Pirate Radio ....

[mememeandme]

It isn't the Nigerian station, Naijia 101.1 are a good station, they are supporting British ways, english culture etc, all they do is play Nigerian music, have phoneins talking about what the Nigerian people are doing about the problems in Nigeria. Its the African stations, they are the worst of the bunch, they don't seem to care about anything.

And theres a few normal pirates causing problems, its a small handful, giving the rest of us a bad image so it were.

 

[nino_savatte]

I really think there should be some sort of community open access radio. Spectrum is an example but that sort of idea should be expanded....and do Pirates only squat FM frequencies? Why do I not get pirate bleed misery on MW & LW?

In the case of both MW and LW, they are a pain in the arse to set up. For each you need to have an aerial that is a quarter of the wave length. So if you set up on say, 192metres (1574Khz?), you would need a length of wire (that's all an aerial is really) 48m long; then you would have to find somewhere to put that aerial - trees were always our favourites. Because of the problems associated with MW broadcasting we prerecorded programs and broadcasted them from an outdoor location (all very romantic...not).

Imagine the situation for LW broadcasting though: aerials are much longer than those used for MW and the band itself is more or less full. By contrast FM pirates use smaller aerials, the only problem is - as I said earleir - the frequency is set by a variable frequency oscillator which, if it gets too hot can cause the transmitter's frequency to drift about. On FM it causes a splash or obliteration of neighbouring frequencies; on MW you get a loud whine called a heterodyne whistle. But since the frequency is set by a crystal this his hardly likely to happen.

FM pirates have to select the highest position in their area to place their transmitter (the shows are produced in another location and the signal is sent to the transmitter using a relay). In order to do this many resort to accessing the rooftops of tower blocks, often tapping into the electricity supply and causing damage to lift machine rooms and so on.

Radio Jackie is a long running MW pirate station that broadcasts from around Wimbledon (I think). Their output is very much community oriented and they even applied for a license but it was rejected by the Radio Authority (as was) because some of their team had convictions for radio piracy. IIRC even the local MP was behind their bid.

 

[mememeandme]

In the case of both MW and LW, they are a pain in the arse to set up. For each you need to have an aerial that is a quarter of the wave length. So if you set up on say, 192metres (1574Khz?), you would need a length of wire (that's all an aerial is really) 48m long; then you would have to find somewhere to put that aerial - trees were always our favourites. Because of the problems associated with MW broadcasting we prerecorded programs and broadcasted them from an outdoor location (all very romantic...not).

Imagine the situation for LW broadcasting though: aerials are much longer than those used for MW and the band itself is more or less full. By contrast FM pirates use smaller aerials, the only problem is - as I said earleir - the frequency is set by a variable frequency oscillator which, if it gets too hot can cause the transmitter's frequency to drift about. On FM it causes a splash or obliteration of neighbouring frequencies; on MW you get a loud whine called a heterodyne whistle. But since the frequency is set by a crystal this his hardly likely to happen.

FM pirates have to select the highest position in their area to place their transmitter (the shows are produced in another location and the signal is sent to the transmitter using a relay). In order to do this many resort to accessing the rooftops of tower blocks, often tapping into the electricity supply and causing damage to lift machine rooms and so on.

Radio Jackie is a long running MW pirate station that broadcasts from around Wimbledon (I think). Their output is very much community oriented and they even applied for a license but it was rejected by the Radio Authority (as was) because some of their team had convictions for radio piracy. IIRC even the local MP was behind their bid.

FM Transmitters don't drift anymore, we use PPL Crystal locked not VFO. The signal is sent to the TX site via either Microwave signal ( like a saterlite sends sky yo your satelite dish) or band 1 (another type of band which normal radios don't pick up). We get power from 3 pin sockets located in any of the roof top rooms, lift rooms, tank rooms, heating rooms, and so on. The only damage caused to lift rooms if oftern by rival stations trying to cause problems and bait up our block.

And for optimal recieving of a station, you should have an reciving aerial cut to the exsact length of the frequency you are trying to pick up. But most aerials are wide bandwidth aerials covering 88-108Mhz, but this is not as good as a specific cut aerial to a certain frequency.

