SKY and Penalty points...

medja

Does anyone know if speed scanners/jammers (The ones to pick up the Guards scanning equipment) interfere with Sky transmissions. My Sky signal disappears every day at the same time 11.15 am and returns at about 11.40am
The same is now happening in the evenings between 8.30pm and 9.00 PM. This is roughly the same time my neighbour goes to and comes home from work, or am I just paranoid? Just to add I’m on my 4th Sky box and engineers can never find a fault when they come out.

watty

All of these that actually "jam" rather than simply receive are:
1) Illegal
2) Mess up digibox
3) Mess up other stuff, could cause error on Medical gear or automated machine tools, depending on power and proximity.

REPORT HIM to Comreg.

It's time we stopped acting like a British Colony and had a more responsible attitude about law.

Laws *ARE* there for our own good, not to give a civil servant maderin something to do.


(And report Pirate Radio & TV to Comreg too as they also are selfish, troublemaking, lawless, parasites).

BrianD

Watty - perhaps you would be better off asking your mates at ComReg (and the BCI) when are they going to take a proactive approach to broadcasting and in particular the future of indigenous Irish broadcasting. Have you tried to listen to radio in Dublin since ComReg took the pirates off air? All you have is bland homogenous radio. So much for diversity and choice!

One wonders what the TV will be like once they issue a batch of licences to all the local stations that want them.

watty

Problem with Radio (and also with TV) is that the folks with enough money to run a station and get a licence are moer interested in a "safe" return on investment, not so much in Choice, experimenting or special interest.

It is like Sun paper or ITV "soaps". If you only watch the "bottom line" you get Lowest common denominator = blandness.


Its a fact that "good" programming makes a smaller market more happy. A diverse "good" station makes different small markets happy. If you want a mass market without putting in a creative effort, no-one will think it is brilliant, but lots of people will watch or listen because there isn't anything else.

Alleged "good" content is no justification for piracy either.

All too often "pirates" cause interference to other services.


I absolutely agree that the "content" of Broadcasting in Ireland is abysmal. I think it is a good sign in UK that ITC has slated ITV for having too many celbrity interviews dressed up as documentary and too many soaps.

The UK-ITC is fairly toothless/soft, but our own regulators have indeed been worse.

Also 90% maybe of TV and Radio available in Ireland can't / isn't controlled by regulator at all.

My 1 year of Analog Sky was a novelty. After six months of Digital Sky the novelty wore off as the same programs rolled around again.

Compared with FM Radio even a FTA receiver pointed at Sky gives in theory more choice (60+ Radio), most of that Choice is BBC, though as again the UK commercial PopVideo and UK Satellite radio is indeed samey and seeminly aimed at 15 year olds.

Working late in my workshop programming at Night I like Veronica Radio from Netherlands. Or Berlin Jazz perhaps during daytime (My PC sat card has about 480 FTA satellite Radio).

I'm putting up an aerial and then I'll get Cork and Galway Radio as additions to Tipp/Clare/Limerick/Kerry I can get with a Whip aerial on a portable.

But the lack of choice of Genre is depressing on Radio and TV.

It is however a completely separate issue to misuse of Airwaves by faulty equipment, pirates or "jammers".

Capt'n Midnight

Have you talked to the neighbour - it might be unintentional or it might not be him eg: could be coming from further afield

All the usual junk about realigning the digibox / put a screen on beside the dish .. (thin foil on a stick ? to block RF)

RF devices like
Garrage openers (flat metal garage door ??)
Video senders
Alarm on/off - should not affect it - wireless alarm ??
CCTV cameras ?

Good old electric drills and other stuff that chucks out RF
motors without suppressors hoovers / washing machines / dimmer switches
(try a surge protector on the same socket as the digibox and /or as close to your ESB box as possible)

You say scanners - so guess yer man has some RF kit / aerials => so may be knowledgable as to what could be causing it.. might be a case of him realigning an antenna or shielding it (to stop you picking it up )

LNB is 10-12GHZ but cable is lower and should be shielded

Any problems on terressterial TV - do you have NTL or Aerial
if NTL does the problem go away if you disconnect it (spurious signal down the cable - from Games / VCR / Cameras )

Do you have any brownouts in the area ?- light bulbs going dim etc. - should not matter too much as the digibox will use a SMPSU.

