Shortwave Listeners report reception of TCS Shortwave Relay Network from coast-to-coast in North America, and from Europe

By John Poet

Since the transformation of the pirate radio station 'The Crystal Ship', into a program broadcast by other widespread pirate radio operators known as the 'TCS Shortwave Relay Network', our coverage of the North American continent has greatly increased.  Listeners in the western United States and western Canada are now able to receive TCS Shortwave at much better signals than we were ever able to achieve when we were broadcasting from Michigan.  Part of that is due to the wide use of SSB transmissions, which are able to provide a better signal-to-noise ratio than AM.

We received many reception reports for our recent show "That Awful Seventies Station", received on a wide range of frequencies from 6.925 up to 18 mHz, and from listeners located from New York to Oregon to Italy. (I was surprised at the number of listeners able to hear the 18 mHz transmission.)  We replied with our TCS Shortwave Relay Network eQSL, in use since late 2011, shown below:

Following are a few of the reception reports recently received.  Names have been omitted:

'Pat Murphy' Linked By I.P. Address To "BobSmith" Snitch Emails Sent To Canadian Radio Authorites and Yellowknife Ham Radio Club! Email Screenshots. JTA Joins "Proven Liars" Club

"I was one of the last people to agree

 that Richard Nixon was a crook."

~John T. Arthur on the Free Radio Cafe, 8/02/2011

Pirate Radio News & Commentary
By John Poet

 Most of our readers are probably familiar with the narrative published by Radio Paranoia of how 'Commander Bunny' aka Pat Murphy, posing as "Bob Smith",  purportedly filed a complaint with Canadian radio authorities, as well as an amateur radio club, the Yellowknife Amateur Radio Society (YARS), in his attempt to get Doc John of Radio Yellowknife/Northern Relay Service, busted-- thus eliminating the only other active pirate radio relay service back in early 2011:
"House of Games: "Bob Smith" con's piracy"
(See also "How Commander Bunny & His Gang of FRN Sock-Puppets Started the Pirate Radio War of 2011: With Covert Attacks Against Radio Yellowknife, Then FRN Flaming and Mass-Emailed Lies & Propoganda Against the Northern Relay Service")


After 'C.Bunny' made yet another of his numerous blog attacks against sundry pirate radio personalities purporting to "out" their personal information, this time Doc John's (in a post he soon deleted as he often does), an enterprising pirate DXer made a renewed attempt to obtain a copy of that Email which was sent to the Yellowknife Club a year-and-a-half ago.  This time he succeeded, "karma" having taken a hand in it, and the details have been duly reported on the Radio Paranoia blog:
Fink Noise: Connection Confirmed Between Pat Murphy and Snitching on "Rival" Pirate Radio Operator      and     Fink Noise Part 2: The "Bob Smith" email

((BTW-  Has anyone else noticed the eery similarity between the  text of the "BobSmith" emails to Canadian authorities, and the fake emails attempting to frame Artie Bigley for TCS bust  posted by CB last year?))

As one might imagine, there has been much thrashing and nashing of teeth from The Bunny Camp... with JTA aka John T. Arthur, operator of the Belfast mail drop, taking the lead in launching various counterattacks aimed at me which seemed to be more in the character of C.Bunny/Pat Murphy than the JTA we used to know, and inevitably making the FRN website and the Belfast, New York maildrop appear to be even more unsafe for non-Bunny-allied pirate radio operators or just plain DXers than one may have previously thought (if that were possible):
 JTA Puts Final Nail in FRN Coffin

JTA, along with the Bunny, seem to believe that I am responsible for writing the Radio Paranoia blog which has deviled them so.  All I can say is, I can only wish that I was half as clever, or half as effective as the writer behind it, in putting the Bunny and his Mafia in their proper place-- but thank you so much for that unintended compliment!

Pirate Radio "Pope Poet" Issues Edict!

From His Holiness,

"The Infallible Pope Poet of Pirate Radio"

In a recent blog rant obviously typed sometime after he went off his meds again, the whining, finger-pointing blogger most well-known as "Commander Bunny" (but also known as

"Pat Murphy", "Bill O. Rights", "Mike Graves", "Jerry Michael Graves", "Peckerwood Pat",

"Beans", "Mosby", "Thumper", "Lovemyradios", "Winston", "Bouncer", "Radio Bob".... uh, where was I?) 

