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FCC District Director Ralph Barlow

I hope your operation is nice and legal. It's a $10,000 fine for running a pirate station. If you are part 15 compliant there wont be a problem. Remember though that a part 15 FM has a range of about 300 feet and a part 15 AM requires no more than a 9 foot antenna and ground combined.
 
It will be quite interesting, considering if you look at the EQUIPMENT page on their site, the stated transmitter/antenna used is a "25mw Ramsey fm-100" along with a "comet antenna" - certainly this pairing of equipment will generate a field strength well in excess of 250µV/m at 3 meters.

Also, I know that the FCC generally takes a dim view of the use of 4 letter calls for unlicensed "Part 15" operators so it will be interesting to see if anything is mentioned about that as well.
 
Bill DeFelice said:
It will be quite interesting, considering if you look at the EQUIPMENT page on their site, the stated transmitter/antenna used is a "25mw Ramsey fm-100" along with a "comet antenna" - certainly this pairing of equipment will generate a field strength well in excess of 250µV/m at 3 meters.

Also, I know that the FCC generally takes a dim view of the use of 4 letter calls for unlicensed "Part 15" operators so it will be interesting to see if anything is mentioned about that as well.
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Solid advice from one of the biggest proponents of LPFM.

KIDs....I would be very careful. You're now a blip on the FCC's radar, and although they may have not received any interference complaints from your operation, the equipment list on your website suggests that you are exceeding FCC part 15 limitations. The use of 4-letter calls has also been used as precedent when going after part 15s, legal power or not.

Be careful.
 
Thanks guys for all of the great advice! The name of WKID 96.7 fm was not ment to be call letters, but a name voted on by the crew 6 years ago. We had a conflict between us as what we were going to call the station, "wicked radio" or "world kids radio" so we decided to call it WKID for short. We also have a commercial that plays around once an hour that states WKID are not call letters and also a note on the website that states the same thing. We also are a 501c3 with the name WKID 96.7. We have already interviewed Ralph and he was a great guy. He also had his field agents come out to do a test and it came back in the limits of where we are suppose to be. The 25 mw transmitter that we have has been turned down to about 9mw to be compliant with the comet antenna. The antenna is about 10ft above the ground only because the 30ft push up pole was used and bent when we received it 6 years ago and it won't go back down all the way so it is stuck at about 13feet so we dug a hole about 3 feet deep to make up for the extra lenght. Anyways the point of this radio station is to give us a safe place to go everyday, improve our reading, self esteem, teach us business management, internet, website design and maintainance, speaking skills, dealing with weirdos on the phone, and so much more. We also give back to the community by doing live events at various fund raising events for no charge. We just did a big carshow in Palm Harbor for Breast Cancer. Thanks Again for all of your support!
 
wkid967 said:
The 25 mw transmitter that we have has been turned down to about 9mw to be compliant with the comet antenna.
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At least according to the published specs for the Comet antenna 9 mW would still produce a field strength exceeding 15.239. At least according to several folks who have experimented with constructing 1/2 wave dipole antennas it would be in the neighborhood of 11 nanowatts to produce the legal field strength.

wkid967 said:
Anyways the point of this radio station is to give us a safe place to go everyday, improve our reading, self esteem, teach us business management, internet, website design and maintainance, speaking skills, dealing with weirdos on the phone, and so much more. We also give back to the community by doing live events at various fund raising events for no charge.
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That's all well and good but it doesn't give anybody the right to break the law. I'm in the process of assisting a junior high with their Part 15 campus station and I'm in the process of constructing a campus-limited combo AM and FM for a high school here in Connecticut. These stations will provide their student populations the same advantages yours provides, but both of these schools are qualified non-profits that are part of local municipal government school districts - the last thing I want is a field agent telling me one of their installations does not meet the applicable regulations. There are plenty of NOUOs on the enforcement bureau's web site and I would venture a guess that would be the last thing a school district would want to have handed to them.
 
I think thats great your helping other kids at a school build a part 15 station, you sure don't find many people out there that will donate there time and money to help kids build a part 15 radio station. The only problem that we have encountered is that if the antenna is mounted outside you cannot recieve the signal inside our house due to the low power that a part 15 produces. Our neighbors next door can't even pick us up in the house on there stereo. They have to go outside in there car to hear us. Please let us know how well the part 15 station works at the school. Maybe our antenna is just to old or something. I'll double check on the 9mw, maybe it is less, but thats what I thought it was. Nobody listens on FM anyways because they can't hear us. All of our listeners are on the internet. It's just the coolness of transmitting on the FM band in stereo. If anyone would like to come over and check out our studio and even go on air with us please give us an E-Mail or call us at 727-423-9400 Remember we are kids so sexual preditors STAY HOME!
 
In reality, the Tampa FCC office is either understaffed or just doesn't care about enforcement even of the licensed stations; 1520 out of Indian Rocks Beachs had a very small fine for broadcasting after local sunset nearly two years ago(this had been going on for a least 6 or 7 months before the FCC seemed to notice); they got the fine reduced and were in compliance for almost a year before they yet again decided to be something other than a daytime only operation.

