Radio Hooligans - history of the pirate radio in USSR and CIS http://www.alter.most.org.pl/fa/php/showart.php?artid=224) Posted on: 27th October 2004
My article is about Free Operators - they are also called radio hooligans, or radio pirates. I will try to tell who are they and from where did they springed from. written for Avtonom #23, translated (with edition) for Abolishing the Borders from Below # 18 ***** Radio Hooligans - history of the pirate radio in USSR and CIS Illegal radio transmitters have been around in the ether for a long time. This is obvious for example from the fact that for ages there has been an international radio code, UNLNS, which stands for an illegally active transmitter. Reasons for appearance of UNLNS's on the waves have been many, but that is not theme of this article. Everything began in the end of the 50's. Back then, a conclusion was made that in order to increase harvest of corn it was necessary to seize one of the frequency ranges of Soviet radio amateurs. This was band of 160 meter wavelength. This range was given to Ministry of Agriculture, and radio amateurs were given a chance to register again and leave the range. Many followed this order, but some could not for different reasons. Others were offended for such a despotism which they took as a personal insult, and decided to keep their range. They changed their official call-signs, such as RB5AB to more original ones, such as Serpantin, Resonance, Success and so on. So one could hear in the ether "To all Free Operators. I'm "Jolly Roger". Calling all and listening!" So here we go! In high style, one may declare that radio pirate flag was raised over country of builders of Communism! Agricultural transmitters considered disturbance by former operators of the band as a problem. In 1957 Ministry of Communications organized a special service for controlling the ether, these were small groups of 2-4 person in regional centers for administration of communications. Further on, this service was named as State Inspection of Electrical Communications (GIE). Putsch of the band began. In order to catch "NDP's" (Illegally Functioning Transmitters), special direction-finders were worked out. Usually fate of a "radio violator" was confiscation of equipment and a fine - but there were also cases of more serious criminal persecutions. For security reasons, radio pirates had to move to middle waves. Radio piracy moved to next level, since now Free Operators could be listened with a normal household radio. I tried for a long time find name or call-sign of the person, who invented scheme which became classical radio-hooligan "hand organ". This scheme allowed transformation of usual lamp receiver to a two-way middle wavelength radio station. Scheme is so simple, that any 5th grader may work it out. And that was done! A wave of young, active school kids, for whom "hand organ" became their first own construction, joined the movement. And their enthusiasm makes sense. Books published back then for beginner radio amateurs proposed to start from building a detector receiver, or in the best case a detector with direct amplification Who how could that be of interest, if you already had a modern radio? But now you may make your own radio station! That is nothing you may buy, it is already something INTERESTING! And still, in some provincial Russian cities there are disturbances in middle wavelengths even daytime. "Hand organ", just as 40 years ago, is a means of communication where there is no internet, nor telephone, and income may be 200-300 roubles (6-10 $) a week. Radio hooligans split into two classes: "long-range artillery ", with powerful transmitters for connections of thousands of kilometres, and "organ grinders", transmitting in area of one locality. We use these terms further on in this article, although in some regions other definitions and terms were used. Main activity of "organ grinders" was to "drive music". This activity was met with a popular demand! It is not a secret, that Soviet radio was not really pampering listeners with a diversity of repertoire. There was a big deficit of tape recorders. And here we have some "Commissar" or "Little smoke" transmitting for example latest Western hits or half-banned songs of Vysotsky. One could take a simple "transistor" and relax in the nature with modern music. Power, of course, tried to do what it could with radio hooligans. Illegal construction and use of transmitters qualified to statue 206 of Criminal Codex of Russian Socialist Federation of Soviet Republics (hooliganism) - punished from fine of 50 roubles to 1.5 years of imprisonement. Since radio pirates were accused in accordance to this statue, an unknown journalist invented the neologism "radio hooligan". But it is not that Free Operators were behaving badly in the ether! Even posters calling to hand radio hooligans over to officials were distributed, but thanks to "organ grinder" music, public opinion was in side of the hooligans. Repressive measures did not give much results. Some Free Operators were caught, but they appeared like mushrooms after rain. Many appeared in the waves again after being busted the first time. "Organ grinders" developed to " long-range artillery ", and were replaced by new beginner enthusiasts. If in "organ grinder" ether during years there was only rotation of cadres and musical repertoire was changing, "long distance drivers" were developing. They moved from middle wavelengths back to "intermediates", from where they were once pushed away by corn growers. During seventies, when national economy was rapidly occupying band of 33-57 and 150-170 MHz, " long-range artillery " stuck to their band for good. As an answer to a traditional hooligan greeting "Have a kilowatt for an antenna!" one could hear response "I already have more!". And what people were chatting about in the ether? About almost everything! How one got piss drunk day before, jokes of various levels of correctness - only politics was avoided, that was how the times were. Statue 206 was bad enough, so nobody wanted to get busted with additional anti-soviet charges! But most often people were comparing equipment apparatus, antennas, long distance connections were made (in limits of the Soviet Union), there was competition on whose transmitter was strongest and of the best quality. Gradually, pirates adopted an etiquette of transmission without curses in the ether, topics were almost the same as among radio amateurs (mostly about gear), difference was the spirit of free ether. Surprisingly, radio hooliganism was stirred up by the state itself. Like before, for registration of a call-sign you had to collect a pile of papers from your workplace, to write an auto-biography, to join DOSAAF (this was obligatory) and