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Dealing
with Pirates
by John, 9V1VV
An interesting post, but I do feel that Walter Brenner was being optimistic if
he thinks the pirates in Indonesia will stop.
We in Singapore face daily obstacles getting through SSB pirates on all HF
bands. They operate up to 5 kW in all sections of the bands including the
designated CW portions. On the lower bands, the only way to hope to work DX from
here through the QRM is in the middle of the night when the Indonesians are
sleeping.
Not only the Amateur bands, but ALL frequencies from 1.6 to 30 MHz, are
affected.
The reasons are complex, and no efforts by radio amateurs will change matters.
I was involved in a large Indonesian Government project in 1996 as installation
and commissioning engineer for 15 Marine Coast Stations, in locations across the
length and breadth of Indonesia from Sumatra to Irian Jaya and north to the
Philippine border. It was a great adventure for me, and I have many tales to
tell.
What is of interest here is that the radio operators in these remote islands
would hold evening nets on SSB for the mothers and fathers, uncles and cousins,
of young men working in other regions, usually in the cities where they had gone
for work. Operators in the big cities such as Jakarta or Surabaya would arrange
with these young men skeds for many islands all over the vast country, for a
small fee of course. These larger city Marine Coast Stations often use up to 5KW
PEP, free-running transmitters. The stations I was commissioning were only 600
watt, but they were also free-running 1.6-30 MHz.
It is not only the marine radio operators that cause problems. The police, army
and airforce bases work on the same lines. There are thousands of Japanese rigs
out there free-running in the hands of as many operators all over the archipelgo,
all using radio as a kind of community service, in a country where landlines and
cellphones cost money and are far from reliable.
The operators are poorly trained or dismissive of the niceties of international
regulations and procedures. For example, a common calling frequency is 10.000
MHz !! It's an easy figure to remember. The low portions of the amateur bands
are fair game. The operators often remark on the "birds" tweeting (CW
ham operators) but ignore them or force them off the air. I have heard a QSO
between villagers in the coastal town of Panjang in southern Sumatra talking
with their relatives in Yogyakarta on 9.750 MHz, right in the middle of a
commercial band!
I do not see the situation changing in the near future. The pirate Indonesians
will continue undiminished in number. There is no local authority in existence
to challenge them. And the Indonesians are a gregarious people and thrive on
chat and scandal. Radio is the medium for this.
It makes working the ham bands in Southeast Asia a real adventure at times.
The irony is that ham radio is now very popular in Indonesia. Take a listen on
7025 kHz to the Indonesian CW nets. Immaculate code! I wonder if the pirates are
an embarasment to these guys
73
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