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Strongest USA Pirate Station.

K

kd8hho

Well I was talking to someone today, and the subject went to AM/FM broadcasting and then to AM/FM Pirates and he asked me the question what was the most powerful pirate thats been caught. i figured 1 maybe 2 KW ERP. but after thinking about it. im shure there has been a stronger one. anyone got any ideas?

Strongest AM or FM Pirate. power/erp antenna height ect.
 
There was a pirate station Houston back in 98 to eary 01 had 20 to 25 mile strong range runnin 150 to 300 watts this pirate played Rap Hiphop R&B
 
Here in the Netherlands (against the German Border) Piratestations with 100kW to 150kW ERP (FM!!!) are no exception...
Most use R&S or RVR or Telefunken 5kW to 15kW transmitters on 4 to 16 stacked broadband dipoles... masts are usually cranes with heights of approx. 80 tot 100 meters.
Most pirates use complete mobile studio's and masts.
I guess that there are about 1000 active pirates in the Netherlands at this moment, mostly concentrated in the east.

For an example look at: www.klompenboer.nl under "impressies" on the left menu.
This site has a huge amount of impressions of big and smal illegal piratestations from the Netherlands. It's all in dutch, but has a great amount of pictures, which tell enough, i guess.
 
Streetz Fm 96.5 in Newark has a Flamethrower signal too,, it plays Unedited gangsta rap, R&B,, Disco, and House-Club music,,,, it can be heard about 50 miles away,,, I love pirate radio, but not when they are only ten miles away from a class A on 96.3,,, and not when they sell Drugs and Guns and promote hate and Violence...

My station has 250 watts, but since im in a valley, my HAAT is only 1 meter, and all music is kept clean, and we dont sell adds, interfere, or anything bad... Just play non stop Dance-Techno-House music Monday through saturday, and air The Sounds of Sunday with Church Services and Christian music on Sunday, and on Sunday night we have 100 percent Nostalgia,,, music from the 50s through the 80s.... We get out to the south about 40 to 50 miles on a car radio, but only about 10-12 miles north due to the Terrain. I dont have a car and havent checked,, I have no clue how far east or west we go... But NRG Kit Transmitters are filtered so we dont cause interference to air Traffic control, or Emergency services, but FM receivers from the UK are different, so an NRG Kit TX must be modified with the Pre Empasis, or it wont put out any treble response., we also air the EAS and Amber Alert System,,,, A tornado in 2002 knocked out our local station, but not us,,, we were quoted by the local newspaper as saving many lives after the F3 wiped out our town, and again in summer of 2008 when our whole town got flooded, we aired local news for families when once again, our local station was DOA...
 
I would say this honor belonged to Alan Weiner and Radio Newyork International. Back in the late '80's Alan ran a kilowatt plus on 1620 AM from the good ship Sarah anchored a few miles off the coast of NYC. Not only did it saturate the city, but it could be heard up and down the entire east coast too. He also ran FM on 103.1 (then vacant, now a class A in Long Island) with several kilowatts. But it was the AM that got out-I could clearly pick it up in Boston. Alas, the ship was raided several days after sign on-though Alan and crew got off-it turns out he WAS in international waters-but as I told him later: "Alan, they are the ones with the guns".

The ship sat out the rest of its life grounded in East Boston. I saw it many times driving by. Finally. it got blown up in the movie Blown Away starring Jeff Bridges.
 
LA_Guy said:
I would say this honor belonged to Alan Weiner and Radio Newyork International. Back in the late '80's Alan ran a kilowatt plus on 1620 AM from the good ship Sarah anchored a few miles off the coast of NYC. Not only did it saturate the city, but it could be heard up and down the entire east coast too. He also ran FM on 103.1 (then vacant, now a class A in Long Island) with several kilowatts. But it was the AM that got out-I could clearly pick it up in Boston. Alas, the ship was raided several days after sign on-though Alan and crew got off-it turns out he WAS in international waters-but as I told him later: "Alan, they are the ones with the guns".

The ship sat out the rest of its life grounded in East Boston. I saw it many times driving by. Finally. it got blown up in the movie Blown Away starring Jeff Bridges.
Click to expand...

I too saw the good ship "Sarah" a few years after the station was shutdown, while visiting some friends in Boston. It had seen better days. It hardly looked seaworthy by any stretch of the imagination. And by the time I saw it, sometime in the early '90's, it was quite rusted and quite ready for the ol' scrapheap. I actually have an aircheck from RNI from that brief time of its' existance. The 1620 signal was quite intense at night. In addition to the FM on 103.1, they also were operating shortwave on the 49 meter band which covered quite nicely as well. Weiner also had a longwave transmitter on-line, at the time, but it was very limited due the lack of power and the poor antenna system they had on it.

I can still recall their recorded promos.... one in particular really stood out, "More.... POWER..... than ever.....BEFORE! ....... R-N-I.......We're the wet one!". What was Alan was smokin' at the time (as if we didn't know)? Did he actual think he could get away with it? I mean, THREE miles off the coast of the US still is within the 12 mile territorial limit. Why did he think that 3 miles was the limit? I knew that ever since grammar school. Well, it didn't last long. Three days after firing up, the Federales did their thing and shut them down. It made the evening news, even on "ABC's World News Tonight" (which a recording of that report is probably on YouTube).

