HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: 930 California on December 16, 2025, 0102 UTC
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Greeting fellow radio enthusiasts!
I recently signed up for this website in the hopes that i may better understand radio and its various uses and purposes. I also talk on CB under the handle of 930 California. I love freebanding and CB. My question today is this: Why don't pirate radio operators use the 11 meter band for broadcasting? The 11 meter broadcast band is rarely used and its easily accessible to the many radio operators that use Export radios. Band A on all Export radios would be in the range of the official 11 meter band. Along with that the high sunspot cycle would make it easy for 11 meter broadcasters to talk around the world. Additionally, they would be able to talk locally under non-sunspot cycle conditions. Hope you guys can answer my question.
73s,
KO6DEF/930 California
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Hello 930 California!!! I've been saying, and asking, that for years as well. Why, the mostly vacant 11M INT BC Band isn't being used by pirates, but mostly CB Outbanders and Drug Runners? Well, the 43M Band, and even lower FREQ's, have nice regional coverage during daytime, and maybe night time might skip long. Domestically, ops like the regional coverage, but at a price. Lower FREQ's have a pretty big footprint, where gov monitoring stations can easily triangulate. Also, S/N Ratio, to be heard with QRP power levels, although not impossible, most likely more ERP will be required to get over the noise levels. And, to be efficient, antennas for lower FREQ's are just physically big. 11M, 25.670MHz - 26.100MHz, could be had with base and mobile CB antennas, either retuned with somewhat longer elements, or a tweak of an antenna tuner, are readily available. Not hard to make an 11M Dipole either. And, when F2 PROP is riding high, 5W can work wonders. Plus, you have a relatively smaller local footprint, like 30 miles, or less. Then, in Solar Sunspots Minimum, you still have Summer and Winter Sporadic "E" PROP to get that signal out. There are some users out there on 11M, like World Music Radio on 25.800MHz AM. https://www.wmr.dk/ And, there are a few NBFM Broadcast Auxiliary Stations still operating there as well. Other-wise, it's a pretty under used piece of spectrum. There's even been proposals for an Amateur Broadcasting Window there, but thus far, that seems to be going no where. I will say that in the past, there has been some operations around 26.015MHz. Whether there will be anymore is a good question. What's nice is our tax $$$$ have a nice tool again, with WWV back on 25.00000MHz AM. https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-station-wwv Yeah, a nice propagational beacon, and we are paying for that. So, the use of 11M INT BC Band? I say, heck yeah!!! Smoke 'em, if you've got 'em. BTW, this is an interesting read on the subject. https://recnet.com/alternate-spectrum-25670-26100
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Hey ThaDood,
Thanks for responding and I absolutely agree with your take. Antennas for 11 meters are smaller, the Gov. doesn't seem to care for 11 meters much these days, and under skip the distances could be humungous. I hope that soon I can get a vertical antenna up or maybe a dipole. I might start broadcasting on the 11 meter broadcast band then. So if you ever hear Voice of the American Experience (VOTAE) on the 11 meter band just know that most likely will be me. I right now just got a 50 watt PeP radio on AM and I hope to either get a vertical antenna or a dipole set up so that I can finally start using that area of the radio spectrum. Just wondering do you have any transmitting equipment that you would be willign to use?
73s,
930 California
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Well, no... Nothing dedicated for 11M BC INT Band. Not, for SW pirating. I did build a modification of the 22M PIXIE, 0 - 20mW, crystal AM transmitter for the ISM Band, centered on 13.560MHz. 2mW, and a significant Part 15 Field Strength allowance covered some pretty good amount of real estate, like a few miles to those that had decent 20M antennas to receive with. However, the Beacon Freaks heard about it and freaked-out over that, so I took that off-air. Unfortunately, permissibly a much lower Field Strength is allowed on 11M INT BC Band, less than the FM Band's 250uV @ 3M. Still, good CB 1/4-waves, 1/2-waves, and 5/8-wave, antennas could pick that weak signal up for over a mile, or further, in theory. So, a Part 15 AM transmitter, centered around 26.015MHz, is in the works. Signal will be very, very, low, like oscillator level. I have to re-look-up the Field Strength allotment there for Part, but it might be as low as 50uV @ 3M. (Again, I'll have to look that up.) Still, it should be a neat Part 15 neighborhood experiment and the Beacon Freaks should be content with this one. Now, will that low in Field Strength skip with F2 and Sporadic E? Well no, this would just be very local Part 15 use, but use of a mostly abandoned band nonetheless.