Oh yeah, well, he was kind enough to declare me the new "Pope of Pirate Radio" (click to enlarge),  called me "infallible", and said I "could never be wrong". (I guess that includes when I said I suspected him of turning me in to the FCC).  Freudian slip there, "Commander"? I think so!

So anyway, I am happy to assume the mantle if only for the opportunity to take one action which would certainly prove most beneficial to the pirate radio community-at-large.Therefore as such, on the behalf of all members of The Church of Pirate Radio, and as the duly-selected Infallible Pope Poet of Pirate Radio, I am issuing this edict:

"I've Got A Rotating ISP# So It Never Shows Up The Same," Says Commander Bunny In His Sock-Puppeting Apology!

"Oh NO!  I've drowned 'Mosby'!"

"The apology thing is just part of the cycle. He'll calm down for awhile and then it starts over again. I really think he's got a screw loose." 

~from a Bunny insider

Pirate Radio News & Commentary
By John Poet

In our previous article about the 'pirate radio war of 2011', we told you how Commander Bunny had actually started the war with his anonymous/sock-puppet attacks on Radio Yellowknife, how he reported Doc John of Radio Yellowknife to a radio club and Canadian authorities in an attempt to get them busted; and how he later switched to public attacks against Doc after he started his new station, the Northern Relay Service.  That article also explained how 'Commander Bunny', aka 'Pat Murphy', whose real name is Jerry Michael Graves, became more and more obvious in his use of sock-puppets  on the FRN 'Free Radio Network' forum, using them to make, augment and orchestrate his attacks. Among the most-often used sock-puppets were 'Beans', 'Mosby' and 'Thumper'.

When 'Commander Bunny' stated in his "Why Can't We All Just Get Along?" FRN post that he was 'all done talking about NRS,' he continued to use the sock-puppets to continue his attacks on NRS, and, what I personally found to be even more disturbing, used his sock-puppets to bully FRN members who had posted loggings of NRS.  All of this led directly to my break with 'Commander Bunny', and I decided I wasn't going to ignore or play dumb about all this sock-puppeting any longer, but call them out publicly if he insisted on continuing this game... and, he insisted on continuing.


Poet "Outs" The Puppets;  FRN Gets Really Quiet

'Beans' was first to show up again, on April 10th, 2011.  In a rather amusing post, Ragnar had complained about an anonymous pirate operator having played the song "I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie World" over and over on the air, until it got stuck in his head... and then 'Beans' had to speak up and blame it on NRS, "or one of his many sock puppets"  (!)  ((Oh, give me a break... what nerve! ~ JP))

I gave him a warning, again, but I guess he just didn't get it, and chose to tell me to "go f00k yourself".  So, I let him have it.  
((Thanks to the anonymous poster on Radio Paranoia who recently used the imgur.com site to post copies of threads-- I like how these work a lot better than that Google thing... ~JP))

That scene seemed to throw the FRN into a deathly silence, until Ragnar posted the "monkey sniper" picture on April 15th, trying to lighten the mood.... I chose to comment on it, "Monkeyboy don't miss when he aims his gun".  This brought 'Thumper' onto the scene.  I disposed of him summarily, without hinting around any more about my meaning.  (The link "for what they are" pointed to the Wikipedia "Sock-Puppets" entry.)

No Feeding the Sock-Puppets!

This seemed to deepen the silence on the FRN even further.... but my Email box started going wild.  I began reading all these narratives, about the abuse of FRN posters by Commander's sock-puppets, and how FRN accounts got deleted when anyone else had tried to speak up about them, etc etc etc.  Most of this was news to me; from what I read, the disappearing accounts seemed to happen to posters who were newer, or had a lot fewer connections with others in the hobby than I have.  Besides, in some previous off-board altercations with 'Pat Murphy', I had made it quite clear that I would not hesitate to use my large Email list to broadcast whatever I felt needed saying-- in the event that anything ever happened to my FRN account-- so I guess "Commander" realized that I couldn't be silenced by deleting my posts or my account, as he had done to others with smaller footprints...