Lennoxschips

Unfortunately Veronica Radio, and their sister station KinkFM are limited to cable and satellite only, and aren't available on the airwaves.

The authorities in Holland auctioned off the available commercial radio frequencies here last month, and the result is that I can now receive 10 top40/middle of the Road stations. Which is ten times nothing, if you ask me.

I can understand that the commercial stations are only interested in making money, but in the case of 2fm, a publically funded station, there is just no excuse for the trash they churn out (excepting Dave Fanning and Jay Ahern). Public money shouldn't be paying for a station like 2fm in its current format. RnaG at night sometimes plays new music from around the world, which is a plus.

My favourite stations at the moment are BBC 6 Music and Studio Brussel from Belgium.

byte

Hmm, well as far as pirate radio goes, Phantom FM is the only one I know that was any good. They AFAIK, have bent over backwards trying to get a license but didnt succeed as yet.

Regarding 2fm, I thought that channel was self sufficient with advertising and doesnt' need to delve into the public funds

As far as Comreg/BCI goes, the only good thing they have done recently is tell North West Radio (covers Sligo-Donegal) that their license wont be renewed when it expires! Heh! I hated that channel! Unfortunately the new station to take over will probably be as bad knowing my luck!

I do indeed listen to Veronica on Astra 1. It's pretty good. Also browse through Kink, HR XXL, sunshine live, etc

stimpson

The comment about the pirates above is the same old rubbish trotted out by Comreg/IRTC/FF/RTE. Phantom had been providing a quality service for 7 years now - and before that they had been Spectrum for 2 years or so.

There is no licenced station in Dublin that caters to that audience - and it is a big audience. Just look at the indie scene in dublin. there is an indie club on somewhere EVERY night in Dublin. The live music scene has never been better and a lot of this is down to the community that Phantom is a major part of.

Thanks to the pirate shut downs I don't listen to radio anymore, and I know a lot of people who are the same. There is NO alternative for people who don't dig Louis Washes latest whim.

When Phantom applied for the licence the second time it went to a country music station. That station only got 0.5% of the listenership in the last JNLR survey. How vibrant is the country music scene in Dublin since line dancing became passé???

And I wouldn't dare question the IRTC's (BCI) motives for awarding the licence. I think it was just co-incidence that there was a Fianna Fail senator on the board of the country station...yeah....co-incidence. Everyone knows the IRTC is independent - after all it was Rambo Burkes brainchild.

Sorry for the rant, but that guy REALLY wound me up....

watty

Your'e missing the point.

It isnt about how "good" the Pirate Sation is.

Build a Hotel/Pub/Supermarket/Nice house "to meet a need" becuase there is "no choice" etc, without planning permission and it might get bulldozed.

Law exists to protect society from aroggent or dishonest or exploitive people.

We live in a Democracy so new laws are made or old ones changed to suit changing conditions with influence from electors.

Spectrum for FM radio is VERY limited (87.5 to 108 Max).

You can't have a free for all.

And for every "pirate" that creates no interference there are a dozen who cause interference with
Licenced Stations.
Services such Aeronautical, Marine, Ambulance, Garda.
Cable TV
etc.
Occasionally even non-radio equipment like Industrial control, office PC /Server or medical gear is affected by badly sited / incorrect or overdriven transmitter.

Some one has to decide who is allowed to transmit, where and what power. And turn off people who break the rules of Content or technical standards.

I'm sorry anything else is anarchy, not democracy, and akin to taking the wheels on my car because you think they are nicer than your own.


I agree that some appaling station have licences and some very listenable Pirates have not., but they are still nerver the less arrogant crimals for continuing to transmit even if Comreg doesn't close them down.

Being nice about breaking the law does not make it right.

