UK position on SW pirates

[oj1981]

Hi,

So someone I know is interested in SW pirate radio, listens to stations from Holland especially a lot. Anyway he's thinking would be really fun to have a go at having his own station, probably 50w or so carrier power which would hopefully get coverage throughout Western Europe depending on conditions. He is however a little bit concerned about the risk of being caught. He's in the UK and wants to know OFCOM's attitude to SW pirates and the likelihood of being busted/raided, and the outcome if this did happen. He would choose a frequency away from commercial stations, military, ATC and distress frequencies. The station would be purely a hobby station, no kind of advertising or anything of a commercial nature. Would be grateful for any info people can provide. Cheers

[djjustin]

Sept 27, 2023 14:20:57 GMT -6 oj1981 said:

Hi,

So someone I know is interested in SW pirate radio, listens to stations from Holland especially a lot. Anyway he's thinking would be really fun to have a go at having his own station, probably 50w or so carrier power which would hopefully get coverage throughout Western Europe depending on conditions. He is however a little bit concerned about the risk of being caught. He's in the UK and wants to know OFCOM's attitude to SW pirates and the likelihood of being busted/raided, and the outcome if this did happen. He would choose a frequency away from commercial stations, military, ATC and distress frequencies. The station would be purely a hobby station, no kind of advertising or anything of a commercial nature. Would be grateful for any info people can provide. Cheers

hi, this forum is kind of dead right now, but you have me on board right now at least. so, I would tell your friend to broadcast his station over the internet through an ICECAST these people are from Canada, but they should be able to get him started portal.casthost.net/

(I RECOMMEND THEIR $16.50 PER MONTH 64K UNLIMITED LISTENER AND PACKAGE)

I recommend telling your buddy to have all his music in lossless or the best quality possible than set his encoder to AAC or AAC+ and use physical hardware for your broadcast sound by using some kind of sound card rather than just a sound chip or intergraded audio. FLAC is the best broadcasting sound for CD recordings as well as transferred vinyl recordings.


YOU NEED A WIRED BROADBAND CONNECTION TO YOUR SERVER NOT WIRELESS AND I RECOMMEND GLASSWIRE TO PROTECT IT FROM VIRUSES,


(Because somebody tried again to install a virus on my station's server today, but it blocked it) 😒

I wish these other god^%$# broadcasters would just leave me the &^%$ alone.

and IF he does not want to be a pirate, he will be even more safe if (IN CASE) the artist ever decides to take advantage and sue him for not having a blanket license. you could get a UK blanket license somehow. unfortunately, An ASCAP License does not work in the UK or outside the US. officially