PCS-Electronics

Saturday, December 11, 2004

This weekend, the pirate radio station Koning, Keizer, Admiraal has been
broadcasting a high power FM signal into the Netherlands on 97.0 MHz. The
broadcasts were coming from a 100 metre mast just over the border in
Gildehaus, Germany, with a power of 11 kW, and the intention was to
broadcast continuously for the whole weekend. However, the station's Website
reports that it was taken off the air at 1355 UTC today, after 15 German
police cars and some Dutch police arrived at the transmitter site.

http://medianetwork.blogspot.com/

http://diymedia.net/archive/1204.htm#121204 [hyperlinks in article]

12/12/04 - Dutch Pirate Blowtorch Blowout

It's tough to fully understand because it's all in Dutch, but there was
one hell of a pirate broadcast in Europe this past weekend. Radio
Koning, Keizer, Admiraal ("King, General, Admiral") took to the airwaves
Friday on 97.0 FM, running 11,000 watts out of an antenna more than 100
meters tall.

The broadcast was the result of a combined effort of four pirate
station-groups operating in the eastern Netherlands, laid on (in part)
to protest the methodical sweep of the FM band carried out by the Dutch
government in the past few years as part of a policy of spectrum
commodification. Practically speaking, however, it was just one big
party.

The actual antenna and transmitter were located just just over the
border in what appears to be some German woodland. Reception reports
poured in from as far away as Italy. I believe this may have been the
largest-ever land-based FM operation ever constructed by Dutch pirates
(possibly the largest-ever in northern Europe).

The same day Radio KKA took to the air, Dutch authorities paid a visit
to the station, reportedly on complaints about interference to a
regional public broadcaster (KKA operated on an adjacent channel to the
affected station). Saturday afternoon saw a large multi-jurisdictional
German/Dutch enforcement team locate and raid Radio KKA; someone's got
the last 8:47 of the broadcast online. Station crew were also slapped
with a ?40,000 fine (~$53,000).

The party didn't stop Saturday night: part-celebration of KKA's short
but bright run and part-fundraiser.