Mike 1972

Watty the vast majority of pirate stations operated in a very responsible manner and never interfered with anybody and indeed instance of so-called LEGAL stations (RTE and Independent) causing interference problems for months and even years on end are hardly unknown.

Many local stations in Ireland are openly flouting the terms of their licence by using illegal link frequencies for outside proadcasts. Running excess power and modulation/deviation levels. Comreg and the BCI are well aware of this but either do nothing or make polite "cease and desist" requests which are almost invariably ignored.

Since you are a ham radio operator maybe you could answer the following.
1) How many instances of interference from pirate radio stations to ham or emergency frequencies are you personally aware of
2) How many times have you experienced interference to your listening enjoyment from badly designed electrical TV or computer equipment (either your own or neighbours) or from ESB lines

Most radio enthususiasts (ham or otherwise) I know will answer "very few" to 1) and "*%&*ing hundreds to 2)
There are regulations to cover 2) But these are NEVER enforced

watty

I've being hearing these same arguments since th '60s when radio consisted of:
BBC Home, Light and Third
RTE (one station)
Various stuff on Shortwave
Luxembourg 208 at night.

You're missing the point.

It isn't about percentages, how "responsible" the Pirate is. If I build a "proper" house that meets all structural regulations, properly and have it inspected by engineeres etc, without planning permission, I'm breaking the law, it could be bulldozed.

BrianD

Well being involved in so called "pirate" radio myself - we have taken all the steps that a normal ILR would take - processors that limit modulation, fitting of cavity filters etc to our TX.

I didn't realise that Watty is from Limerick where there seems to have been incidences of gross irreesponsibility by unlicenced operators in the area. Point taken but one must understand that pirate radio/TV is the result of the poor and pathetic licensing regime that the BCI have created.

watty

Did I forget to mention our mostr famous local Pirate, RLO?

Thumbs nose at regulator and becomes 1st (?) to LOSE a licence.

Supporters claim there is space for "millions" of stations.

Keep getting equipment siezed... Keep poping up.

I think they even had a C5 or BBC "Deflector" licence, which if they did, ironically didn't cover them for "local opt outs" (That was siezed).

Also we got Illegal Religious broadcasting from Mungret on and off relayed from Satellite.

(And If the Christians do it what stops Maharishi, Jehovas, Muslems etc etc).


Spectrum = 87.5 to 108 at most generous.

at 500KHz spacing = 41 stations.

But we need the same frequency reused at different locations, so to avoid problems in area inbetween, then we have 20 stations.

But terrain, etc means less so probabily limit, on average safely in any one area to aviod interference is closer to 12 .. 15 stations.

Bear in mind with a small whip aerial and TEN Watts I can talk over 144MHz radio link from Curragh near Kildare to folk in Limerick.

During high pressure Stations 100 miles to 200miles will pickup on ordinary radio.

Who gets the "safe" interference free 12 stations??

Now we pick off 5 channels for the high power national stations.

That leaves 7 free channels (typically) in any area. We are even being MUCH more lax than spectrum planners in 1970s would havbe been.

Who gets the 7 interference free channels. Big problem for Dublin, not so much for Achill Island!

I agree totally that in past it seems to defy logic as to reasons some get issued licenc and some don't (Hasn't it come upo in some tribunal).

But some ONE central agency needs to decide.


Satellite is cheap (a Satellite channel to all of Europe costs about the same or LESS as one UK local DAB mux channel carriage! (exculding Sky's overpriced EPG, which is about = one salary).

Aside from issue of UK DAB fitting too much on some MUXes = lower than ideal bitrate = worse than FM quality, why is there no DAB here?

Obviously partly because 30 years after the event, RTE is *STILL* using / duplicating on VHF, TV that should only be on UHF.

But perhaps the vested advertising interests DON'T want more radio competition that DAB would bring?


Also there is Worldspace Radio, which is nearly portable and fairly cheap to be on.

....

So, don't mistake me, I'm not a "spoilier". I very much understand the frustrations of people who want Community Radio or their own favorite genre of Music.

But *EVEN* if the BCI had perfect decisions (And they would need to be wiser than Solomon), there simply is NOT the VHF/FM radio spectrum, from a PURE Engineering viewpoint, not just the politics and commercial interests.