so on. You had to wait at least half year until all the paperwork with your application was finished. And in the beginning permission was given only for building or acquiring a transmitter, permission to use it was given later on. All these conditions nurtured mushrooming of radio hooligans. Year 1980 became historical for radio hooligans. Year, when instead of a promised final transfer to Communism, soviet citizens were given the olympic games of Moscow. Powers figured out that all the repressive measures had failed, and made a sort of curtsy giving frequence range of 160 meters back to radio amateurs. This way they hoped to get rid of radio hooliganism. They supposed that Free Operators would rush to register their transmitters. Radio amateurs of this newly opened range were even reserved a special new series of call-sings which began with letters EZ, since powers expected that there would not be enough call-signs otherwise! But it did not happened quite like powers wished. Some for sure left the movement, but most refused to "get orderly". Everybody had their own reasons for this. Many just did not wanted to change their personal call-sign, such as "Monday", "Star" or "Serpantin" to EZ-something. People were not willing to give up radio liberty, or to cut force of their transmitters of several kilowatts down to accepted limit of 5 watts. And application of a registration was as tedious and lenghty process as before. In Ukrainian villages, where every other kid had some kind of transmitter, and dad had a gun in hayloft and ammunition in a tub with suet, mobile radio control units were driving around investigating 160 meter frequencies, demonstrating radio transmission from loudspeakers. People gathered around these units, and to demand "give your passport, we will write you permission right here and you will be free", people answered "We are free cossacks and we do not surrender to a census". That was for real - all-soviet radio hooligan Gulay Polye was not giving up its freedom! It became clear, that power had lost war with the radio hooligans. 1990's were not only about collapse of the Soviet Union, but also gave radio hooligans some new opportunities. For example, an opportunity to buy military and imported short-wave radio stations. During these years, Free Operators did not only seized new frequencies (some bands of short waves), but also some ways of previously unaccessible modulation, such as SSB - as well as the new CB - band (27 MHz) range which was opened during these years. Instead of a transmitter modified from a granny's old radio, people acquired now accessible modern transistors and micro-schemes. Radio-hooligan of 21st century is not anymore "organ grinder" of 60's and 70's. He is much better equipped, facing no other limitations but the financial ones. In one and the same frequency one may meet most different gears, one may have an imported transiver of few thousand dollars, someone has a military station, someone has developed one-lamp transmitter to perfection, someone has a self-made gear which does not lose in quality to imported or military technology. In parellel with "new Russians", "new radio-hooligans" appeared, busy cursing in the ether and purposely disturbing radio communications. They are a problem expecially in the CB band. This something quite different from the days of "organ-grinders", whose musical program was listened with a pleasure! And even the dirty songs "organ-grinders" used to transmit at times, accompanied with an accordion, did not annoyed people too much - quite a contrary. Discussions about technical problems connected with construction of antennas and amplifiers have their point - they prove competence of of a hooligan and also help others to develop their capacities. But in difference from radio amateur frequences where chat seldom goes further from that, in hooligan frequencies there may be discussions of several hours about everything - from prizes of potatoes to politics (now it is allowed), religion, and any other themes which are considered taboo by reglaments of radio connections. And usually radio pirate is nothing else but a radio amateur, who does not want to submit to certain rules, which he consider as limiting his freedom and creativity. Radio hooligans believe, that radio amateurs should not be limited by regulations of the bureaucrats, since with such regulations it would not be any real hobby anymore. Radio hooligans have no leaders, nor hierarchies. During all the time of their existence they have been persecuted, but they never disappeared! There is certain romance in it, from where the attraction comes as well. Due to lack unifying centres and strict rules, everything is still developing and alive. Only limitation of this hobby are general moral principles and some standards, which have been established during decades. A real radio pirate never works in a radio amateur range with his pirate call-sign such as "Klen" or "Barmaley", and not in any case he will transmit in range of emergency services. Today, state has practically forgot about hunting down illegal transmitters in short and middle wavelengths. Agricultural industry has not used these wavelengths since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and navy uses them very seldom. Radio control is more worried about illegal wireless phone extension cords, which work in ultra-short wavelengths. Radio pirates are known abroad as well, but differently from radio hooligans of the former Soviet Union, it is more about broadcasting than about exchange.In Europe and USA radio pirates have more developed gear, mostly amateur and professional transceivers. Many of them know each other and are connected by internet. Even common events are organized, for example, operators agree with each other to broadcast to a chosen frequency during a certain period of time, one station sends pirate tunes for a couple of hours until it will be turn of the next one in the relay. This way one may hear pirate stations in this frequency during the whole day! For sure, illegal broadcasting has been practiced here as well. I already wrote about "organ grinders", pirate broadcasters appear regularly in ultra-short wave, there has also been attempts of pirate TV broadcasting. Radius of such transmitters is limited to one locality. But at times one may also hear " long-range" broadcasting in short wavelengths. So, that's all folks for now. Only thing to remind is that radio hooliganism is a crime, which is punished according to Criminal Codex, either with a fine from 10 to 1000 minimal wages, or with a prison sentence of up to 6 months. ALEKS (ALEXANDER MARKIN) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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