YW has been reporting of constant radio interference at Ben Gurion Airport from pirate radio stations – causing flights to be halted. Well now, Ynet has reporting that representatives of foreign airlines in Israel are threatening to stop flying to Israel, due to the country’s failure to prevent the illegal radio broadcasts that are interrupting radio contact between the Airport control tower and planes during landing and take off. These interruptions result in heavy financial damage to the companies.
The representatives claimed that the piratical radio phenomenon puts Israel in one category with third world countries, adding that if the situation continues, they would have to terminate service to Israel.
Illegal broadcast have recently caused delays of up to two and-a-half hours in take offs, and have also forced planes to wait in the air for hours before landing. These delays did not only harm the airlines, but also passengers who missed connecting flights abroad.
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21 Responses
The question is, why are these broadcasts illegal in the first place? The socialist government of Israel is at fault for creating the problem. Get rid of the garbage, you’ll get rid of the rats.
maybe just maybe they are illegal for exactly this reason- they interrupt contact betwee flights and the control tower…
The culprits are often the arab stations originating in the West Bank. Since the lefty Israelis don’t want to upset the Palestinians, they won’t stop them.
Dvorah:
justanobody is actually right. The pirated stations here (not they are right for what they do) are a result of the govt. only giving “leftists” radio permits. The “right winged people” feel it is a duty to publicize how they feel. The Israeli govt. has a history of this. This is in a so called democratic country.
nobody said it was the jews fault, but if you’re running an airline and you run into safety issues repeatedly at the same location, you reduce your chances of a problem, by removing the route. if something goes wrong the airline would get sued for many illions of dollars. it’s normal business operations. you would do the same thing except you (we all) have strong emotional connection to eretz yisroel so we feel bad. if this was anywhere else in he world, you would agree wholeheartedly.
IM STILL NOT CONVINCED THAT ITS RADIO.
INEVER PICKED UP THE AIR LINES WHEN PLAYING WITH THE STAITONS BECAUSE ITS ON A DIFRENT FREQUNCY.
AND THATS WHY THE GOV IS HAVING SUCH TROUBBLE STOPING IT.
JUST MY HUMBBLE OPINION
It is the busiest route in any airlines schedule. They will not cancel, just pressure the Gov’t to crack down.
If we can all set aside our conspiracy theories and distrust of the Israeli government for a moment and . . . breathe.
Radio spectrum is no different than any other transport medium; the spectrum can accomodate only so much traffic before simultaneous messages suffer interference and are compromised.
Imagine an emergency vehicle trying to race through an HOV or bus lane; if single-passenger cars are crowding that lane illegally, the ambulance cannot get through (please, just accept the hypothetical).
In the US, there is “licensed” and “unlicensed” radio spectrum. “Licensed” spectrum is used by radio stations and cell phone companies; “unlicensed spectrum” is the type over which your kids’ walkie talkies work. The concession that users (and equipment manufacturers) accept when they use unlicensed spectrum is that they must accept accidental interference by other users; since it’s “free and unregulated,” you use it at your own risk (no such thing as a free lunch, right?). But, you’d better get a good lawyer if you start interfering with licensed spectrum, because the Federal government will be all over you like white on rice.
So, it seems that in Israel, people/groups/someone is operating a radio over spectrum that is off-limits to them, and thereby interfering with critical airport communications.
I ask you: if your cell phone dropped calls and bugged out because some nudnik was using that spectrum illegally, you might be pretty upset, right? You’re paying for a service, and he is interfering with it. Or, try this one on for size – a Hatzoloh radio gets jammed because someone feels that he has a right to broadcast over nearby spectrum, and interferes with Hatzoloh’s frequency. Nebach, the nudnik needs to a platform from which to broadcast. Meanwhile, Aunt Millie is watching the Grim Reaper on the backswing because Hatzoloh cannot communicate in time.
Airport spectrum is near sacred. Thousands of lives depend upon it; hundreds per airplane that must remain in touch with the tower and other aircraft. There is no excuse, other than rank ignorance and arrogance, for broadcasting in a manner that interferes with that or any other licensed spectrum. If you think your message or music is so great, get a license, or buy a megaphone.
gut chodesh,
Telegrok
Fix the problem Israel, or say goodbye to the airline economy. The airlines do not give a hoot what the Israeli governments problem is with these stations, permit or piratte, etc. FIX IT or goodbye!
