then I tune on to a first adjacent frequency and continue until I hear stable and pure distortion. I find myself usually with in a block of the transmitter, so I start looking for antennas.

I usually do find myself walking up to the front door and making an introduction. Sometimes I'll chit-chat with the operators, offer some advice like finding a better channel to operate on, tips on how to avoid causing interference, and other various techniques. Then I pat them on the back, tell them to keep up the good work, then I go home.

 

[nocomradio]

I either read (or dreamed) that some states have given their local law enforcement departments the authority to search/seize illegal broadcast equipment that operate on public service frequencies...

Florida and New Jersey make it a felony I believe, and New York was talking about (not sure if they did it) giving LEO's power to seize equipment. Not sure how many times its gone that far though. Usually, the FCC just threatens on paper.

 

[Lazy J]

You could always try something like this...

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=DDF1

I've never actually used one myself, so I can't say if it works well. But your question reminded me that I had seen it in a Ramsey magazine once.

 

[speakerman]

Years ago my solution was to connect a vu-meter to the agc buss on a portable radio I had at the time tethered to a 6ft cable. Use a range-pot to adjust the sensitivity to the meter as you get closer. I detracted the antenna and put the radio under the seat when close to the site. Just look for the station's antenna when you are really close. Many times they may be in big old buildings linked by a wi-fi directional pair so there may be nobody home and the antenna may be low profile to make it hard to see unless you are farther away with binoculars.

I did that back in the 70s and I would agree that it may not be fun and games these days when you go knocking on doors. I would report it but would not confront anyone these days myself.

 

[kenglish]

Have you contacted your local Ham Radio club yet?
They may likely have already tracked them down for fun (and practice). ;D

If you have a VHF Field Strength Meter, like the FIM-71, you can use the supplied dipole antenna to get a sharp null on the transmitter from a distance. Triangulation will get you close. Also, the dipole is slightly asymmetrical, front-to-back, so it can tell you which way is which.

Another trick is, see if they have some harmonics. Not only will the harmonics be higher in frequency, and require smaller antennas (less noticeable when you are scouting), but the harmonics will get the FCC's (and FAA) attention.

We had one in SLC a few years ago. The Hams found them first. Most radio engineers knew of them, but didn't get involved since they ran a "clean" transmitter, and played some fun music.
Eventually, somebody decided that, "If it's a good channel for a Pirate, it's a good place for a (legal) translator".

That ended it. :

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Triangulation will narrow it down quickly. Either find 2 people with outdoor FM antennas/rotors and have them both tell you which direction the signal is best, plot it on a map and where the lines cross is a very good place to start the search. If that's not possible, get your own FM tuner/yagi (put a variable attenuator in line with the antenna coax) and triangulate on your own. Once within a couple blocks, as stated above, use some particularly high quality instruments...your eyes.

 

[ScottJ]

I used to track ELTs (Emergency Locator Transmitters) with a dipole. One useful technique for resolving the ambiguous direction is to use a body block ... hold the dipole low in front of your body and turn your whole body in a circle. One peak will be MUCH bigger than the other because your body's attenuating the RF. Take the null in that direction.

 

[bilco]

Lots of good advise here. Remember however to KISS. Keeping it simple is fine if you use care and aren't trying to be a pro about it. I've found dozens of ELT transmitters on 121.5 using nothing more than body shielding. Hold the radio and short antenna next to your body centered between the nipples, nothing extending over your shoulder. Turn around, listening for a null, forget the peaks. If you don't find the null right off, tune slightly off freq and do it again. When you have a distinctive null, the pirate is behind you. You can get fancy and triangulate or just go in that direction and try it again. Usually tuning off frequency as you get closer is about as good as an attenuator. This is where an analog receiver is better. If you must have an antenna to DF, you'll need a receiver with an S meter. The simplest DF antenna I've used is two dipoles, spaced 90 degrees and fed 90 degrees apart. Don't forget to take into consideration velocity factor in air and in the coax. This will give you a good cardiod pattern with a good null. I've slapped a temporary one together with coat hangers, a 2x2 and some old tv coax that works. I have over 70 ELT finds with Civil Air Patrol, most with simple antennas and radios. One with a Heatkit deviation meter and a dipole body sheilded because that was all I had with me at the time.! I've found several pirates with similar techiniques. DON"T confront them in person, DO report them to the feds, maybe drop the pirate mail and let them know they have been outed.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

I agree and can confirm your body sheilding technique. I've found several pirates this way. A simple little Icom IC-R2 and a paperclip stays in my vehicle most all of the time for this very reason. It also works for interference issues. It's amazing how well it works in most cases.

 

[Lazy J]

Nice to see you highly trained professionals making good use of your time, keeping the poor listeners safe from the eeeeevil pirates.

Maybe if your station managers programmed better, other alternatives wouldn't take your listeners.

You're seeing it all wrong. It's not about losing listeners to pirates, It's about protecting the asset that we all work so hard to acquire and maintain. We had to pay for our bandwidth, we have to maintain a public file, we have to maintain the EAS system, etc, etc, etc.

So yeah, it can be a little irritating when some goofball buys a transmitter on eBay and splatters all over your signal.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

"So yeah, it can be a little irritating when some goofball buys a transmitter on eBay and splatters all over your signal." This is generally about the only reason I bother to go "look for one". There are a few of them around here that have been smart enough to use a frequency that doesn't cause problems for others and use transmitters that are clean. I could care less if they are on the air. If they are causing interference, I will go look for them and ask nicely first for them to clean up, move, or shut it off. If that doesn't work, the FCC comes into play at some point.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Also, I've tracked probably more actual interference from licensed services than pirate transmitters. Stuff can break and spew crap on Marti channels or STL frequecies. A person needs to be able to go find problems rather rapidly when they appear like that. Nothing says "our engineer sucks!" worse than standing around wondering what to do when your on-air signal or that remote someone paid a total of about a 3000 dollar package gets screwed over by interference. You need to do something, and do something quickly...