I don't believe Piracy is the answer:

1) Campain for shut down of VHF TV spectrum hogs duplication of UHF (The viewers need UHF aerials & relays *ANYWAY* for TV3 and TG4 or do they not matter?)

2) Campain for Irish DAB, but learn from UK mistakes.

3) Go on Eurobird or Astra 28 *NOW*, legally (if you uplink from outside Ireland via BT or WRN no BCI licence needed), saving money by no Sky EPG, if it good Community or specialist Genre people will add it to Digibox via "Other Channels". Can be done for £40,000 p.a. all inclusive. Beleive me in real commercial terms of running a Station, that is peanuts.


4) If you feel you music taste is That Good, go on Hotbird 13, Astra 19 to all of Europe. Cheaper and cover even more. OR Worldspace, possibly cheaper to 1/3rd Africa and most of Europe.

DMC

Extremely well put, watty.

I like Phantom, been a big advocate for years. But watty is entirely sensible and right in his house planning anology.

byte

Pretty good idea Watty!

Brian, have you and your team ever considered broadcasting via satellite? Using Eurobird or Astra 2 as watty has mentioned would give you coverage over all of UK and Ireland, and a lot of other parts of Europe too! That's what Radio Caroline has done. I believe Caroline are on WorldSpace too.

For the record, I think Phantom is a great radio channel, and should consider this option to broaden it's appeal! I'm in Donegal so have to rely on dial-up streaming, which is obviously poor at best of times! The thought of Phantom on satellite would be great!

On a side note, what about the possibilites of using Longwave? Obviously, no stereo sound, but wouldn't a LW Tx have a broader reach, like the good ol days of Atlantic252?

watty

The LW band is full now.

It is a VERY small band as the frequency is so low.

RTE has bought and is starting up the 252 TX in Trim. A kind of exPat service / "best of RTE1/Net2 is rumour.

Another unused allocation is been awarded to a new Manx based statio with an offshore TX platform.

LW goes about 500 miles in daylight and 1500 miles at night. Allocations are "handed out" on an International basis.

Curiously the USA does not use LW at all. (You'd pick it up at night in the West if they did).

Also the TX aerials need a lot of space compared with VHF.

The newest thing is DRM, a worldwide (except USA who have their own incompatible standard) new Digital Terrestrial Radio system to replace AM.

DRM is for 150KHz to 30MHz, ie LW, MW, SW. It starts this summer (tests allready running on SW). It is Digital giving near FM/DAB/Worldspace quality in only slightly more space than a regular AM transmission.

Unlike DAB, MPEG2 Digital satellite etc, a good radio, HF comms receiver or Scanner (i.e. all analog reception) can have a small board fitted to convert the 455Khz IF to 12KHz. Then DRM decoding SW can run on your PC/Laptop using the sound card as Analog/Digital convertor at the very low IF of 12KHz.

You can even use the "off the shelf" adaptor for a new model Yaesu or Icom scanner on almost any model of receiver with same IF frequency as it is a simple cheap frequency shifter.

A really old mechanically tuned radio (like Russian Vega) might be unsuitable, but any synthesised digital display radio is likely to be convertable.

stimpson

Fair enough Watty, you made some good points there. I know the spectrum is a finite resource and my main issue is with the feckers who are wasting it by having 3 stations in Dublin that only differ in their choice of Jingles....

Having said that, I do take objection to your point that the law exists to protect society from arragent or dishonest or exploitive people....I thought it was the other way around

Look at the gangsters who run this country, and in particular the ones behind Broadcasting regulations - their actions as shown in the Tribunals make a mockery of the law, yet by your measure the pirates are the "arrogant crimals (sic)"

Now that Phantom is off air I no longer listen to the radio - and I know a lot of people who are the same. This shows that the BCI have failed in their task to deliver quality broadcasting to a large section of society.

I admit that "Being nice about breaking the law does not make it right", but there is a huge difference between a responsibly run pirate station and taking large backhanders for awarding licences - Just because you write the law does not make it right to break it either.

