Clandestine access - books and periodicals on covert and pirate radio

The Ace: Sample issue $1.50. Annual membership: $18 in the US, $19 in Canada/Mexico, $25 elsewhere. From ACE, R 0. Box 11201, Shawnee Mission, KS 66207-0201.

Two ACE columnists, Harry Helms and "Havana Moon," spread their wings wider in Umbra et Lux, o monthly newsletter devoted to signals intelligence" and covert shortwave communications. Their main interests seem to be studying anomalies in coded message traffic and finding secret transmitter sites.

Umbra et Lux: Sample issue $2. $18/ year (12 issues) in the US, $21/year in Canada, $30/year elsewhere, from DX/SWL Press, 10606-8 Camino Ruiz, Suite 174, Son Diego, CA 92126.

"Havana Moon" has written a lot about numbers stations. Claiming to be a former spook, this June he started a quarterly newsletter called The Numbers Factsheet. Lists of recently active frequencies and descriptions of unusual intercepts appear each issue.

The Numbers Factsheet: $16/year (4 issues) domestic, 25/year international, from MoonBeam Press, P 0. Box 149, Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510.

Folks with modems might find H Moon's "Los Numeros Online" service worth visiting. In addition to computer files on o wide range of radio subjects (not just clandestines), there are "live online" conferences on Saturday nights, with callers reporting signal catches in real-time for the group to monitor and discuss. Sort of an ethereal hunting party.

Los Numeros Online: Found on the Portal computer communications system in Cupertino, California. $10/month for full access to Portal. Call 408-973-9111 for registration information (9 a.m. - 5 p.m. PST).

Electronics & Radio Hobbyist's Newsletter is for folks interested in broadcasting without license. That can be done legally, so long as you stay within strict limits on power and antenna size. If done right a low-power AM or FM station can cover a dorm, a city block, even a neighborhood. This newsletter is a forum for all aspects of low-power operation, legal and illegal, with reports from the field and photos of home-made stations sent in by readers, plus editor Ernest Wilson's useful circuit diagrams and tech-tutorials. Wilson's company, Panaxis, also sells high-grade equipment for low-power stations, usually in kit form.

Electronics & Radio Hobbyist's Newsletter: $24/year (12 issues); trial sub $14/6 issues) from Panaxis Productions, P. 0. Box 130, Paradise, CA 95967-0130.

Andy Yoder publishes the biweekly Pirate Pages, where subscribers trade station gossip and lore. He's also the author of Pirate Radio Stations. This book's subtitle, "Tuning in to Underground Broadcasts," is an exaggeration. Most of the stations described are in North America, signing on for a few hours of weekend or holiday fun. Few could be considered radical or dangerous, though they do violate FCC rules. Yoder's fanship both helps and hurts the book, adding anecdotes but losing critical perspective.

The Pirate Pages: Biweekly; $6A2 issues from Andrew Yoder, P.O. Box 109, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214. Pirate Radio Stations: Andy Yoder (1990, 182 pp.). 12.95 postpaid from TAB Books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0850; 800/233-1128 (or Whole Earth Access).

For on overview of recent air piracy in North America, see The Pirate Radio Directory by George Zeller. The 7990 edition gives brief sketches of more than a hundred stations heard during 1989, mostly in the shortwave band. Illustrated with souvenir cards and letters sent to listeners, there's also general information about when and where to listen, and how to contact the perpetrators.

The Pirate Radio Directory (1990, 71 pp.): $9.95 postpaid from Tiare Publications, P. 0. Box 493, Lake Geneva, Wi 53147 (or Whole Earth Access).

World War 2 was the crucible in which modern radio warfare developed. Aileen Clayton's The Enemy Is Listening gives a terrific account of that period. The first woman commissioned as a British intelligence officer she managed some of the teams and stations which monitored German radio transmissions for the codebreakers. She also helped figure out the secret "radio beam navigation" system that let German pilots find British targets at night. The British eventually used this knowledge to misdirect the planes.

The Enemy Is Listening: Aileen Clayton, 1982. Ballantine Books, Out of Print. The Puzzle Palace was a break-through in public knowledge about the Notional Security Agency's worldwide eavesdropping network. Big issues, dazzling research, still must reading.