 

[chio]

Radio Jackie is a long running MW pirate station that broadcasts from around Wimbledon (I think). Their output is very much community oriented and they even applied for a license but it was rejected by the Radio Authority (as was) because some of their team had convictions for radio piracy. IIRC even the local MP was behind their bid.

Radio Jackie bid for a commercial licence back in 1996 to cover SW London. Prior to that, they'd been off-air since 1985. They lost that bid, and the licence was awarded to a station called 107.8 Thames Radio.

In 2003, Thames Radio went bust. The original people behind Radio Jackie bought it for £1, closed it and reopened Radio Jackie on the 107.8 FM frequency, broadcasting from a studio on Tolworth Broadway. They've brought back the community-oriented programmes they were well-known for back in the 80s but put a more up-to-date slant on them. They're also now (obviously) legal.

http://www.radiojackie.com/



(edit: good point on the VFO v PLL transmitters. Although, I'm ashamed to admit, I am the owner of a 50mW VFO transmitter running on 104.0 which pipes my MP3s around the house. )

 

[mememeandme]

Be careful what you say mate! People might start complainging your interfering with captial fm and causing blocks between ATC and Pilots! lool

VFOs are good fun, funny old rigs, one minute your on this frequency the next your on another lolol. But its all about PLL Transmitters these days, check the picture below.

Thats a 150watt PLL Microwave compatable reciving transmitter, basicly it transmit on FM @ 150watts its crystal locked, won't drift frequency and it can recieve microwave signals from your studio

Check the anti theif measure inplace, the hole thru the transmitter, so it can be locked with a bycle d-lock to a RSJ or something lol Dosn't stop the theifs unless its jacked down an air shart quite frankly!!! This is to stop theifs, not Ofcom before someone brings that up!

This is a double stack fm pirate transmitting aerial, its called Double stack, because it has two aerials on it, hence double, the aerials are the dipoles, the things sticking off the edge of the poles. Check the size of it, compare it to the indivdual floors of the block!

and the view from my block.. Lovely a. one of the perks of pirate radio!

 

[Louloubelle]

My friends, I'm not friends with every station owner, I happen to know the owners of Naijia 101.1 an Nigerian station, they agree, that Genesis is setting a bad example for African/Nigerian stations. As it happens the African stations are the worse offenders of them all, when it comes to pirate radio, they completely disregard it in general, don't take into considderation interference factors, there audio quality is generally very poor. However Genesis is the opposite to those factors, but the worse offender when it comes to rasisum etc.

I've never heard of Naijia fm

Some examples heard from presenters on the station

"Whites are trying to take over the black community, whites should be wiped out completely from your communities." It goes on.

10 out of 10 on your sarcasum regarding the slagging off with the Goverment. However my points were not relating to everyday "slagging off" Racist issues were brought in, Tony blair is raciest, treats blacks with disrespect, has no regards for "blacks" safety and well being etc.

Oh regarding promoting crime against whites,

"Fellow africans, this message is for all those in support for the all african black community, exclude the white culture from our communities" shit like that.

I think that what you're not understanding here is the terminology used to discribe racism by politically active africans.

Where do you hear the term 'white culture' used anywhere other than during debates about racism? It's not a term that anyone uses as there's no such thing as white culture.

When IME african anti-racist activists talk about white culture they are talking about racist culture. If you ever read any discourses about this you will see that there is a capital W in the word white (White Culture), this is not a desciption of the general culture of white people (if one ever existed), it is a description of racist culture, the capital W defining it as such. Obviously yopu can't see the capital W if someone is talking on a radio station, so I can understand why you put 2 and 2 together and came up with 5.

I have met various people involved with gemini on various levels, largely through my anti-gun, anit-violence and educational work. At all times I have been treated with great courtesy. At a recent youth arts workshop I attended, in one of the warm up games we had to stand in a line with the darkest person at one end and the lightest at the other. I was right over at the lightest end (partly due to my complete lack of any kind of tan as I'm often working on my PC all day long, even when the sun is shining). If the people I had met hated all white people you would have imagined that I would have been high up in their list of people to hate

Some activists use the term black with a capital B, Black, to describe african (and usually other darker skinned people) who are politically active and who have a political identity related to their ethnic / racial identity.

Just as within any politically aware / active group of people, terminology is important and the issue of whether africans descibe themselves as black, Black, Afrikan, Carribean, African British or African Caribbean is one that I know is a big issue at the moment.