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hey cool. Sounds interesting. By the way what country do you live in?
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930 California - I'm not in the US, so don't know what interest the FCC takes in the HFU, but be careful not to paint a target on your own back.
You have given a callsign, then gone on the say you freeband and plan to use a 50w AM broadcast tx.
Discretion is advised!
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Hey All,
In the early 90's there was a portable station in MA on 25.5 Mhz at 175 watts (Search pirate radio WBZA ). The operator was a "friend of mine" :).
It was the only rig he had and the only "practical" way to pull it off ( re small antennas, etc)
Reports came in from Europe and also the SW US.
And now , the usual disclaimer : While I will certainly DISCUSS pirate radio, I do not condone actually doing it.
It's illegal, blah,blah ,blah.
There are online announcements for upcoming broadcasts .If I was "operating" I'm not so sure post ahead of time.Not sure if pre announcing increases the risk or not.
So I'll eliminate the pre announcing factor for now.
If you are running a station folks have to know WHERE to look if it's not announced in advance. This is why I think it is a VERY good idea for operators to use the upper part of 6 Mhz ( ie 6950, etc). Especially if listeners are using an SDR, it makes finding stations easy.
It seems like nearly all Euro pirates like to use the lower part of 6 Mhz. Again , they establish a place were they can be easily found.
Other isolated Euros have scattered around in 3, 4,5 and 9 Mhz .One isolated US station was recently on 4 Mhz.
WMR is an established and licensed station that seems to also use other lower frequencies.
The 25.8 Mhz WMR frequency is not high powered and almost seems to be on the air for "just grins" to see who can hear it ( (when propagation allows). I have heard it a few times, but it seems fairly rare here in the US.
WWV 25 Mhz seems to run the same way .The station engineers (hams) brought it back on the air just as kind of propagation "beacon" and basically just "for chuckles", since they had a reserved allocation for that frequency anyways.
Also , to further "standardize" things I personally think that ALL pirates should run in UPPER side band .It really improves the chances of folks hearing it during noisy or marginal conditions. But I certainly get why some folks want to run "Hi Fi" AM for music.
As for 26 and 27 Mhz : Again, I do not condone out of band or illegal operations (blah, blah). But if you ARE going to do anything up there, in my opinion make it an SSB (!) Dx QSO (OUTSIDE of the 12 M or 10 M ham bands !!!).
The very high end of shortwave is a really cool place to play around in .
But IMHO, save the broadcasting for 43 meters.
de NQC
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Copied Part 15 INFO:
§15.209 Radiated emission limits; general requirements.
(a) Except as provided elsewhere in this subpart, the emissions from an intentional radiator shall not
exceed the field strength levels specified in the following table:
Frequency (MHz)
Field strength (microvolts/meter)
Measurement distance (meters)
0.009-0.490
2400/F(kHz)
300
0.490-1.705
24000/F(kHz)
30
1.705-30.0
30
30
30-88
100**
3
88-216
150**
3
216-960
200**
3
Above 960
500
3
**Except as provided in paragraph (g), fundamental emissions from intentional radiators operating
under this section shall not be located in the frequency bands 54-72 MHz, 76-88 MHz, 174-216 MHz
or 470-806 MHz. However, operation within these frequency bands is permItted under other sections of
this part, e.g., §§15.231 and 15.241.
That's a bad copy & paste, but if someone in the USA wanted to do Part 15 permissible ops in the 11M INT BC Band, looks like 30uV @ 30M is the Field Strength limit. So, a portable with a 1 meter long whip, measuring several "S" units, at a distance of about 100ft, would be in the ballpark for measuring that. BTW, where iz I??? Eastern USA.
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More:
For a “ LEGAL “ operation broadcasting to the general public, a 100 ft range (with NO sky wave ) doesn’t seem to be worth bothering with .