Both are criminals, but one provides a public service - can you tell which one?

stimpson

Oh and another thing - Satelite is a great solution for a small broadcaster, but I had to cut a huge chunk out of my car to mount a dish and keeping the alignment is a bitch

BrianD

Well there is a thinking that in order to change the law you have to break it - very appropriate to Esat (with their auto dialers), deflectors (special licences for those "community" systems from the politicians) and private bus companies who also break the law.

Retuening to satellite radio. Perhaps somebody can advise. My info is that you must have a licence in some country to be able to get onto any of the sat platforms. Technically you can have your Head Office in the license country but have your operations else where. Sky will not carry any service that does not have a licence of some description.

The other problem is the uplink costs which can be prohibitive.

DMC

But its the ones who dont act like professional outfits bring your good name down.

Good point on the deflectors, tho.

You need a fixer!

watty

The MMDS was "invented" (by a Cork student using obsolete cheap US cable gear) in response to "Deflectors". It was/is a disgrace. A shabby political expedient.

Because it was so technically inept it didn't serve many folks it was meant for.

The Deflectors were licensed as a typical piece of political cronyism because the DTT plans collapsed.

It is like people driving on a provisional with no licence holder in the car and driving on provisional for years.

Its about time we stopped acting like a colony, as if the Law is some sort of colonial imposition to be flouted and wriggled past at every opertunity a la "The Irish RM" book.

WRN or BT uplink cheaply. It can be done for £40,000 to 45,000 pa including feed from studio, excluding Sky's overpriced EPG (I think £75,000 for TV and £20,000 for radio, but not sure).

Feed to someone else with a whole transponder. WRN do the MUX and will even do the EPG if you go on it.

You can do Now/Next EPG info (WRN will feed it from disk file sent to them every time you do a new schedule) even if not on the Sky EPG. The two are not the same thing.

Sky do NOT own or control the satellite!!!

If u are not on the SKY EPG, Sky don't enter into it no mater if you use BT *, WRN, R&R Communications, or buy off Astra-ses or EutelSat direct...

Astra-SES based in Luxembourg:
28.2E, and 19.2 E

Eutelsat appear to use Itally a lot, they are I think a multi-European company
28.5E, 10E, 13E, 16E
Eutelsat's bird at the Digibox posistion is "Eurobird" and the bunch of them (about 5) at 13E for most of Europe (works well here too) is "HotBirds"

Astra had to pay Eutelsat compensation as they launched to 28.2 first for Sky Digital Platform, but the orbital slot was actually Eutelsat's. (Astra were Pirates at start of Sky Digital!)

* There is a special separate BT company for Satellite Provision.

Bigger companies like:
R&R
Sky/BSkyB/NDS/Newscorp
BT
WRN
Canal+
Canaal Digitaal
AB Sat
Deutche Telecom

etc
Lease whole transponders off the Satellite owners (SES, Eutelsat, Etc) and then sell off bandwidth providing additional services.

Few Radio Only broadcasters do their own uplink. RTE historically had Uplink gear for Tara to some obsure mid atlantic satellite, so I suppose thats why they decided to do own uplink (also once you bought the gear the running cost is low).

watty

BrianD...
some of the stuff FTA would curl your ears off. Getting carriage "off the Sky epg" to Digibox "via other channels" can easily be done without a licence.

Comreg/BCI are NOT going to break door down and sieze Studio etc of someone uplinked via BT or WRN etc (both outside Ireland).

You need NO licence to broadcast TO ireland from Satellite, only to uplink direct from Ireland... Go figure..

byte

Originally posted by watty

Comreg/BCI are NOT going to break door down and sieze Studio etc of someone uplinked via BT or WRN etc (both outside Ireland).

You need NO licence to broadcast TO ireland from Satellite, only to uplink direct from Ireland... Go figure..

There is only one small hitch I can see. Phantom would still have to stream data to BT somehow, from Ireland, unless they move HQ?

