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FCC has seized the equipment of Boston pirate "Datz Hits Radio 99.7"

P

pjc1961

From the News page here on Radio-info.com - Wed. 5/25/11 late afternoon:

The unlicensed operation - which had been moved since an earlier visit and warning from the FCC - was allegedly interfering with FAA signals at Logan Airport, as well as a licensed FM station in Boston. Federal officials executed the warrant on May 13 and seized the equipment of "Datz Hits Radio" from "a residential building at 25 Outlook Road, in the Mattapan area of Boston." The warrant was unsealed yesterday and made public by the FCC today. The next stage is for a forfeiture action, to permanently take possession of the broadcasting equipment hauled away in the May 13 raid. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz "It is easy to take for granted the variety and quality of sound we enjoy in local radio stations. Underlying this is the licensing authority of the FCC, which ultimately ensures that legitimate stations can operate without interference from pirate stations."
 
from: http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/2011/May/DatzRadio997PR.html


RADIO EQUIPMENT SEIZED FROM PIRATE RADIO STATION
Seizure of Datz Hits Radio 99.7 FM radio equipment comes after complaints of interference with signals of licensed broadcaster and FAA signals at Logan Airport
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2011
BOSTON, Mass. - On May 13, 2011, federal officials executed a warrant, which was unsealed yesterday, for the seizure of the radio transmission equipment of a pirate radio station broadcasting in Boston without a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The radio equipment, used to broadcast for “Datz Hits Radio 99.7 FM,” was located at a residential building at 25 Outlook Road, in the Mattapan area of Boston. A civil action has been brought seeking forfeiture of the equipment. According to an affidavit filed with the civil complaint, the radio broadcasting equipment was first discovered by FCC officials at another address in Boston. After FCC officials warned the operators they were broadcasting illegally and asked them to shut down the station, the equipment was moved to 25 Outlook Road where the illegal broadcasting resumed. Proceedings were then brought to seize and forfeit the radio broadcasting equipment.

The Communications Act of 1934 (the Act) makes it unlawful to operate radio broadcasting equipment above certain low-intensity thresholds without having a license issued by the FCC. The Act authorizes the seizure and forfeiture of any electronic or radio frequency equipment used with willful and knowing intent to broadcast without an FCC license. The number of available radio frequencies is limited, and unlicensed broadcasting can interfere with the broadcasting of legitimate licensed radio stations, potentially causing chaos in the radio spectrum.

The forfeiture action was brought after complaints were received from a licensed broadcaster about interference with its radio signal, and from the Federal Aviation Administration who complained of interference with radio communications at Logan Airport.

“It is easy to take for granted the variety and quality of sound we enjoy in local radio stations. Underlying this is the licensing authority of the FCC, which ultimately ensures that legitimate stations can operate without interference from pirate stations,” said U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

Michele Ellison, Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, stated, “The operation of unlicensed broadcast stations can cause interference to other licensed broadcasters and in some circumstances can endanger public safety. This is an important issue for licensed broadcasters and for the public in general, as both groups rely on the vigilance of the FCC to keep the airwaves free of interference. This enforcement action reflects our continued commitment to that objective.”

U.S. Attorney Ortiz and Ms. Ellison made the announcement today. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney George B. Henderson of Ortiz’s Civil Division.
 
The only reason they did the seizure was the interference to Logan Airport frequencies.

The FCC does not have the stones to do it to anyone else.

If the FCC took one tenth of one percent of the effort they put into looking at Public Information files for some mistake in paperwork and put that towards taking unlicensed illegal radio operators off the air, the "pirate" problem would be resolved in a month.

Now how about Touch 106.1?
 
MRBIboredop said:
interference to Logan Airport frequencies
Click to expand...

dubious. then again i'm listening to air band images on a GE radio. just heard 'boston on 120.6' which is pretty close to 10.7*2 above the station in question.

cute little Yagi on chimney on google images. with a NE/SW orientation which would stick a good lobe at logan
 
The only other time I can recall in the last few years where the FCC went and grabbed someones gear was a Brockton pirate that was screwing with the Logan frequencies in 2007.

Other than that the FCC does a very good Sgt. Shultz imitation.

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/a...te-fm-shut-for-interfering-with-logan-airport

(fair use from above copyrighted material)

"indicated that a pirate FM in BROCKTON was causing the interference and that the FCC sent an agent to investigate; after a few days of inactivity, when the station came back on the air on JUNE 21, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the district obtained a court order to seize the station's antenna, transmitter, and other equipment."

Really good write up in the Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/09/07/rogue_radio_not_music_to_logan/
 
I have picked up the occasional bit of aircraft chatter on FM, on a Walkman (Memorex brand,
not sure who makes it) while at work in N. Reading. Cuts in to certain frequencies.