Your posts show to me, just how easy it is for someone who doesn't really understand a particular discourse to listen in and to draw completely wrong conclusions based on what you think you have heard.


As for specific allegation at Tony Blair being racist and not caring about african people, if you go to some parts of London which are populated predominantly by african people, and if you really get to know some of the people in those communities, you will understand why people think that way they do about the government.

Terrible crimes and murders go largely unreported in the national press when the victims are african, whereas murders of white people usually get a lot more coverage. african children go missing all the time, often lured into selling drugs and a life of crime at an early age, causing their parents immense distress. Innocent people get stabbed and even shot often more that you could imagine and it just doesn't get reported in the national press.

I am no expert on these issues but have some understanding of them due to my work, wher I meet all kinds of people involved in crime prevention and education, and some are involved in pirate radio stations. Many people I meet are politically active and I'm always interested to hear different views so I've learned a lot from all kinds of people

This is why the presenters of stations like gemini get angry, to them it seems as though their people have been abandoned to live in a crime ridden hell and that nobody cares about what happens to their children. The mainstream media constantly delivers a stream of racist stereotypes that go unchallenged, whether it's reports of african rapists and child snatchers who later turn out to be the inventions of over imaginative children, or whether it's clowns like 50 cent who you hear on the radio all day long.

Anyway, I've got to get some work done now, so that me over and out

for today

 

[nino_savatte]

FM Transmitters don't drift anymore, we use PPL Crystal locked not VFO. The signal is sent to the TX site via either Microwave signal ( like a saterlite sends sky yo your satelite dish) or band 1 (another type of band which normal radios don't pick up). We get power from 3 pin sockets located in any of the roof top rooms, lift rooms, tank rooms, heating rooms, and so on. The only damage caused to lift rooms if oftern by rival stations trying to cause problems and bait up our block.

And for optimal recieving of a station, you should have an reciving aerial cut to the exsact length of the frequency you are trying to pick up. But most aerials are wide bandwidth aerials covering 88-108Mhz, but this is not as good as a specific cut aerial to a certain frequency.

I have actually seen (with my own eyes) damage caused to a mains cable in a lift room. This was caused by pirates being in too much of a hurry.

Crystals for FM...that's new. They didn't exist when I was a pirate.

 

[nino_savatte]

Radio Jackie bid for a commercial licence back in 1996 to cover SW London. Prior to that, they'd been off-air since 1985. They lost that bid, and the licence was awarded to a station called 107.8 Thames Radio.

In 2003, Thames Radio went bust. The original people behind Radio Jackie bought it for £1, closed it and reopened Radio Jackie on the 107.8 FM frequency, broadcasting from a studio on Tolworth Broadway. They've brought back the community-oriented programmes they were well-known for back in the 80s but put a more up-to-date slant on them. They're also now (obviously) legal.

http://www.radiojackie.com/



(edit: good point on the VFO v PLL transmitters. Although, I'm ashamed to admit, I am the owner of a 50mW VFO transmitter running on 104.0 which pipes my MP3s around the house. )

Ah, that's what happened to Radio Jackie. They were the first landbased pirate station in the UK. Whatever happened to Radio City, who were broadcasting rock n roll to North London?

 

[polo]

I think this white culture/black culture terminology arises from the politics of countries that were former colonies. In order to control these vast countries with a small number of colonists the policy was for the rulers to remain seperate, aloof, remote and above all in control. Relations with the indigenous population were restricted - no intermarrying. Morever the political administration and class system had a clear colour gradient. It was a racist policy and this went as far as intricate classifications of different graduations of skin colour.

African and Carribean nations are still beset by this legacy. Skin colour is an issue and the politics of these countries sometimes reflects this. Given that the colonial times and the superiour attitudes that went with it, are a distant fading memory for most. These pre-occupations seem a little bewildering in the context of multi-ethnic London.

Maybe that is what these guys are on about when they are addressing their own communities: the politics of their homeland? This is just a guess on my part.

It does occur to me that there must be a few Pirates out there that are run by different language groups, for the different communities in London.

 

[nino_savatte]

I once heard a pirate station (a few years ago now) that played nothing but salsa and Latin. Any idea what that was called or if it is still on the air?

