Murphy's Law of Pirate Listening
By Pat Murphy

I've been DX'ing pirates for over a decade and the most often asked question is, "how do you hear them?". It's not like you can pick up a "Passport to Pirate Broadcasting" or a "World Radio TV pirate handbook" to check on schedules, because pirates don't maintain regular broadcast schedules and those that do don't last for very long. There are however, some patterns that develop and places to look that once the persistent DX'er understands, tend to turn up these "bad boys of the bands" on a regular basis. Let me pass along my "Murphys Law of Pirate Listening".

DISCLAIMER

Listening to pirates is not illegal. Being a Pirate broadcaster may be illegal under certain Federal codes. It hasalways been surprising to hear what some people think about the hobby of listening to pirates. One old coot at a hamfest was insistent that it was "illegal" to listen to pirates. No more illegal to listen to pirates than it is to listen to VOA, BBC or the local AM broadcaster in your town. It is perfectly legal to listen to and report on pirate radio transmissions in the United States and around the globe. After the recent Federal Court ruling concerning Free Radio Berkeley, it may not be illegal for low power broadcasts but until the Federal Courts finish their ruling on this case, it is not advisable to simply take to the airwaves with your own station. If you do, you may be faced with severe fines and long court procedures. The point is, it is not illegal tolisten to pirates

THE FIRST STEP TO PIRATE DX'ing

Is patience. This is not like tuning in a BBC or VOA broadcast, where they are using 500kw transmitters. In fact, the recent trend in pirate stations has been to use low power, 10 - 50 watt transmitters. Pirates don't pop up during prime time and while trying to get an audience for their transmissions, are not trying to draw a lot of attention to themselves by interfering with or bleeding over onto other frequencies. In my listening shack, I have not only my receiver but books for reading and the computer for surfing the Internet, while I wait for a pirate transmission to come on the air. Patience is the prime ingredient for the successful pirate listener. Murphys Law states that "if you've been listening for a pirate for 3 hours with no luck, 2-minutes after you turn off the radio, a pirate will begin broadcasting".

THE SECOND STEP TO PIRATE DX'ing

Is to understand what the pirate broadcaster is considering when they transmit a signal. One is that they are violating the law and as such will come on the air at unusual times but still try to capture as big an audience as possible. There are only a few frequencies that pirates in North America use on a regular basis to broadcast on, so we'll check those frequencies on a regular basis as we look for a broadcast. European pirates, which can be heard in North America, use a number of different frequencies and we've included them in our list of frequencies as well. The single most popular frequency for pirates in the past 12-months has been 6955khz. This can and probably will change with time, as pirates move around, due to the big high powered shortwave stations taking up residence on nearby frequencies. 4-years ago, the most popular frequency was 7415khz, but when VOA squatted on 7405khz, the pirates moved to 6955khz. Always check 20khz up and down from the designated frequency as pirates will move off the most popular frequency when it becomes crowded. Good example of this, is Radio One, WREC, Radio Two and Radio Free Speech showing up on 6950khz when 6955khz is busy, or Radio Bobs Communication Network (RBCN) on 6960khz. Murphys Law states, "wherever you get used to hearing pirates, dictates how soon they move to another frequency".

WHAT FREQUENCIES ARE PIRATES USING NOW?

Keeping in mind that this can and will change with time, the most popular frequencies in use for North American pirates at this writing are: (in order of most use)

6955khz in both AM and Upper and Lower Sideband
6950khz mainly being used in the AM mode
7415khz AM & SSB, the old standby from the 70's & 80's
13900khz in the AM mode
15043khz both SSB & AM
1650khz in the medium wave band in SSB
6240khz in AM & SSB (mostly euro-pirates)

European Pirate Frequencies
6200khz - 6300khz - very active at all hours
7415khz - 7550khz AM & SSB
3900khz - 4000khz AM 9995khz - AM
11400khz - 11725khz AM & SSB
12265khz - AM 15015khz - 15070khz AM & SSB

WHATS THE BEST TIME TO LISTEN?

Weekends and Holidays. Pirates love the weekends, in fact there is one pirate whose sole purpose is to celebrate Fridays. Naturally, its called "Friday Radio". Holidays are usually theme oriented for pirates and not just the usual day off from work holidays. Valentines day last year saw a number of broadcasts from stations like, CELL Phone Radio with a "Loving Couples Special", or Radio Bobs Communication Network "Valentines day takeover show". April Fools day is another big day for pirates. Radio Free Speech was taken over by the Amish last year, Voice of Idiot Drivel and Altered States Radio all had April Fools day specials. 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all times for "special holiday shows" from all the established pirates. Halloween is a very special time and there are a number of pirates who only broadcast on that day and that day alone. I was fortunate to catch one of the last broadcasts of "WBST" - The beast, in 1989 and got a very unusual QSL for the catch. Voice of the Purple Pumpkin and the Voice of Halloween. The time to listen can vary depending on the propagation. For the past year and a half, the best propagation for 6955khz has been during the day-time on the weekends, so pirates have been heard anywhere from 1200utc to 2000utc. However propagation has been improving for evening transmissions so, pirates have been heard from 2000utc until 0400utc. For the higher frequencies such as 13900 and 15043khz, daytime from 1400-1900utc is a good time to look for pirates. Murphys Law states, "whatever frequency you are listening for a pirate is the wrong one".