The aircraft situation is prob indeed why action was taken, plus perhaps complaints from
WGBH/WCRB but yes the aircraft interference...
 
dubious. then again i'm listening to air band images on a GE radio. just heard 'boston on 120.6' which is pretty close to 10.7*2 above the station in question.
Click to expand...

Exactly. 108-118MHz is Air Nav beacons and 118-137MHz is Air Traffic Control. A lot of planes on approach to Logan fly right over Dorchester (where many of the pirates are) and with all the high-powered signals coming out of the Pru, OFC and GBH, it's not hard for intermod to start playing some funny games and spurious products ending up right in the middle of either of those FAA bands. In 99.7's case, I could see an intermod product on 109.7MHz coming from WGBH on 89.7 as planes approach from the south.

If the pirate is using a homebrew transmitter, they may not have a good enough low-pass filter, either. Which means all kinds of harmonics could be getting out. Granted, the 2nd harmonic of 99.7 is well above the FAA bands mentioned, but that doesn't mean the harmonic can't cause an intermod product somewhere that IS in the bands in question. The Pru just isn't all that far away from Logan, after all.
 
or no low-pass at all. a ROHM IC into an amplifier. which these pirates are almost surely sending into another amplifier to get it past the 5-15 watts. and mixing could occur before that stage and actually get broadcast. like how RHC routinely mixes up it's number station and news audio sometimes or you hear one -30db down on the other and see strange mixing products actually appearing on a 0-30 MHZ direct-sampling SDR waterfall where you can be reasonably sure it's not occuring in reciever itself.

anyways, 105.3 has been dead for basically as long as 99.7, i think. you can still get streams for those two and big city at

http://iasotea.com:8000/
http://iasotea.com:8004/
http://iasotea.com:8006/

on the Datz stream he said "big city you're live" and it didnt match the audio actually going out over big city. im sure it's hard to keep track of which station youre on at a given moment, remember folks, marijuana is involved!
 
Why aren't they going after Hot 97/87.7? They transmit 5000 watts and have a huge coverage area that beats many non-coms. They're making a killing in ad revenue and probably would have good ratings if they encoded for PPM.

In a year or two they'll be the only station in the country broadcasting on 87.7.
 
They transmit 5000 watts and have a huge coverage area that beats many non-coms.
Click to expand...

5000 watts? Really? You seriously believe that? That's a total load of crap. Even if you presupposed that they managed to cobble together a multi-bay antenna array that gives, let's say, 1.5 gain...that's still 3400 watts TPO (a rough guess that's accommodating line & connector loss). Transmitters with that kind of capacity are EXPENSIVE. As in, "over $20,000" expensive. Even to home-brew it, you'd have to spend a fair amount on the parts.

What's a lot more likely is that they've got a single v-pol whip antenna for unity gain and they've scavenged a 500 watt (if that) transmitter from somewhere. Lest we forget, 500 watts is only about -10dB down from 5000. That's the difference between a 50dBu contour and a 60dBu contour...not very much in real terms. And on an unoccupied channel like 87.7...that 500 watts can go a long, long way. Especially if they're on top of a reasonable hill or decent-sized building. WFNX's old 7 watt directional translator on 101.3 was receivable all the way out in Wellesley because it was on top of the Hancock Tower (lots of height) and on a clear frequency.

They're probably claiming 5000 watts because A: It sounds cool, and B: a lot of Class B's in Boston claim they're "50,000 watts" even though they are really only the "50,000 watt equivalent for their HAAT" (which for most of the Pru is about 22,000 watts) so they're using the same "logic".

These guys also claim to be broadcasting in HD Radio digital, too. iBiquity won't license their gear to pirate stations, so that's a total load of BS, too.
 
aaronread said:
These guys also claim to be broadcasting in HD Radio digital, too. iBiquity won't license their gear to pirate stations, so that's a total load of BS, too.
Click to expand...

I wonder if one could by HD equipment on the used market.
 
aaronread said:
iBiquity won't license their gear to pirate stations, so that's a total load of BS, too.
Click to expand...

If that's really true, then that is the funniest aspect about the whole story.

Yes, you can splatter your adjacent neighbor and wipe them off the map for a significant area,
but you have to have a license to do so......

Morally, there is no difference in what occurs, but ibiquity is too blinded by their own wonderful AM hiss and FM buzzsaw to
recognize that.

Supposing I were flush with money, I couldn't buy an HD encoder and a PPM encoder for my Part 15 AM?
Or would ibiquity sell to a "legal" installation?
What about buying a PPM encoder?

I see no good reason for ibiquity to keep private individuals from having in-house HD radio services if they are so inclined.
So has any "private party" really tried to purchase an ibiquity HD encoder?
 
I wonder if one could by HD equipment on the used market.
Click to expand...