 

[steeplejack]

The one I used to listen to a lot was Freek FM, based somewhere in Finsbury park/manor House.

All its DJs went onto to become ubiquitous 'faces' in UK commercial garage (E.Z. etc.)

Is Freek still going?

 

[mememeandme]

I have actually seen (with my own eyes) damage caused to a mains cable in a lift room. This was caused by pirates being in too much of a hurry.

Crystals for FM...that's new. They didn't exist when I was a pirate.

Possibly your talking to "wiring into the back of a socket". The thing you are forgetting, we try to be as discrete as possible, so no one notices we are pulling power from source a and so on. The socket was prob damaged by DTI or the care taker, lift engineers, ripping the wire out from the socket, causing damage etc. As I say if they was in a hurry, they would of just pluged a standard 3 pin plug straight into the socket.

And yeah Crystal PPL rigs have been around for years now, see the picture for details, you can clearly see its a Quartz locked PLL by the design. Good pirare rigs, very roadbust!

As for FREEK fm, I do belive they renamed to another name and still transmit in London to this day, I could be wrong.

 

[mememeandme]

I once heard a pirate station (a few years ago now) that played nothing but salsa and Latin. Any idea what that was called or if it is still on the air?

Afric FM 108.0 FM - Hot 97 106.0 FM - Kasaba FM 104.0 - WBLS 102.9 - Latino FM 95.1 - Any of these??

 

[nino_savatte]

Possibly your talking to "wiring into the back of a socket". The thing you are forgetting, we try to be as discrete as possible, so no one notices we are pulling power from source a and so on. The socket was prob damaged by DTI or the care taker, lift engineers, ripping the wire out from the socket, causing damage etc. As I say if they was in a hurry, they would of just pluged a standard 3 pin plug straight into the socket.

And yeah Crystal PPL rigs have been around for years now, see the picture for details, you can clearly see its a Quartz locked PLL by the design. Good pirare rigs, very roadbust!

As for FREEK fm, I do belive they renamed to another name and still transmit in London to this day, I could be wrong.

No, I used to work for a number of local authorities and when I was working for Hackney, I know what I saw and it wasn't a pretty or safe sight either. Why would the DTI want to damage a socket? Better still why would lift engineers do it? Lift engineers are the last people to want to damage equipment. I have seen lift engineers refuse to go into a machine room until all the syringes have been cleared away - not surprising really.

 

[nino_savatte]

Afric FM 108.0 FM - Hot 97 106.0 FM - Kasaba FM 104.0 - WBLS 102.9 - Latino FM 95.1 - Any of these??

It was probably Latino 95.1...it was near enough Radio 4.

 

[mememeandme]

No, I used to work for a number of local authorities and when I was working for Hackney, I know what I saw and it wasn't a pretty or safe sight either. Why would the DTI want to damage a socket? Better still why would lift engineers do it? Lift engineers are the last people to want to damage equipment. I have seen lift engineers refuse to go into a machine room until all the syringes have been cleared away - not surprising really.

Not cause deliberate damage, DTI and lift engineers see the same thing everyday, they are in a rush to get the station off and move on. It would be unsafe to start trying to unscrew the socket without turning all the power off for the lift room, which will in turn stop the lifts and they will need resetting, more time and work, so they oftern just grab the wirre and ripp it out, belive me, I've returned to my block after a DTI raid and they have done the exsact same thing.

Lift engineers would do it and have done, right, you go into your lift room to maintain your lift, you see a wire connected to the back of the socket, its in your way, you have to finish this job ASAP, do you A: get your screw drivers out, turn off all the power, unscrew the socket, disconnect the cable, reconnect the socke,t turn the power on, resetting the lift, not forgetting to check if anyone is in the lift b4 u turn the power off. or

B: ripp the power cable straight out, taking 10 seconds, sorted. He can carry on with his job. Think about it, don't assum because these people are professionals they do everything by the book, they simply don't have time to piss around with crap like that.


Regarding Syringes etc, thats the old days mate, all tower block roof doors/lift doors, have FB locks and GERDA locks fitted to them, only lift engineers, fire and caretakers have these keys, obviously some of the pirates have them, me included, these keys cost anything from £400 + to buy illegal, oftern from dodgy lift engineers and so on, a skag head won't have these keys.