WHAT KIND OF EQUIPMENT DO I NEED TO USE?

We've all seen the articles about how "you don't need an expensive receiver to pick up shortwave stations" in lots of publications. Bull-dunky! If you want to really hear all the pirate stations that are on the air, you better have a really good receiver and a super antenna. In surveying the top 10 pirate QSL collectors in the U.S. and Canada, they all have receivers like the NRD-535, Kenwood R-5000, Drake R-8, Watkins Johnson or other high quality radio receiver for their listening pleasure. There are a number of pirate DX'ers who use DX-440, DX 390, Sony SW-2010, YB-400 and they do hear a lot of pirate transmissions but the ones who hear pirates every week are the ones with the bigger table model receivers. Remember we are trying to pick up low power, usually 50-watts or less radio transmissions from all different parts of North America. So a very good, high quality receiver is necessary to really pull in those weak signals. Next you need an equally high quality antenna for your receiver. There are a number of very high quality antenna's made by manufacturers that work very well for the pirate enthusiast. Alpha Delta makes the Sloper and the DX-Ultra. Antenna Supermarket has the "Eavesdropper". Radio Works not only makes several commercial antennas suitable for pirate reception, they sell the parts that will enable you to build your own antenna, suited specifically for your listening needs. Copper wire, center insulator w/coax connector and coax and your in business in short an hour of cutting and soldering. Realistically, you are going to spend from $50 to $120 for a high quality antenna for pirate listening. The best place to look for these antenna's or the parts to build your own system is at a Hamfest, prices are lower and the parts are usually cheaper. Murphys Law states, "no matter what direction you point your antenna for a pirate station, they will be transmitting from the opposite direction".

INFORMATION IS ESSENTIAL

There are several publications that specialize in Pirate Radio information. The best is the ACE. The Association of Clandestine Radio Enthusiasts. They publish a monthly newsletter that has loggings of their members catches of pirates plus columns that focus on pirate radio trends. Contact the ACE at P.O. Box 12112 - Norfolk, VA 23541 . Another excellent publication is the Pirate Pages. Edited by well known writer of pirate books, Andy Yoder, it is published several times a month and has extensive loggings that are very up to date. You can reach the Pirate Pages at P.O. Box 109, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214. On the Internet you'll find a couple of sources for good information about pirate listening. The alt.pirate.radio, Newsgroup occasionally has information that actually has something to do with pirate broadcasting. The best source above all others though is John Cruzans, Free Radio Network. John has put together QSL's, audio clips, News and Links to other pirate information sources. You can find them at, http://www.thefrn.net/vines/index.php.On the internet there are a number of sources. One is the Free Radio Weekly, in which contributors share frequencies and times that they have heard pirate radio stations on FM or Shortwave. Murphys Law of pirate information is thus, "no matter what information you have, its outdated".

WHATS IN THE FUTURE FOR PIRATE LISTENING?

Lets look into our crystal ball and play the prediction game. With the FCC cutbacks in Field Offices and lack of enforcement on the H.F. bands, it would appear that there has never been a better time to try to hear a pirate radio station. Since the FCC shut down its field offices in June of 1996, pirate stations have proliferated beyond anyone's best guess. The loggings column in the Pirates Den and other pirate publications have more than doubled over the past year. If you can't hear a pirate now, you are never going to hear a pirate. Patience, persistence and good equipment will render some of the most entertaining radio you have ever heard. The level of quality among the pirate broadcasters has improved over the past 10-years and has in many cases become better than commercial broadcasters. One new high quality entry is "Up Your Radio" in which the Operator, "Woody B. Serious" edited a speech by New Gingrich that is some of the best comedy you will hear in any media anywhere. Radio Free Speech took the Rush Limbaugh show and edited Rush's own words to have him saying all kinds of bizarre things. Radio USA did a special "Olympic" program during the Olympics in the summer. The list is endless, the number of different and unusual programs that pirates are offering on shortwave radio. The final "Murphys Law" for pirate listening is;"when you've finally caught a pirate signal, a relative will call you on the phone and bore you to death with the details of another relatives problems, by then the pirate will stop his transmission." This is a great Winter for pirate listening as the propagation is picking up and there are more pirate stations on the air than at any other time in recent history. Pirate listening can be challenging and a lot of fun, but after you've caught your first one, you'll understand the thrill of capturing and logging one. Have fun and good DX to you.

Pat Murphy President -
The ACE Newsletter
P.O. Box 12112 Norfolk, VA 23541
Or E-mail at: acepresident@elvis-presley.org

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