Though, I do seriously think satellite transmission is worth consideration and researching, Brian. Maybe contact WRN? RTE Radio 1 has 2 feeds on Astra 2! There is a stereo feed on same transponder as the other RTE TV and radio channels, and there is a mono feed (i think via WRN) which, curiously is the feed that has an EPG listing! :rolleyes:

All you'd need to worry about initially is carriage on satellite. I wouldn't bother considering getting an EPG listing as it's too expensive and besides, the fans could be told how to manually tune in PhantomFM. Just like Radio Caroline has done. Then maybe in the future if funding allows, get an EPG number...

watty

Cheapest is ADSL to stream at 1000 pa roughly. Just about possible if it used for nothing else.

SimonMaher

Hello all,

Very interesting debate this one. I know its gone horribly off topic of the poor souls sky reception but sometimes its worth it!

Right, first put my hat on. Im Station Manager at Phantom FM. Can I just put in my two cents. First, I have to disagree with the arrogant etc comment from Watty. Im sure its a sincerely held belief, but in my opinion a mistaken one. We are in the unfortunate situation here where the only way that an independent media has developed has been by breaking the law. While I agree that there has to be a regulatory body, that body needs to be accountable, transparent and fair. Sadly, our regulatory body is none of those. Without "law breakers" we probably wouldnt have a successful independent sector at all here. Most of the political parties proposals involved huge involvement from RTE, the Catholic Church and even in some cases the state itself. It was only the influence of the 1980's pirates that led to the establishement of the (admittedly flawed) independent radio sector. But thats another days argument. We can spend all day with me justifying why we have to break the law to bring about change in this mad country of hours and you playing the "illegal" card. So lets move on!

On the topic of frequencies, I think your logic is flawed with your .5Mhz spacing. ITU regulations talk about .3MHZ and even ComReg themselves talk about .4Mhz. It is a finite resource, but if managed properly, lots of stations can be fitted in. Already in Dublin, a number of frequencies which could be allocated reasonable power (eg up to 1kw) are occupied by community/hospital stations. 105.2, 107.2 and 107.6 are three that are cleared for use in Dublin. The community/hospital stations were allocated these channels as an easy option at the time, which is now being regretted. Low power channels are generally much easier to find and a number are available in the lower part of the band. So there instantly are three available frequencies. There are at least three others in the clearance process at the moment. There is also the possibility of using unused frequencies in the lower part of the FM band such as 88.1 etc which can also be used with reasonable operating powers.

If the political will exists to licence more stations then that will happen, but the current application of the regulations actively discourages new entrants and the recent action of ComReg against the "pirates" only serves to exacerbate that problem.

We are currently investigating any method possible to get Phantom on air (legally) and will of course be researching the satellite option. The only problem with this is the lack of commercial viability of satellite radio. Because it is so difficult to accurately gauge listenership via Satellite, it is very difficult to sell airtime to advertisers. So we could exist like Radio Caroline but we have a legitimate aspiration to run a media business and do the whole paying people, tax, royalties etc lark.

And finally just to fill in for those who may not be aware, despite our "pirate" status, government agencies, TDs, BCI, Gardai, Revenue etc have no trouble dealing with us even in our "pirate" guise and taking our hard earned tax euro. The whole pirate thing here isnt as simple as it may appear. But then again, very little is...

Regards,

Pete Reed
Phantom FM

byte

Hi Pete, welcome to the thread! Nice to see your involvement in the discussion!

I realise how advertising could be more awkward and harder to guage if broadcast via satellite. But then, instead of covering just Dublin, you'd be covering all of Ireland, UK and other Euro countries. It would obviously benefit people like me who don't live in Dublin City and find dial-up streaming crap! Heck, if I owned the LW252 Tx, I'd hand it over to ya, since your channel is excellent!

watty

The 0.5 was a "top of the head figure" to just indicate that it is a finite resource and indicate just how rediculus the pronoucements of RLO and Councillers in Limerick that back RLO are.

I totally agree the existing regulation system has been terrible. I'm just pointing out that if even a very small percentage of people "took law into their own hands" in a City the size of Dublin the airwaves would be a disaster.

