HFU HF Underground
General Category => Pirate Radio History => Topic started by: texas1dxer on June 16, 2019, 2121 UTC
-
This isn't a pirate.
Reflections Europe, here every Sunday. Parallel 12255 kHz.
http://reflectionseurope.com/
ID @ 2129 UTC.
(Subject cut shorter by moderator Ray Lalleu)
-
This isn't a pirate.
Reflections Europe, here every Sunday. Parallel 12255 kHz.
http://reflectionseurope.com/
ID @ 2129 UTC.
Reflections Europe broadcasts from Donegal, Ireland... and the Irish authorities are not giving out legal shortwave broadcast licenses, so the signal is unlicensed, hence a pirate broadcast, irrespective of religious programming.... and considering some of it's rather right wing content, I don't think they would probably get a broadcasting license even if they wanted to... at least not in Ireland. The fact that they have been broadcasting for many years simply means that the Republic of Ireland is a relatively safe haven for unlicensed shortwave broadcasting, generally.... and has been for quite some time
-
Reflections Europe broadcasts from Donegal, Ireland... and the Irish authorities are not giving out legal shortwave broadcast licenses, so the signal is unlicensed, hence a pirate broadcast, irrespective of religious programming.... and considering some of it's rather right wing content, I don't think they would probably get a broadcasting license even if they wanted to... at least not in Ireland. The fact that they have been broadcasting for many years simply means that the Republic of Ireland is a relatively safe haven for unlicensed shortwave broadcasting, generally.... and has been for quite some time
The definition of pirate is outdated and needs to be changed.
US CB radio operators and Part 15 radio station operators are two examples or stations that aren't licensed, are legal, and no one would call them "pirates."
If Ireland -- as a policy -- allows unlicensed broadcasters to operate in the country, without penalty or enforcement action, those stations are de facto legal.
What makes a pirate station a pirate station is that it's illegal.
Reflections Europe isn't a pirate.
-
The definition of pirate is outdated and needs to be changed.
US CB radio operators and Part 15 radio station operators are two examples or stations that aren't licensed, are legal, and no one would call them "pirates."
If Ireland -- as a policy -- allows unlicensed broadcasters to operate in the country, without penalty or enforcement action, those stations are de facto legal.
What makes a pirate station a pirate station is that it's illegal.
Reflections Europe isn't a pirate.
The frequency ranges 6200...6525 kHz and 12230...13200 kHz are allocated for Maritime mobile services in Republic of Ireland (according to the Radio Frequency Plan for Ireland):
https://www.comreg.ie/publication-download/radio-frequency-plan-ireland
Taking into account 200 W of RE output power and the fact that these ranges are allocated for Maritime mobile services in other European countries too, I'm sure, any licenseless broadcasting on that frequencies can not be officially allowed in Ireland.
Citizen licenseless using of HF spectrum in civilized world is allowed only 1) on the frequencies specially allocated for license-free operations (e.g. CB, ISM bands etc.) or 2) with very low output power (e.g. 100 mW for AM Part 15 stations). And Reflections Europe does not match the both criterions.
More about license exemptions in Ireland (https://www.comreg.ie/industry/radio-spectrum/licence-exemptions/list-of-licence-exemptions/):
List of Licence Exemptions
Exemptions from licensing are normally established when there is no requirement to manage the specific spectrum band and where the risk of harmful interference is negligible.
The Interface Requirements for Radio Services in Ireland are set out in 06/47R.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of licence exemptions.
Short Range Devices (SRD)
The vast majority of licence exempt equipment falls under this category.
SRDs include various low power devices such as inductive applications, alarms, model control, walkie talkies, wireless microphones and audio systems, radio LANS, Road Transport and Traffic Telematics (RTTT), Radio Frequency Identification systems (RFID) etc. For more information see 02/71R.
Operation of Wideband Data Transmission Systems (including WAS/RLANs) in the 5.8 GHz band is also subject to the Registration of operational base stations with ComReg.
Citizen’s Band (CB)
AM citizens’ band (CB) and PR 27 radio equipment.
Operational modes are AM (1W erp), FM (4W erp) and SSB (4W pep). CB is from 26.96-27.41MHz where forty 10 kHz channels are available.
For more information see S.I. 436 of 1998.
Satellite
Certain Land Mobile Earth Stations including Inmarsat, Eutelsat, Italsat, Arcanet and Thuraya Stations. For more information see S.I. 398 of 2001.
Certain Fixed Satellite Receiving Earth Stations including VSAT and SNG receivers. For more information see S.I. 273 of 2000.
Mobile Earth Stations for Satellite Personal Communications Systems Satellite Earth Stations for Satellite Personal Communications Systems Low Power Satellite user Terminals. For more information see S.I. 505 of 2003.
On-board Aircraft Satellite Terminals. For more information see S.I. 7 of 2004.
Mobile Satellite User Terminals. For more information see S.I. 128 of 2005.
Exemption of Low Power Earth Stations on Board Vessels. For more information see S.I. 343 of 2008.
Mobile Phones
IMT-2000 (3G), GSM 900 and GSM 1800 MHz mobile phones. For more information see S.I. 158 of 2003
GSM mobile phones operating in the 900MHz band. For more information see S.I. 409 of 1997.