It's amazing that Alan Weiner actually got the go ahead from the FCC to start up WBCQ/7415 from Monticello, ME USA, several years after the RNI incident. It sounds quite well at times and even broadcasts some classic Jean Shepherd Shows as well.
 
In 1984 a pirate AM in Orange County California ran 250 watts on 540 with the low dial position being the key for huge coverage. He shut it down after his first FCC visit.
 
JON BRUCE said:
In 1984 a pirate AM in Orange County California ran 250 watts on 540 with the low dial position being the key for huge coverage. He shut it down after his first FCC visit.
Click to expand...

Was this station in any way related to the "KDOR" operation which operated on 830 kHz back in the late 70's. I recall that station was raided by the FCC but the operator did not suffer the penalties of forfeiture due to the fact that the operator was physically challenged and was confined to a wheelchair. This station operated for quite sometime before the raid and even had it's telephone number listed in the Los Angeles Telephone Directory! Really now! The FCC even provided the young operator with the proper FCC forms in order for him to get a full license, provided he would promise not reactivate until he was issued a CP. But the 830 frequency was eventually was occupied by another applicant.
 
Wow, KDOR 830.That was the first pirate I ever heard of. He was on the air for a long time. A guy I worked with at the time went over and looked at his operation. The 540 was run by a different guy and didn't last long. It was based in Placentia. A friend of mine tracked it down and later brought me over there. The owner interviewed me on the air. He had bought an old 250 watt transmitter from 1240 KPPC in Pasadena and he covered most of the L.A. area. A C.P. had been issued for a 25kw 540 based in Hesperia to serve L.A. The city of license for that was later changed to Costa Mesa. After another 540 came on in Rosarito Beach BCN it was moved to upper band 1650. The pirate "Dave" didn't stay on long before the FCC arrived and he complied after the first visit to shut it down. I hired "Dave" as a jock in Santa Maria and he latter went on to do overnights at KIST in Santa Barbara and now lives near Nashville selling tiny security cameras he designed.
 
Hi all:

I also heard RNI then. Good signal to southern Boston. I wrote an article in Monitoring Times about his station (then and today) last year.

I think the highest powered pirate station I heard was 1620AM in the early-mid 1990's. He claimed (repeatedly and ad-nauseum) he was running 20Kw. His signal was very strong and I tend to believe him.

He was on the air only one weekend. Too bad the programing and announcing was poor.

73
Dan
W1DAN
 
When I lived in South Carolina about eight years ago and with the help of an engineering friend of mine we put up an FM antenna on my 100 foot ham radio tower and I ran about 2.5kw into it for for about three weeks from an old Gates FM2.5 . I never got caught but the power bill was enough to make me pull the plug on it. I lived on a small hill and I could pick up the signal about 30 miles away most of the time. It was fun while it lasted but when the light bill went up by more than $200.00 the fun came to a halt. I wonder how long I could have lasted before I got caught?
 
wayne said:
When I lived in South Carolina about eight years ago and with the help of an engineering friend of mine we put up an FM antenna on my 100 foot ham radio tower and I ran about 2.5kw into it for for about three weeks from an old Gates FM2.5 . I never got caught but the power bill was enough to make me pull the plug on it. I lived on a small hill and I could pick up the signal about 30 miles away most of the time. It was fun while it lasted but when the light bill went up by more than $200.00 the fun came to a halt. I wonder how long I could have lasted before I got caught?
Click to expand...
You would still be on the air today. You could have sold advertisements to make up the difference in the electric bill. Not that I'm encouraging pirate radio. If you did get caught, you would lose your ham license.
The pirate in the Miami area that interfered with WMKL was running 946 watts according to its transmitter reading. It had an ERP of 1892 watts due to its antenna. At its height, it's a Class A signal. It was stealing power so of course, they had no electric bill to pay.
Several of the pirate stations in Newark can be picked up 30 miles away, but that may be due to the abundance of tall buildings to place the pirate transmitters on.
I haven't listened to the Newark pirate stations long enough to see if they're selling drugs, but I would not be surprised if they are. A drug dealer would be stupid to advertise where his drugs are on the air, the cops can easily listen. But I'm sure that they use songs as a code to tell some listeners where to find drugs.
 
Indianapolis had fun with bootleggers in the early 70s. Radio Free Naptown (RFN) ran a homemade 50 watt plate modulated transmitter on 1170. The transmitter was fed into a 50' insulted vertical that was fed through a matching network. They had enough ground radials to give them a signal that covered the city and could be heard 50 miles away at night. They also ran an old Western Electric 60 watt exciter on 97.9 fed into a 4-bay horz antenna at 25'. The FM covered the near north-side of the city where the station was located (they moved around a lot). They ran advertising (which was likely a trade-out for music) with the local head-shop/record store. They had pretty decent processed audio and a professional approach.