Radio frequencies are allocated for use to different services by the government. If you decide to use the same frequency that is being used by the airline tower to communicate with the pilot on the plane and the messages are blocked,the plane could chas vesholom crash.No one may broadcast radio signals on channels not assigned to him,whether a business or individual. Here ,in USA,you have Ham radio operators who complain of CB oprators illegally sprucing up their cheap unlicensed radios to use the same frequencies and then the licensed user cannot communicate with the other stations.It’s like some one taps his phone line into yours and then blocks your communications. The only way to stop the pirate station is to bomb it.If WABC decided on its own to broadcast over 880 instead of ,or additional to 770,what would happen to WCBS? I hope that those who think this is a minor problem will now understand how serious it really is.
i find it hard to believe these radio stations are broadcasting on airline/control traffic frequencies. ( If yes than it would be always interfering not sometimes. After all aren’t they always broadcasting?) I think the gov’t is unloading some other problem on them.
Quite frankly the israeli gov’t has very little na’emonus “Trustworthyness”
These radio frequencies are assigned by the government and are rented out to different services. The strength of the transmission is regulated.What the pirate station does,is to illegally use a frequency already assigned to a flight control frequency,use more power than allocated to the paying customer,the air tower,so the pilots,when coming close to the airport hear Arab broadcasting and cannot talk to or listen to the control tower.( Some Jewish people are also doing this).If they decided to use a frequency that your cordless phone is using,you would hear them and not be able to make or receive calls.
#12 – Baal Boose: the fact that there is intermittent interference could mean: (1) the broadcasters are broadcasting only intermittently, or (2) signal is bleeding into the airport spectrum only intermittently. The transmission of a radio signal across a frequency depends on propogation of the signal. How signals on the same frequency collide is the result of what else is occuring at the moment, be it multiple tranmisssions or weather conditions. On a clear night in Baltimore, you can listen to a radio station from Cincinnatti. But not during the day, and not on a cloudy night. Just something to do with how the air is, and how much traffic is on that frequency.
If we were really fancy here, one of us would set up a link to a tutorial on radio propogation standards ;-).
We are certainly not that fancy. 🙂
-Moderator
yeah i guess bombing them is the best idea. how come noone else is saying that? oh, also , do you want to bomb all pirate stations including the haredi ones? is that what they would have done in frankfurt a.m. ih”k
Just to clear up a few facts about pirate radio stations…
The term pirate radio usually refers to illegal or unregulated radio broadcasting. More specifically, it refers to broadcasting an unlicensed signal that has enough power to reach potential listeners. Rules and regulations vary largely from country to country. In countries such as the USA and many countries in Europe, many types of radio licenses exist, and often the term pirate radio generally describes the unlicensed broadcasting of FM radio, AM radio, or shortwave signals over a significant coverage area that could be picked up by listeners.
Sometimes radio stations are deemed legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal and considered “pirate stations” where the signals are received—especially when the signals cross a country’s border. In other cases, a broadcast may be considered “pirate” due to the nature of its content, its transmission format, or the transmit power (wattage) of the station, even if the broadcast is not technically illegal (such as a webcast or a ham radio broadcast).
Baal Boose: Also, the aircraft are moving, so they fly in and out of the transmitter’s beam pattern, which is not constant. Look up EIRP in your engineering handbook.
give elal the business
i think the problem emenates from the west bank terroritories where israel has no control to stop it as u can be assured if it was arutz sheva they would long ago have gone afterthem and closed them down. being the israeli govt is being quiet about this issue seems they cant really do anything to stop it
20. Regardless of where it emanates, the IDF DOES have the wherewithal do stop it, and permanently.
The problem is that the Israeli Government does not have the political will do do anything about it. (Same was true in the recent Lebanon war.)
I’m afraid that, R”L, a plane will have to go down before it does, and even then that’s a maybe.
A bunch of wimps.
Telegrok/shazam,I stand corrected.
Devora=? Did you actually read my comment or get offended just on principle
When ARUTZ Sheva was broadcasting ILLEGALLY, the
Israeli government was constantly on their backs.
Don’t you think the Israelis should be clamp down on these air pirates, BEFORE a majot air disaster
R’L
alanjay