The Puzzle Palace: James Bamford (1983, 656 pp.). $10.95 ($12.45 postpaid) from Penguin USA, 120 Woodbine Street/attn: cash sales, Bergenfield, NJ 07621.

In 1986, Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). It mode "endeavoring " to "intentionally intercept" certain signals a federal crime. Earlier lows set limits on what you con do with signals legally received, and the FCC enforces its transmission rules. it is thus essential to know the low if you tread in this arena. Fortunately, the relevant ports of the United States Code have been gathered in o single volume: Compilation Of The Communications Ad Of 1934 And Related Provisions Of Low In addition, some states hove laws limiting the mobile-use receivers that tune outside the broadcast bands. Those hove been assembled by Frank Terranella in the A. N.A. R.C Guide To U. S. Monitoring Lows. The FCC's rules governing broadcasting ore found in Code of Federal Regulations Title 47, Part 74. The rules governing unlicensed transmissions ore in Port 75 of the some title.

Compilation of the Communications Act of 1934 and Related Provisions of Law: Committee Print 101-1, House Committee on Energy and Commerce (1989, 397 pp.). $12 from Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9371; 202/783-3238.

A.N.A.R.C. Guide To U.S. Monitoring Laws (1990, 44 pp.): $7.50 postpaid from ANARC Publications, 1218 Huntington Road, San Marcos, CA 92069.

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47: Part 0-19 ($18 postpaid) and Part 70-79 ($18 postpaid) from Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9371; 202/783-3238.

Clandestine Radio Broadcasting is comprehensive history of illegal stations that broadcast against particular political regimes. Underground" fairly describes these. Hundreds of stations ore discussed, from all ports of the globe, from the 1930s to the mid- 1980s. Only a handful of short-lived TV projects are noted, TV being so much harder to do without getting caught. Details about political context are sometimes ample to a fault here, but the depth of scholarship is welcome, given the speculative hype this subject usually generates.

Clandestine stations generally emerge from the darkest shadows of political conflict. They frequently are operated by revolutionary groups or intelligence agencies that are unable or unwilling to leave a documentary record of their activities. And, unlike printed propaganda, no artifact remains. Consequently, a good deal of what has been published about clandestine radio broadcasting is nothing more than educated guesswork. In many cases, the guesswork is not even particularly educated. Because it is usually difficult to pinpoint a station's sponsorship, location, motives, and so on, very few scholars or journalists have taken the risk of writing in depth about clandestine radio broadcasting. Indeed, this is the first book-length interpretative history of the subject.

This tactical difference reflects how easily available radio technology is in modern Poland compared to postWorld War II Palestine. The Poles can inexpensively procure the parts needed to build transmitters. if a cheaply built transmitter is confiscated by Polish authorities, it can easily be replaced.

In Palestine, the situation was different. Parts were neither in ready supply nor inexpensive. Seizure of a transmitter would have been a major loss. That is no longer the case in the Middle East or other parts of the world, since radio components are now easily obtained in most regions. in Chile, for example, guerrillas can afford to blow up a transmitter to make a political point. The growth of radio receiver ownership and the availability of transmitters has led to o growth in the number of operating clandestine stations during the 1970s and 1980s.

Numerous pirate stations are operated in the Soviet Union. One report (Helms 1981) estimates there are about 3,000 Soviet pirate broadcasters, most of whom frequently broadcast obscenities and rock music. During a six-day period in 1971, 115 illegal transmissions were monitored by Soviet authorities in less than five hours (Taylor 1972), and most of the transmissions were from radio "hams." Fewer than 1 percent of the offenders who are caught making illegal broadcasts in the Soviet Union receive criminal sentences. Most are fined or receive social discipline." Jail sentences are reserved for clandestine broadcasters, whose transmissions appear less often than those of pirate broadcasters.

Clandestine Radio Broadcasting (A Study of Revolutionary and Counterrevolutionary Electronic Communication): Lawrence C. Soley and John S. Nichols (1986, 383 pp.). $A8.95 $51.95 postpaid) from Praeger Publishers do Greenwood Press, 88 Post Rood West, P. 0. Box 5007, Westport CT 06881; 203/226-3571.

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