 

[nino_savatte]

Not cause deliberate damage, DTI and lift engineers see the same thing everyday, they are in a rush to get the station off and move on. It would be unsafe to start trying to unscrew the socket without turning all the power off for the lift room, which will in turn stop the lifts and they will need resetting, more time and work, so they oftern just grab the wirre and ripp it out, belive me, I've returned to my block after a DTI raid and they have done the exsact same thing.

Lift engineers would do it and have done, right, you go into your lift room to maintain your lift, you see a wire connected to the back of the socket, its in your way, you have to finish this job ASAP, do you A: get your screw drivers out, turn off all the power, unscrew the socket, disconnect the cable, reconnect the socke,t turn the power on, resetting the lift, not forgetting to check if anyone is in the lift b4 u turn the power off. or

B: ripp the power cable straight out, taking 10 seconds, sorted. He can carry on with his job. Think about it, don't assum because these people are professionals they do everything by the book, they simply don't have time to piss around with crap like that.


Regarding Syringes etc, thats the old days mate, all tower block roof doors/lift doors, have FB locks and GERDA locks fitted to them, only lift engineers, fire and caretakers have these keys, obviously some of the pirates have them, me included, these keys cost anything from £400 + to buy illegal, oftern from dodgy lift engineers and so on, a skag head won't have these keys.

I was working for Hackney Council about 6 years ago. It wasn't exactly the "old days".

So what are you saying, that I'm making things up?

 

[mememeandme]

I was working for Hackney Council about 6 years ago. It wasn't exactly the "old days".

So what are you saying, that I'm making things up?

No, nothing of the kind, other than things have come along way in 6 years, and a lot of things are done differently. A lot of things have changed.

 

[nino_savatte]

No, nothing of the kind, other than things have come along way in 6 years, and a lot of things are done differently. A lot of things have changed.

For me the "old days" means freezing my arse off as a lookout and then legging it across some farmer's field to escape BT, then the DTI.

 

[mememeandme]

LOL. I'm young so I wouldn't know about those days, but Cell sites do make good old TXs, just bit too obvious, because once we start drawing power from their power supplys it alerts ntl/bt who ever the cell belongs to that more power is being drawn, which would indicate one of their transmitters is going wrong, when its actually us taking power.

What stations did you used to do mate?

 

[nino_savatte]

LOL. I'm young so I wouldn't know about those days, but Cell sites do make good old TXs, just bit too obvious, because once we start drawing power from their power supplys it alerts ntl/bt who ever the cell belongs to that more power is being drawn, which would indicate one of their transmitters is going wrong, when its actually us taking power.

What stations did you used to do mate?

If I told you what station I used to work on, you'd laugh. It was called Radio Fiona and it broadcasted to North Herts and East Beds: Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock and surrounding areas but if the conditions were right we'd get as far as the Kent coast. I also used to do the occasional show for Radio Neptune in Buntingford and set up a station called STS in Newcastle in the 80's. I never made it out onto the North Sea where Radio Caroline was.

 

[mememeandme]

Oh right.. Sounds good tho, early pirates!, Oh how the pirate world has changed... All good tho! Signals these days don't go anywhere its so cramed up!

 

[nino_savatte]

Oh right.. Sounds good tho, early pirates!, Oh how the pirate world has changed... All good tho! Signals these days don't go anywhere its so cramed up!

Ah but we were on MW, so we were able to cover greater distances (theoretically). We used to use an auld modified military tx. On FM, if you get a vertical obstruction, that's the signal gone.

 

[JWH]

Terrible crimes and murders go largely unreported in the national press when the victims are african, whereas murders of white people usually get a lot more coverage

Has there been any sort of systematic study to verify this impression? Is there a list anywhere of everyone that gets murdered in the UK over the course of a year - we could x-reference that with a media archive and see how many hits there were (although the "murder list" would have to also state ethnicity or colour for the research to say anything).

 

[polo]

http://www.irr.org.uk/2005/august/ak000005.html

A quick surf reveals 47 racially motivated murders since 1999 and an overall murder rate of generally around 800 a year. Even a list of names.

Not sure if Pirates use fact checkers or exercise any sort of editorial contol. Do they let anyone who they like say whatever they want?

 

[Nigel]

Found this on Libcom !
Had it years ago but lost it !
Radio is my bomb: a DIY manual for pirates