First Pirate Radio Bust 1934

[Tedzed1]

Hello, Just like to share this one,
Brothers Gerald and Wilfred Barker of Norwich are forced to close their radio station down by the BBC: they recount the tale.

See attached link for video.

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//BHC_R...7190461/?s=*

The raid also got a mention in the Norwich local paper,

There were two transmitters & they were having QSO's & broadcasting. The raid on the first TX resulted in a on air warning to the second. "It looks as if we are brought to a hot end." The other operator was so worried he played Tom Jones & his orchestra & then closed with god save the king & was raided as he played god save the king.

So it looks like the BBC were responsible for tracing Illegal transmissions in 1934, and not the GPO.

I must admit, this made me smile

[Steve_P]

That is absolutely wonderful. I bet their 'pirate' transmissions were better than what the BBC put out now!!

Cheers,

Steve P.

[Yorkie]

As to the two brothers being 'pirate broadcasters', in the 1920s certainly, quite a few amateurs who held GPO transmitting licences were interested mainly in 'broadcasting' to a growing audience of appreciative listeners, rather than to have 'QSOs between each other, and seemed to be permitted to do so. The two brothers in question didn't apparently hold a licence to go on air in any circumstances. As to enforcement action, in the video clip, it seems that the BBC acted in concert with the GPO, because the brothers refer to 'The GPO' entering their premises. Interestingly, the brothers still seemed to be in possession of their equipment in the video clip, whereas for many years, whether it was the GPO, the Home Office, Radiocomunications Agency or Ofcom who was at the time thev Regulatory Authority, they had powers to confiscate, and invariably do so.

Ofcom have widespread enforcement problems in almost every major city in the UK with pirate broadcasting stations and carry out periodic raids with the police. The equipment is rarely located where the operators are, and have been found in places such as up floodlight towers at football grounds using illegally extracted electricity. It's a losing game for Ofcom - the pirates have access to more funds that do Ofcom or the police, and are back in business within hours.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7919748.stm

In Jonathan Hill's highly informative book 'The Cats' Whisker' he refers to a letter published in The Times in 1924 which read: ...I commend the following to amateur 'broadcasters' in this district: On two occasions recently I've had the pleasure of listening to the transmissions from a station a Warminster operated by a gentleman who gives his name as Mr Wilcox, who makes his testing interesting to the casual listener, interspersed with musical items of a high standard. Yet he religiously refrains from experimenting during the hours of the BBC stations. The owner of xxx on the other hand, seems to completely overlook the necessity for such consideration and conducts his experiments during broadcasting hours regardless of the fact that reception is utterly ruined for those who - like me rely on a crystal set'...

(No worries back then about breach of copyright of the music, it seems!)

At that time, broadcasting was still in its infancy and only 2LO was on air, so lack of selectivity of crystal sets wasn’t an issue. I have a small collection of crystal sets at they all receive several stations at good volume – the only snag being that all the stations are on top of one another right across the band – just a total cacophony!

Initially the 'BBC' was the British Broadcasting Company - an alliance of radio manufacturers who realised that unless they got together to fund broadcasting stations, there would be nothing to listen to, making the purchase of their expensive equipment rather pointless, and thus, holding back the sales of radios. As soon as regional stations began broadcasting, crystal sets soon became quite useless as they lacked the selectivity to receive just one station at a point on the dial.

By the end of 1926, the government realised the importance of a medium that could be received in every household, and decided to bring order out ot what would have become chaos. The British Broadcasting Company was dissolved at the end of 1926 and The British Broadcasting Corporation founded by Royal Charter in Jan 1927, initially for a period of ten years.

It's not often realised that when radio was first invented, and the concept of 'broadcasting' to a wide audience, there wasn't term to describe the phenomenon. They hit upon adopting the term used for sowing seed by hand - 'broadcasting' - a term which we now take for granted, it's original meaning having become obscure and obsolete in the developed world, with modern farming methods.

David