They are usually 24/7 (automated/brokered English, and Greek), but do occassionally sign off around 11pm; if I'm not mistaken the co-owned 1500 AM in Tarpon Springs,FL is also licensed as a daytime operation and about a year ago, I was up that way and they were still on the air about3 hours past local sunset.

Several years ago, the station out of Brandon at 760 on the dial, was "forgetting" to lower power and change directional patterns at local sunset, but I understand that someone that wanted to listen to WJR knew someone at the FCC and a compaint was filed and then the 760 out of Brandon suddenly remembered that they were supposed to reduce power and change directional patterns at night.

drt

drt
 
wkid967 said:
The only problem that we have encountered is that if the antenna is mounted outside you cannot recieve the signal inside our house due to the low power that a part 15 produces. Our neighbors next door can't even pick us up in the house on there stereo. They have to go outside in there car to hear us. Please let us know how well the part 15 station works at the school. Maybe our antenna is just to old or something. I'll double check on the 9mw, maybe it is less, but thats what I thought it was. Nobody listens on FM anyways because they can't hear us.
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I don't want to derail this thread too far off its original topic, but it sounds like the building that houses your station may be shielding your own signal. Part 15 stations located on school campuses are somewhat different than other Part 15 stations. Part 15.221 allows a free radiating, campus-limited Part 15 AM station to operate with as much power as needed to cover the campus grounds as long as they meet the field strength defined in 15.209 at the perimeter of the campus. While strictly unofficial, back when the now-defunct LPB Inc was working with leaky coax campus-limited FM stations, their "rule of thumb" was the same as that defined in 15.239 with the exception of the measurement was made 3 meters from the exterior of the campus building's walls. This provided sufficient coverage inside the building where the engineering system was installed.

So not to further detract from this thread I invite you to pose your technical questions over at my site (see my signature) where you're more than welcome to network with other like-minded individuals who are interested in Part 15 radio.
 
You also might consider a part 15 AM transmitter. It will get out much further than FM does. Get a Rangemaster with a decent reasonable audio processor like an Innovonics 222, unless you can find a decent Optimod but they are pretty expensive. That will give you an AM that will sound as good as any on the air. The Rangemaster will easily do 125% positive and with the processor will be nice and loud. Schools have a different set of part 15 rules. There is also the carrier current station which uses your power lines as antennas. I admire what you are doing with the kids. I'm sure you are having a blast.
 
Several years ago, the station out of Brandon at 760 on the dial, was "forgetting" to lower power and change directional patterns at local sunset,

Hmmm.....Sounds like an AM station here in Dade City.
 
And don't forget "WECX" on 99.9 MHz from the campus of Eckerd College. It has been operating on FM for years (formerly 530 AM). It gets out a short distance beyond the campus.
 
WKID 967 is owned by a very knowledgable and legal gentleman who studies the legal ramifications of going past what is regulated by the FCC. I happen to know the owner extremely well (almost 20 years),and DOES IT FOR THE KIDS. I would rather have these kids have fun doing what they are doing, in a structured environment, than running the streets, robbing people and stores, mouthing off and causing mayhem. The owner and father does this out of his own pocket and has a few donating sponsors that give pizza for the kids or donates time. I can assure you that there is no issue with the range as it only goes MAYBE a mile, if that, not to mention, the house sits in a low spot in Clearwater. So rest assured "freq geeks", he is well within compliance. Hell, I bet he would even invite you "naysayers" to come to his house so you can see it for yourself. Not only does he make sure he is well within the limits, he has gone as far as making sure his superiors at the PINELLAS COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE knows about it and approves of it. I can 100% guarantee you that he would not put his job nor his wifes job at PCSO in jeopardy nor would he not put himself, the kids or his reputation on the line for a small time radio station. Give the guy and the kids a break and let them do what they want to do with in the law. Hell, they probably have had more notable people in their station then most of you have.
 
I think the point being made here is that it doesn't matter how good one's intentions are. If the measured field strength exceeds a certain value, the station is not in compliance with Part 15 regs. Range has nothing to do with legality, and your rant is designed to appeal to emotion rather than facts...something that holds no ground when the FCC issues a NUO.

With that said, nobody accused WKID of exceeding Part 15 limitations, but some informed individuals did politely provide a few insights and caveats (most likely, in the interest of protecting well-intentioned kids).

So in other words, relax. This isn't second grade. Go install some lightbars.
 
All I will say is that I have never seen "kids" so dedicated to a dream of working in radio... well, maybe not as much as that 10-year-old kid in Wisconsin with a 62-foot ham radio tower that might be shut down, but it's still good to see such spirit with the industry today being what it is.
 
And don't forget "WECX" on 99.9 MHz from the campus of Eckerd College. It has been operating on FM for years (formerly 530 AM). It gets out a short distance beyond the campus.

Yup, I forgot about that one. :)
 
Hello everyone and thanks for all of your support. The kids have been off air for a few weeks now due to all of the makeup work and studying that they have been doing. While the kids were interviewing Ralph Barlow from the FCC he had his guys take some kids out in the secret tracking truck to show them how the track and test signals for legalness. The test was on our station and it came in far below the limits. That also explains why it can be heard only on a car stereo for a short range "1/4 to 1/2 mile" and not in a house. Hopefully we can go low power someday so the neighbors can hear us.
 
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