GSM mobile phones operating in the 1800MHz band. For more information see S.I. 107 of 1999
Exemption of Apparatus for Mobile Communications Services on Board Vessels. For more information see S.I. 169 of 2013.
Exemption of Apparatus for Mobile Communication Services on Aircraft. For more information see S.I 218 of 2017
Cordless Telephones
Analogue cordless phones operating at 31.025 – 31.325MHz (fixed part) and 31.925 – 40.225MHz (portable part).
DECT cordless phones operating between 1800 -1810MHz.
CT2-CAI digital cordless radio communications system operating in the band 864.1 – 868.1MHz and complies with ETS 300 131. For more information see S.I. 410 of 1997.
Broadcasting
Certain wired broadcast relay stations. For more information see S.I. 200 of 1976.
Sound broadcasting receivers. For more information see S.I. 211 of 1972.
Radio Receivers
General Radio Receivers (excluding Television Sets). For more information see S.I. 197 of 2005 and S.I. 292 of 2005.
GPR/WPR and LPR devices
Ground- and Wall Probing Radar (GPR/WPR) Imaging Systems & Level Probing Radar (LPR) Devices. For more information see S.I. 111 of 2013 and S.I. 112 of 2013.
For Registration information see GPR/WPR Registration Details.
Personal Locator Beacons
Exemption of 406 MHz Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs). For more information see S.I. 290 of 2010.
For Registration information see PLB Registration
Mobile Phone Repeaters
Exemption of certain Mobile Phone Repeaters Order of 2018, For more information see S.I. 283 of 2018
-
Reflections Europe broadcasts from Donegal, Ireland... and the Irish authorities are not giving out legal shortwave broadcast licenses, so the signal is unlicensed, hence a pirate broadcast, irrespective of religious programming.... and considering some of it's rather right wing content, I don't think they would probably get a broadcasting license even if they wanted to... at least not in Ireland. The fact that they have been broadcasting for many years simply means that the Republic of Ireland is a relatively safe haven for unlicensed shortwave broadcasting, generally.... and has been for quite some time
The definition of pirate is outdated and needs to be changed.
US CB radio operators and Part 15 radio station operators are two examples or stations that aren't licensed, are legal, and no one would call them "pirates."
If Ireland -- as a policy -- allows unlicensed broadcasters to operate in the country, without penalty or enforcement action, those stations are de facto legal.
What makes a pirate station a pirate station is that it's illegal.
Reflections Europe isn't a pirate.
Reflections Europe is an unlicensed radio broadcaster/Pirate Radio station from the Republic of Ireland, broadcasting in contravention of the legal provisions of the current Irish Broadcasting Act 2009.
The Republic of Ireland does not allow unlicensed radio broadcasts from its territory on HF frequencies, especially those which are internationally allocated to maritime communications. Shortwave pirate radio prosecution has a low priority amongst Irish law enforcement... unless there is serious interference.
Just because someone isn't caught doing something against the law in the Republic of Ireland, doesn't "de facto" make it legal.
-
If it swayed into republican or unionist territory it might expect a visit.
-
If Ireland -- as a policy -- allows unlicensed broadcasters to operate in the country, without penalty or enforcement action, those stations are de facto legal.
What makes a pirate station a pirate station is that it's illegal.
Reflections Europe isn't a pirate.
It is illegal, thus it's a pirate. To be pedantic, RE isn't a pirate but the operator of the transmitter is.
The regulator in Ireland usually only reacts to pirate stations if they receive a complaint, either of interference or, in the case of FM, from a licenced station.
CB is licence exempt.
WPAS, which uses frequencies just above the CB band, is used mainly by the Church to transmit services to the local population and requires a licence.
-
CB is legal provided you stay within the required frequencies, power limits and use type-accepted equipment. WPAS appears to use CB equipment and a lot of CB operations (at least here in the USA) are done with non type-accepted equipment...making the CB service a mixture of legal and illegal transmissions, hence enforcement is difficult (in the USA). My understanding with WPAS in Ireland (and the CADS service in the UK, which is functionally the same, and uses 26.965-27.405 MHz and 27.60125-27.99125 MHz (CEPT 40 mid band CB channels and UK FM 40 27/81 CB channels) the transmitter power limits are similar to CB, but, like CB, are rarely actually enforced.
WPAS actually has two sets of overlapping channels (27.60125 MHz to 27.99125 MHz in 10 kHz steps, and 27.605 MHz to 27.995 MHz in 10 kHz steps - this seems to match with the use of "export" or modified CB equipment and/or equipment designed for the UK FM CB channels). From other monitors and logs, Irish churches also use the regular 26.965 MHz to 27.405 MHz "mid band" 40 CB channels for WPAS purposes and ComReg doesn't seem to care. Much like the USA, the 26-28 MHz band is given a very hands-off approach by regulators as long as nobody is causing interference to anything important. Here in the USA, enforcement is complaint-driven and the FCC won't really do anything unless somebody asks them to.
The use of frequencies on what's considered a safety of life band (6 MHz marine band and 12 MHz marine band) means that if a maritime radio user reported interference on 6295 kHz or 12255 kHz, Reflections Europe would probably get a visit from ComReg.