I can ( and have) yelled further.
And FWIW, it was stated ( “ later on “)
that 25.5 MHz was rumored to be a
“ US Intelligence operations” frequency in Africa.
No way to know if this was true or not.
But IF true apparently they didn’t mind WBZA sharing “ their “ frequency 😁.
de NQC
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I suspect everyone thinks they're getting into pirate broadcasting for the long haul, so the idea of putting something on the air on 11m which is only useful during sunspot maximums isn't attractive.
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Agree, we are on the downward side of the current sunspot cycle, in a year or so 11/10m will be as dead as a dodo.
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Hey All,
Europirate :
I am not sure how quickly 11/10 M will decline. But it is eventually inevitable.And while it maybe won't not die completely for years , openings will become "uncommon".
43 M may run in to trouble for days here or there. But I don't think it mostly disappear, like 11/10 M probably will.
Just another reason why 6 Mhz is probably a better bet.
de NQC
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Hey everyone thanks for responding. I think I will continue my plan. Obviously I know many people would say it is dumb to say that out loud but considering that the FCC doesn't seem to care very much of that area of the radio spectrum very much and considering I never gave the FCC my location on this website I don't think I'll have to worry about the FCC getting on me. I may consider 43 m operation although I am not sure yet. If I do decided to run a broadcast on 11 meters then I may tell people in advance. The main reason why I would want to do this broadcast is because i think 11 meter broadcast is a really good idea right now considering that we are at the top of the solar cycle.
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considering I never gave the FCC my location on this website I don't think I'll have to worry about the FCC getting on me.
You posted your exact location, including your street address, in your original post.....
Since you are newly licensed, perhaps you didn't realize that all information associated with the callsign you posted above is public information and available on FCC website. (as well as many other "License Lookup" sites.)
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Inspired by this thread, did a brief test transmission with the Sternradio equipment and managed to get a reasonable signal out on 25.820MHz. A bit different of a coverage area than the usual range from East Antarctica.
Here's one of the issues you've got with 11m transmissions, not as many people tend to be SWLing during the daylight hours.
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Inspired by this thread, did a brief test transmission with the Sternradio equipment and managed to get a reasonable signal out on 25.820MHz. A bit different of a coverage area than the usual range from East Antarctica.
Here's one of the issues you've got with 11m transmissions, not as many people tend to be SWLing during the daylight hours.
Another is not many listeners will be actively checking the 11m band for pirates. Although that can be remedied to some extent by letting a few listeners know in advance. Once a broadcast gets logged by a listener, others will follow. ;D
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Hey All,
I am not even sure of the "risk factor" when using shortwave (compared to AM, especially below the X band and DEFINITELY on FM ) . And again if there IS one, would posting in advance increase it ? Can't say .
I am COMPLETELY off the air ( ham , CB and "other" transmissions ). Had my fun , but now keeping a LOW profile on receive only.
About the only transmitter I am interested in now is an ultra super low flea AM'er (range in inches or a few feet at BEST ) to play around with (ie as a beat "tuning aid"/signal gen for crystal sets, etc) .Even that hasn't been a high priority on the bench .But I'll get 'roundtoit "eventually".
de NQC
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I've always been interested in listening oddball stuff in this region, whether SWBC, STLs, pirates, or outband SSTV, and could be persuaded to tune here more often :)
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Hey Andrew,
FANTASTIC to see you in here ! I have really enjoyed all of your contributions over the years .
YES, upper HF ( higher than 15 M or 12 M ) can be a LOT of fun- small antennas, low noise, "interesting " propagation ,etc.
The down side is that obviously these frequencies are more solar cycle dependent.
de NQC ( who "knows the guy" than ran 25.5 Mhz WBZA in the early 90's :)). )
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Seems like 11 Meters has gone dead over the last several years and its really sad.. Nothing better sounding than Analogue!
When the DX comes in though,you know its still alive!
Im glad they finally said they didnt care about FM mode being used here.. FM is a cleaner mode and it would have saved alot of people from being splashe to hell in the 80s from ppl with dirty amps! (If they were on FM the audio wouldnt splash over)