I'm only pointing out the alternatives and that even if the regulator was perfect there are going to be disappointed applicatants. Should people just do what they want because they believe their product has a market or should we become a less lawless society?

We need change:
1) More open less political regulation of who gets a licence.
2) Alternative to FM Radio. It simply does not have enough spectrum space.
3)Better lobby system rather than breaking the law to change it with just encourages unsocial behaviour generally in our society (e.g. Road carnage, Drink related violence, Drugs, Planning corruption, gang war /family feuds etc)

But at end of day there really is not much space left on VHF/FM, and in some areas none.

Which is more arrogant? To break the law and steal the space, justifying it on basis that you run a station technically properly and people want it and regulator was mean/biased/ignorant for not giving you a licence yet OR pointing out the problems of piracy, lack of spectrum space and some alternatives.

If I run an Illegal brothel etc and for whatever reason I'm not closed, I'd still have to pay VAT, Rates, Income Tax etc etc. Paying taxes etc does not imply approval by the Government.

If I sell counterfiet Levis (wheter or not I'm found out), my clothing chain would still pay tax, VAT, Employer PRSI etc, of course some people are even less scruplous and fake the accounts, don't pay the PRSI etc... I worked once for a company otherwise quite legal and because they had a cash flow problem they deducted the TAx and equivalent of PRSI etc (this wasn't in Ireland). The place went bust and the Graduates straigt from college couldn't get any unemployment benefit etc as all the "deductions" had gone into company expensis and never paid over to Government.

watty

In nearly 40 years if "scanning the airwaves" I have never reported a Pirate.

Any that were causing interference were shut down anyway.

As well as Commercial Radio pirates there are also "two way radio" pirates. The more experienced ones do tend to "lurk" at odd spots on the band where they hope to not cause interference.

The fact is that Comreg (and previous incumbents) are not what I would call pro-active. If there are complaints of interference they will investigate. They investigate compalints against "Amateur Radio" (Called "Wireless Experimenters" in this country) with particular zeal

That's one reason "Hams" keep accurate logs. Often the time of the alleged interference does not match station operation times. Amatuers find it hard to get a 50MHz (6m) licence extension in a Cabled TV area.

I agree that someone thoughtlessly using a FM transmitter to "wirelessly" connect Digibox or DVD etc is also more likely to cause interference than a "Good" Pirate.

I also agree there are "Good" and "Bad" Pirates. But as Radio Listener for over 40 years, Radio Amatuer over 30 years, and as Ex BBC Communications Engineer and a tax/licence paying 100% citizen of Ireland, I'm entitled to the view that breaking the law is wrong and stealing radio spectrum is wrong. I don't thing that's arrogant.

It would be arrogant if I went on a "Witch Hunt" scanning the bands and reporting every unlicensed transmission to Comreg. But I have never done that, nor intend to.

If I'm in "Phantom Land" I'll certinally try an tune it to sample the "goodies" on offer. I hope, if Phantom is as good as folks say they get a FM Radio licence.

Meanwhile....
We should campain for DAB and close of RTE VHF TV spectrum hogs.
Campain for Comreg regulation of Sky and write to ITC. It is rediculous that EPG listing is half as much as carriage!!
Campain for more "open" and less polictical licencing system, though at least they seem to be moving in a reforming direction..
Investigate WRN and other orgs that make Astra 28 carriage less painfull (In reality Worldspace, Hotbirds, Astra19 etc would be too small a market).

I expect the BBC FTA to fuel growth of 28E satellite reception from roughtly 400,000 households to 1million. Also expect growth in tiny non-Digibox sector.

I find listening to Satellite Card on my PC infinitely preferable to Internet streaming for radio.

Phantom should not take my views as any kind of personal attack, more simply a view generally on Radio Piracy and the alternatives.

Anyone can easily buy a FM stereo transmitter even with RDS fairly cheap and be on air with 400W for less than price of a good Home Cinema setup. They could even automate the search, download and playout of MP3s on it. If even a few more people did it, Phantom might have problems finding an interference free slot and who could they complain to?