Strictly speaking, I believe you can. But each individual station purchases a license from iBiquity to use iBiquity equipment to transmit HD Radio, and it's not cheap. Nor does it matter whether you use new equipment or used equipment - the license is between iBiquity and the station. And once it expires, a lot of features are disabled. (mostly regarding multicasting and PAD/PSD)

Of course, HD Radio transmitters are still quite "new" to the market, so there's not going to be too much "used" equipment out there on the market. Most of what's no longer in active use at a station is the early models of gear (like the Harris Dexstar exciter, which was replaced by the Flexstar) and in every case I've seen, the old gear is kept as a backup of some kind. Still, I imagine there's people out there trying to sell "used HD Radio gear". There's also people out there trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge. ;D

a two-element array ?
id hate to be their next door neighbors getting zapped. or that school about 50 yards away
Click to expand...

Ah, let's see here. That looks like a two-bay, full-wave-spaced v-pol array. Theoretically that should yield around 2.0 gain, or roughly a doubling of whatever the TPO is. Pretty short tower, so not much line loss or connector loss. And yeah, I sure wouldn't want to be the neighbors either...just from an interference perspective; I imagine it's swamping reception of anything else and probably showing up in telephones, toasters, and tooth fillings! God only knows about RFE exposure limits, although a v-pol array would minimize downward radiation quite a bit.

Anyways, I maintain that 5000 watts is wildly unrealistic. More likely we're seeing a 100 watt exciter or quite possibly a 300 watt exciter/PA. The latter would mean around 500-600 watts ERP and, like I said, that much power will go quite a distance. Especially on a clear frequency which 87.9 certainly is.

For reference, WZBC has a four-bay/half-wave-spaced array that yields about 1.2 gain. So for normal operations, they need about 880 watts TPO to make 1000 watts ERP. Their backup is one of the two old Bext 500 watt PA's married to an ancient (yet perfectly functional) Wilkerson Model X exciter. That means that, when on backup, WZBC is only running 450 watts or so (the Bext can't make 500 watts anymore - it needs some work, but it functions well enough for how infrequently it's used). That 450 watts still covers almost all of WZBC's normal coverage area...which is almost to New Hampshire going northward because 90.3 is pretty clear up that ways; there's only the little translator in Nashua, NH.

Also worth noting: the nice thing about circular polarization (c-pol) is that you are effectively doubling your ERP. The downside, of course, is that you need a lot more TPO to make ERP because the gain of your array is inherently lower. The upshot here is that "5000 watts v-pol" is not as good a signal as "5000 watts c-pol". And again, that's if it were really 5000 watts, which it isn't. Probably more like 500 watts.

Really the secret to Hot97 is their frequency: 87.9. There is literally nobody on that frequency, and only a handful of first-adjacents...most of which are relatively low-power. Especially when you're talking about car radios, which are pretty sensitive (in general) even a 500 watt signal on 87.9 will go a long, long ways.
 
aaronread said:
Really the secret to Hot97 is their frequency: 87.9
Click to expand...

it really is sad that so many good interesting stations are QRMing eachother on 88.3, 91.3, 91.5, 91.7 . but i guess spreading them out on former channel 6 NTSC VHF TV is too much to ask
 
i think it is 87.75. which is unfortunate as i cant get a decent DBu reading or even proper reception my Degen which is 0.1 MHz increments.

for comparison, at OWD airport, WZBC, WHRB, WMBR are all around 21. BUR is 51-55, GBH is like 65. Big City is 13, Choice is 8, Hot97 is about 21 on both .7 and .9 though,. so i am sure it is more power than big city if i could actually dial it in
 
I think the reason they're on 87.75 is because they got their hands on a former Channel 6 analog transmitter. Since those are essentially useless for full power TV stations, they would end up in the dumpster or the secondary market. A 5000 watt analog TV transmitter is worthless, not $20000.
 
I think the reason they're on 87.75 is because they got their hands on a former Channel 6 analog transmitter. Since those are essentially useless for full power TV stations, they would end up in the dumpster or the secondary market. A 5000 watt analog TV transmitter is worthless, not $20000.
Click to expand...

Not quite "worthless"...since LPTV's can still transmit in analog for the moment. Although I can't imagine many LPTV's would be in the market to buy an analog transmitter, since analog will be sunsetted for digital for LPTV's pretty soon, too. (rumors are by the end of 2012)

But your point is entirely valid and I hadn't really thought of that. You probably COULD get a fairly hefty analog TV transmitter pretty cheap. I don't know too much about TV transmitters, but I imagine it's not too hard to deactivate the TV side and just transmit the audio carrier. Heck, maybe you don't even need to do that - just run it all and leave the TV side blank. I dunno how happy a TV transmitter would be, being run into an array meant for FM. Although I suppose that array might be designed for TV as well. Why not? ???

Come to think of it, I wonder how hard it would be to modify a TV transmitter for FM-only broadcasts? Could you take a TV6 transmitter and modify it to work in the NCE band without spending an arm and a leg? If so, that'd be an easy way to acquire a handy backup transmitter, y'know? :)
 
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