(If you're on the front page, click "Read More" for the rest of this story, including the never-before-published Email exchange between CB and Poet, and CB's "Sock-puppeting Apology"!)

"I'm Not Your Pirate Radio Jesus," Says Poet to an Anonymous Detractor Who Ignores Poet's Rights of Self-Defense

Pirate Radio News & Commentary
by John Poet

(An anonymous commenter in a previous thread made an argument we'll probably be forced to suffer through more and more as time goes on:  that if I publish information on 'Commander Bunny' similar to that which he has repeatedly published about me, then I am "no better than he is".  I initially posted a lengthy response to that in comments... but think it appropriate to raise the whole exchange to the post-level here, since it probably isn't the last time we'll hear this, and I prefer my response to that argument to be more prominent than at the comment-level.)


"Anonymous said...

"Okay something is very wrong here... I had just read your article re: Commander Bunny and NRS, and it I can say, yes it is 100% correct. I didn't want to believe that CB was a snitch, but now all doubt is gone. CB is #1 snitch. Unfortunately that puts you at #2, as you have revealed CB's indentity, and put other's in jepordy. You revealing CB's identity in reaction to his actions doesn't make it right. It pretty much means, you're no better than he is.

"I am in hopes that both sides of this "pirate war" continue, and that is ends up that you both wipe yourselves from existance."



John Poet Replies...
@Anonymous 1:03 am:


I am "no better than he is"? Nonsense!

If Abraham Lincoln had been able to shoot back at John Wilkes Booth, would you then say that Lincoln was "no better than he is"? Would you then refer to Lincoln as "Assassin #2" ?

I think not... but that is the essence of the argument you are making, here. It completely ignores the facts about who fired first, and who is only reacting in self-defense. Furthermore, it conveniently ignores the fact that it was Commander Bunny who repeatedly posted approximations of my address, before publishing the real address-- something that I have not, as yet, done to him in return-- so even by the standard of 'who has published what, who cares in what order',  your statement is still demonstrably false at this juncture.

However,  I believe I have the moral right to publish that information, if and when I should choose to do so. Firing back is essentially an act of self-defense, and everyone has the moral right to self-defense. In fact, it may be a moral imperitive for me to republish pertinent information about him (it isn't as if any of this is 'new information' or 'secret', it is publicly available)-- because if he is allowed to do all these things without consequences, it makes it more likely that he will do the same again to someone else. Making his information available to other potential victims will serve as a deterrent to he who has always preferred to "drop dox" and publish his slanders under the anonymity of secondary false identities or sock-puppets.

You wrote, "You revealing CB's identity in reaction to his actions doesn't make it right." It is still an act of self-defense, and there is nothing morally wrong about acting in self-defense employing a similar level of 'force'. The facts are, I have published less about him than he has about me, and much less often. Unlike him, I have reacted with a good deal of restraint.

You seem to want me to be your 'pirate radio Jesus', to love my enemies and 'turn the other cheek' to 'Commander Bunny' after he repeatedly publishes my real name, real address, what he claims to believe are facts about my living arrangements and employment status-- and even sinks to the level of making sordid comments about my dead mother. When those facts are fairly taken into account, your statement that I am "no better than he is" holds no water whatsoever. However, it is true that I am more like a pirate radio Moses than a Jesus: 'an eye for an eye' is good enough for me, when it comes to this business of publishing personal information.  I won't go so far as to create slanderous lies about him, but I certainly will not allow some demonstrably false moral double-standard to prevent me from revealing similar facts about him as he has done to me. I am not the one who started this "dropping dox" and publishing names and addresses.

If this means that there will be a few, like yourself, who will claim to believe that I am "no better than he is" (even though, deep down, you know better), well, that is a price which I am willing to pay-- and, when weighing the validity of such opinions, I am certain that objective observers will also take the 'likely sources' into consideration. 
~  John Poet

'Commander Bunny's alter-ego 'Bill O. Rights' makes interesting comments
about the supposed frequency of complaints 'phoned in' to the FCC...

HO, HO, HO! It Looks A Little Bit Like Christmas on the FRN!

One more on the flip-