--Submitted by Larry Bullard -  NØWRK--

 (see the pictures in the Photo Gallery)

In 1996 the Citizen’s Band (CB) community on their channel 19 (27.185 MHz) began receiving interference.  The interference started every evening after sunset and continued until sunrise.  A recorded voice would announce over the channel that “You dumb asses couldn’t find your own dick”.  This would announce every couple of minutes.  The radio broadcasting the message would only turn on long enough to send the message then turn off.   The message could be heard from Palisade to Fruita to Orchard Mesa with very good signal strength, although the recorded message was somewhat distorted.  However the message was clear and it immediately caused the truckers on I-70 to become agitated over the communication.  The CB pirate station continued for years.

The FCC investigated the station in the spring of 2007.  Using their direction finding equipment they determined the station was north of 31 Road somewhere near the Bookcliff Mountains.  They could not access the remote area.  They contacted John (N0MOR) and requested assistance from the WSARC.  N0MOR brought the request to the attention of the club at a meeting in June 2007.

Many of the club members became interested in “capturing” the pirate station.  Over many nights members were found on the desert with a variety of direction finding antennas.  It was not unusual to see N0WRK, KB0YNA, K0SSI, KB0CMR, N2COL, WA4HND and others prowling the desert after dark with a DF antenna.  They were picking up signals, trying to determine a direction and then plotting the compass direction on maps.  There wasn’t much consistency in the readings.  It became clear that the signal was bouncing off of the Bookcliffs and was giving us varied readings. But through skill or luck we found where several of the readings converged on the Bookcliffs.

In late August N0WRK took an ATV up Coal Canyon behind Cameo to a location on the back of the Bookcliffs.  After a few miles of walking he was on the rim in the general area of the converging signal readings.  On a point at 39-09-37.6N x 108-27-30.6W the pirate station was found in a well-camouflaged position.  It was covered with rocks that looked like part of the natural environment.  The glint of a solar panel is what gave up its location.  The year 1996 was written on one of the covering rocks.

After 11 years of broadcasting the pirate station had been captured.

The station was packaged in a weatherproof plastic box.  It consisted of two small solar panels on the exterior.  The antenna consisted of bare wire hanging over the cliff edge against a rock crack.  This is what caused some of the signal to bounce off adjacent cliffs.  The radio was a standard CB mobile radio.  A deep cycle marine battery powered it.  The radio was controlled by a home made electrical circuit board with a photoelectric sensor.  A small personal digital recorder provided the audio. All were items acquired from Radio Shack

The operation of the unit was simple but durable. During the day the solar panels charged the battery.  After sunset the photoelectric sensor would allow the circuit board to become active.  The circuit board would then turn on the CB transceiver and the playback of the digital recorder.  The microphone and the recorder where taped to opposite ends of a cardboard tube.  The recorder would play it’s message down the tube to the microphone for transmission.  Then it would all shut off and wait to turn on again at after a delay.  The quality of the audio varied depending on the ambient noise created by the wind around the unit.  At sunrise the unit would turn off and begin charging again.  It took a lot of effort by the builder to haul this up the mountain.  The builder was never identified.

We all had fun building DF antennas, using GPS and compasses, driving around the desert, and plotting directions on maps while having coffee at the local restaurants

When it was all over we acknowledged…we missed the fun of the hunt and were hoping for another pirate station to chase.