Another bootlegger competed with the RFN FM from time to time when they were on the air. I understand that station used a homemade 300 watt FM transmitter fed into 2 stacked 5 element beams through a matching network which gave it an erp of about 3kw. This station also moved around and concentrated it's signal across the same coverage area of RFN. Needless to say, this station covered up the RFN signal quite effectively when it was on the air. Their programming was mostly taped shows with no apparent audio processing.

All stations were mono.

RFN was visited several times and eventually brought to justice with their equipment confiscated. The other station just disappeared and was never heard again.

Both frequencies were clear at the time so there was no malicious interference to other stations. The FM band was pretty wide open back then and 97.9 was a Class B frequency for the area that was dark at the time. 1170 was said to be clear also for the area considering the low power that RFN was running.

These days it would be hard for anyone to find a good frequency in the area to use other than with low profile/low power.

Todays youth would rather broadcast on the internet.
 
JON BRUCE said:
Wow, KDOR 830.That was the first pirate I ever heard of. He was on the air for a long time. A guy I worked with at the time went over and looked at his operation. The 540 was run by a different guy and didn't last long. It was based in Placentia. A friend of mine tracked it down and later brought me over there. The owner interviewed me on the air. He had bought an old 250 watt transmitter from 1240 KPPC in Pasadena and he covered most of the L.A. area. A C.P. had been issued for a 25kw 540 based in Hesperia to serve L.A. The city of license for that was later changed to Costa Mesa. After another 540 came on in Rosarito Beach BCN it was moved to upper band 1650. The pirate "Dave" didn't stay on long before the FCC arrived and he complied after the first visit to shut it down. I hired "Dave" as a jock in Santa Maria and he latter went on to do overnights at KIST in Santa Barbara and now lives near Nashville selling tiny security cameras he designed.
Click to expand...

The 540 kHz (more or less) operation was known as KDX and got out at least as far north as La Verne, CA (where I was living at the time--home from college in Dec 1983). At first he'd only come on after midnight, but in later months (when he got a bit bolder?) he'd run all day. I could hear him all throughout summer 1984. September I went back to school, out of range; when I came back home for the holidays, I could hear no trace of KDX. FCC must have gotten to him around October or so.

"Dave Diamond" (his on-air name) mostly played oldies and chatted about the transmitter, radio, DX-ing and so fort. One night he gave out a phone number, which I called.

I have an aircheck tape of KDX somewhere around here....
 
The San Francisco board was talking about an FM pirate on 93.7 that they calculate to be about 5,000 watts. I don't know anything about it, I just read the thread on the SF board. That's a huge signal for a pirate in such a populated area.

Here is the link, you decide it's accuracy.

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=168335.0
 
I calculated the power of the 93.7 pirate to be 5000 watts ERP based on the field strength measured by the FCC and the fact that pirates don't usually broadcast from towers. It's not hard to get a 5000 watt transmitter, it's just expensive. The owners of 93.7 were pretty serious about pirate radio.

There's a pirate in Boston (Hot 87.7 with the fictitious "WPOT" call letters) that claims to have 5000 watts and has a 30 mile radius. It's still not even cited by the FCC yet so there's no field strength measurement (unless someone wants to go measure it themselves).

Just last week I was able to DX several pirate stations 50-60 miles away during a rather strong tropo opening that also brought in many distant stations in HD. After the tropo faded, so did the pirate stations.
 
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
JON BRUCE said:
In 1984 a pirate AM in Orange County California ran 250 watts on 540 with the low dial position being the key for huge coverage. He shut it down after his first FCC visit.
Click to expand...

Was this station in any way related to the "KDOR" operation which operated on 830 kHz back in the late 70's. I recall that station was raided by the FCC but the operator did not suffer the penalties of forfeiture due to the fact that the operator was physically challenged and was confined to a wheelchair. This station operated for quite sometime before the raid and even had it's telephone number listed in the Los Angeles Telephone Directory! Really now! The FCC even provided the young operator with the proper FCC forms in order for him to get a full license, provided he would promise not reactivate until he was issued a CP. But the 830 frequency was eventually was occupied by another applicant.
Click to expand...

The only reason that makes sense to me for 830 in LA (actually, Orange County, now) taking SO long to get on the air is that there must have been a zillion competing applications. I think secondary stations on former Class IA channels were first allowed sometime in the mid '80s. (Rio treaty). 830 was by far the most desirable open AM allocation in that huge market. I don't know who owned KBRT back in the mid-80s, but that's the station that should have moved to 830. Would have gotten it off KFMB's back, would probably also have eliminated some prohibited overlaps with 710 in LA, and would have eliminated prohibited overlap with KCBS in the area around Saint Luis Obispo. If 830 had its day site on Catalina Island, it probably could have run 50 kW by day. And high power at night would have been possible from a site somewhere east of LA (directional to the west to protect WCCO), 830 could have become the #3 AM signal in market #2 (after KFI and KNX). What a killer daytime signal 830 would have had if it had been able to run 50 kW from 26 miles across the sea!
 
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