A previous article on Wireless Waffle talked about the chances of a pirate radio station being caught focussing on VHF FM pirates. A later one focussed on short-wave pirates and discussed which frequencies to avoid in order to minimise getting the authorities' collective danders up.

Over the past 12 months, both Premier Radio (who used 6265 kHz) and Laser Hot Hits (who used 4025 kHz) have had their transmitter sites raided. Bringing together the ethos of the two previous articles, it would make sense that in order for a raid to be worthwhile, even at short-wave, there would have likely been a complaint raised against the station concerned.

So we might, therefore, ask, "Who raised these complaints?" It seems unlikely that major international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service or China Radio International would be at all threatened by pirate operators taking their audience away or causing interference, especially as the frequencies being used by the pirates are not ones being used by an international broadcaster at the time, so there must be another source of complaints.

Across Europe (and indeed the world) there are a series of short-wave (HF) monitoring stations operated by the various national regulatory administrations who produce quarterly reports on their monitoring activities. The purpose of the monitoring and the associated reports is, on the one hand, to check on legitimate users of the HF spectrum, and on the other to identify use which is in contravention to the ITU's rules on spectrum usage. Where an administration identifies contravening transmissions, it can flag these in the reports and, according to the ITU document describing the reports, these will then be forwarded to the administration which is the source of the transmission.

Looking through these reports for the past 12 months (eg from October 2008 to September 2009), there are a number which relate to various short wave pirates. Specifically:

Date	Time (UTC)	Freq (kHz)	Monitoring Station	Transmitter Location	Station*	Complaint
24 Oct 08	1700-2359	4024.57	Rambouillet, France	UK	Laser Hot Hits	Illegal use of frequency
25 Oct 08	0000-0600	4024.57	Rambouillet, France	UK	Laser Hot Hits	Illegal use of frequency
11 Nov 08	0000-0645	4024.58	Berlin, Germany	UK	Laser Hot Hits	None
5 Dec 08	0204-0400	4024.60	Tarnok, Hungary	Not Identified	Laser Hot Hits	Broadcast in non broadcast band
4 Apr 09	1715-2400	4025.00	Berlin, Germany	UK	Laser Hot Hits	Broadcast in non broadcast band
7 Nov 08	1837-2359	5800.00	Rambouillet, France	8E54 45N29 (Milan, Italy)	PLAYBACK INTL	Broadcast in non broadcast band
12 Jul 09	0855-1000	5751.51	Rambouillet, France	1W31 51N15 (Andover, UK)	Best of British Radio	Illegal use of frequency
8 Nov 08	0000-0200	5800.00	Rambouillet, France	8E49 45N23 (Milan, Italy)	PLAYBACK INTL	Broadcast in non broadcast band
10 Nov 08	2020-2100	5800.00	Tarnok, Hungary	Not Identified	Playback International	Broadcast in non broadcast band
4 Jan 09	1249-1300	5801.00	Vienna, Austria	Italy	MILANO (Playback International)	Broadcast in non broadcast band
24 Oct 08	2215-0000	5803.00	Baldock, UK	8E7 45N56 (Milan, Italy)	Playback International	None
12 Oct 08	0700-0830	5805.03	Tarnok, Hungary	Not Identified	Orion Radio	Broadcast in non broadcast band
2 Dec 08	1642	6210.00	Baldock, UK	Belgium	RADIO BORDERHUNTER	SW Pirate
12 Apr 09	1345	6202.00	Baldock, UK	8E48 50N15 (Frankfurt, Germany)	Crazy Wave Radio	Non-Conformity RR.5
15 Feb 09	0949-1120	6219.99	Vienna, Austria	Italy	MYSTERY RADIO	Broadcast in non broadcast band
15 Feb 09	1356-1429	6219.99	Vienna, Austria	Italy	PLAYBACK	Broadcast in non broadcast band
12 Apr 09	1815	6220.00	Baldock, UK	10E0 43N50 (Italy)	MYSTERY RADIO	Non-Conformity RR.5
9 May 09	1855-1921	6220.00	Vienna, Austria	Italy	MYSTERY RADIO	Broadcast in non broadcast band
11 Jul 09	1935-2300	6220.00	El Casar, Egypt	11E24 44N27 (Bologna, Italy)	Mystery Radio	None
31 Jul 09	0000-0030	6220.00	Klagenfurt, Austria	Pisa, Italy	Mystery Radio	Broadcast in non broadcast band
6 Jan 09	0105	6240.00	Baldock, UK	Netherlands	UNDERGROUND RADIO	Illicit
17 Feb 09	1654	6240.00	Baldock, UK	Netherlands	UNDERGROUND RADIO	Illicit
5 Jun 09	2340	6420.25	Baldock, UK	4E46 51N38 (Breda, Netherlands)	Casanova or Dutchwing?	Pirate Station
7 Feb 09	1657	6870.00	Baldock, UK	12E20 42N41 (Terni, Italy)	Playback International	Non-Conformity RR.5
30 Apr 09	1639	6870.00	Baldock, UK	12E20 42N41 (Terni, Italy)	Playback International	Non-Conformity RR.5
8 Feb 09	0857-0933	6870.00	Vienna, Austria	9E38 45N41 (Bergamo, Italy)	PLAYBACK	Broadcast in non broadcast band
22 Mar 09	0956-1429	6870.00	Vienna, Austria	Italy	PLAYBACK	Broadcast in non broadcast band
3 May 09	0845-0940	6870.00	Vienna, Austria	Italy	PLAYBACK	Broadcast in non broadcast band
4 July 09	2001-2017	6870.00	Vienna, Austria	Italy	PLAYBACK	Broadcast in non broadcast band
12 Jul 09	0430-2200	6870.00	Tarnok, Hungary	USA (!)	PLAYBACK INT. RADIO	Broadcast in non broadcast band
14 Feb 09	1425-1443	6878.00	Vienna, Austria	Italy	PLAYBACK	Broadcast in non broadcast band
21 Feb 09	0700-2040	6880.00	Rambouillet, France	9E54 44N42 (Genova, Italy)	Playback International	Illegal use of frequency
22 Feb 09	0630-0700	6880.00	Rambouillet, France	11E33 44N21 (Bologna, Italy)	Playback International	Illegal use of frequency
4 Oct 08	2000-2100	6925.00	Rambouillet, France	20E32 39N4 (Greece)	Spider Radio	Illegal use of frequency
26 Jul 09	0000-1700	7550.00	Tarnok, Hungary	Italy	Radio Amica	Broadcast in non broadcast band
29 Aug 09	0620-0700	7550.00	El Casar, Egypt	Italy	Radio Amica	None
29 Aug 09	0600-0630	7550.00	Klagenfurt, Austria	Italy	Radio Amica	Broadcast in non broadcast band
18 Feb 09	1218-1220	9385.00	CRMO, South Korea	Ireland	LASER HOT HITS	Illegal use of frequency
19 Feb 09	1606-1607	9385.00	CRMO, South Korea	Not Identified	Laser Hot Hits	Illegal use of frequency
28 Feb 09	1130-1300	9385.00	Tarnok, Hungary	Not Identified	Laser Hot Hits	Broadcast in non broadcast band

* Where the station was identified in the monitoring report, it is shown in CAPITALS.

Where no name was given, it has been identified and added in by searching through various on-line logs from the date concerned.

In addition to the above there are one or two other unidentified broadcasts on typical pirate frequencies (eg 6447 kHz on 21 August 2009) but there does not seem to be any indication of who they might be (nor do logs help with this).

Clearly there has been a lot of monitoring of Laser Hot Hits going on by various administrations (Laser may be impressed that they were heard in South Korea!) Similarly Mystery Radio and Playback International have also been heavily monitored though the grid references given for their locations seems to vary quite a lot. These stations operate over long periods, usually at weekends but outside these times too, so it is perhaps not surprising that they have been 'caught'. A more interesting question might be why other stations have been monitored. Was it a chance happening by the administration concerned, or are the frequencies they are using of particular interest to that country?

There are many more questions that these logs raise: How many 'complaints' are necessary before action is taken? Are the locations produced sufficiently accurate to find the transmitters or are other methods necessary? Do the various monitoring stations co-operate to improve the accuracy of locations? Is there a competition between stations and administrations to show how 'bad' their neighbours are being (eg UK complaining about France and France complaining about UK). And perhaps, most importantly, how come Mystery and Playback are still on air?!