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Pirate radio get served by FCC

Nick said:
Now here's an idea. A pirate station gets about 10 different people to keep a transmitter in their apartment, and the station rotates the location of the transmitter every month.
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A transmitter in an apartment? Do any of these volunteers have families? If so, can you say "child endangerment charges?"
 
aaronread said:
What is the maximum distance you can legally broadcast? I see transmitters for sale online that can go anywehere from 1 mile up to 10 miles. They obviously can't be FCC legal. But I would have no problem getting one if I wanted one. They are readily available.
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Well that's a bunch of Mumbo jumbo to me. The FCC should have written that in English. How far can I transmit a signal before I have to worry about the feds knocking on my door?
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Saying the FCC should have "written that in English" is a lot like saying that you shouldn't have to learn how to drive a car; you should be able to just "turn the key and it goes". Spectrum is finite and it requires proper engineering for stations to share it appropriately without causing interference to each other.

That said, it's actually easier to decipher than you might think. The rule is 250 uV/m (microvolts per meter) measured at 3 meters' distance from the radiating antenna. It helps here to remember that for, say, a Class A FM (6000 watts ERP at 30m HAAT, or the equivalent) the rule is that the service contour is 1 V/m (volt per meter) measured at 28.3 kilometers (or 28,300 meters). One volt equals one million microvolts, so the legal limit for unlicensed broadcasting in the FM band is 0.00025 volts/meter measured at 3 meters. In other words, a tiny fraction of the power of your average radio station. So small that you're not really "broadcasting"...which is rather the point of legal, unlicensed transmissions in the FM band (governed by Part 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations). They're not supposed to be reaching a wide audience.

To really put it in layman's terms: I've had discussions with people in the know that have told me that if your Part 15 FM broadcast is audible at more than 250ft it's unofficially considered "illegal". After all, for legal Part 15 "broadcast" purposes, there is no reason why you would ever need a range greater than 250ft. In most cases, you'd never need more than about 25-30ft, actually. If you want more than 250ft, you need a license to operate...with all the benefits and responsibilities that entails. Dem's da rules.

It may be illegal every non-comm ever licensed has had to protect channel 6. IF they are running 5KW they pretty much have to be using a certified rig. I have never seen a 5KW pirate rig on he market. If they were interfering with the aircraft band they would have ben shut down by now.
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If any pirate station is running a 5000 watt transmitter I'll eat my hat. It's VERY expensive (usually over $10,000) to purchase a transmitter over 1000 watts, and even that's pretty pricey. It's not easy to build a 5kW transmitter, either...quite hard to do it right without killing yourself or creating something that spews out spurious emissions all over the place and sounds like garbage, to boot. Theoretically, I could see a pirate getting a three-bay, vertically-polarized, full-wavelength-spaced antenna array. That will get you about 3.0 gain (I'm speaking quite roughly here) and that could mean a fairly hefty signal. But a 3-bay/F-W means at least 25-30ft of vertical real estate. That's kinda hard to obtain at all, much less hide.

It's also thoroughly unnecessary. On a reasonably "clear" frequency, even a 20 watt FM transmission will go 10-20 miles if you've got a little height and not too much terrain in the way. Our LPFM has 100 watts ERP and it'll go 15 miles in some directions...and it'd go further if it weren't for terrain and two (distant) co-channel stations. Saying you have 5000 watts sounds a lot more impressive...and from a marketing perspective, who listening is ever gonna know the truth?
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87.7 has a very impressive signal from what have been told but they are on a completely vacant channel since the two chanel sixes have moved off of it. They make quite a bit of money promoting parties at various clubs that they sponsor.
 
It wouldn't be hard to get a Channel 6 exciter at 5000 watts, some of them might be given away or disposed off since there is no use for an analog TV transmitter after the digital conversion. Any transmitter, even a "mono" one, can transmit in stereo if the audio processor includes a stereo generator. There are a few LPTV channel 6's that transmit in stereo at full FM modulation.

I drove to Boston last summer and noticed that "WPOT" 87.7 started to come in just past Worcester, so that's a 30 mile range. I saw a report of someone DXing it from Cape Cod. 5000 watts on the ground would easily cover that range. It was very strong in all of Boston, and was the only pirate station to bust through the intermodulation near the Prudential.
 
5kW exciter?

Most exciters I have seen are less than 100 watts for TV service. Our UHF transmitter had 200watt exciters, and the UHF transmitters drive a LOT more power than a VHF low band rig.

It is more likely they got an all in one BTS type TV transmitter, with the built in exciter and are using the baseband input off of a stereo generator's MPX output. It's very poorly engineered RF wise and is clearly on 87.74. (Plus they aren't doing themselves any favors being vertical only.)
 
Necrat said:
5kW exciter?

Most exciters I have seen are less than 100 watts for TV service. Our UHF transmitter had 200watt exciters, and the UHF transmitters drive a LOT more power than a VHF low band rig.

It is more likely they got an all in one BTS type TV transmitter, with the built in exciter and are using the baseband input off of a stereo generator's MPX output. It's very poorly engineered RF wise and is clearly on 87.74. (Plus they aren't doing themselves any favors being vertical only.)
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My portable radio doesn't exactly lock in to WNYZ 87.74 when tuned to 87.7, and it had the same effect with WPOT. WPOT doesn't have to be on 87.74 exactly, they could be on 87.70 because they're a pirate and don't have to adhere to FCC laws.
Is WPOT transmitting a TV signal on Channel 6? If so, then we might have the only pirate TV station in the country!

On a side note, if you blindly compare the programming on WNYZ and WPOT and are asked to figure out which one is a pirate station just based on the programming and imaging, WNYZ sounds more like the stereotypical pirate station.
 
87.7 has a very impressive signal from what have been told but they are on a completely vacant channel since the two chanel sixes have moved off of it.
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Oh really? WMBR and WCHC (both 88.1) might have something to say about that. Technically so might WIQH, WRPS, WGAO, WBMT (all 88.3) and some others. As would WBZ-FM (98.5)
 
Ugh, Rapking... get a new hobby. Please. If you owned a store that sold radios and people came in and took them without paying, would you love that too? Bottom line is, are the pirates paying taxes? No. ASCAP/BMI/SESAC? No. Following rules/regulations to prevent interference to others? No.

There's no reason for these people to set up shop wherever they want. There are plenty of AM's in the area that would gladly lease time to them.
 
WNTIRadio said:
Ugh, Rapking... get a new hobby. Please. If you owned a store that sold radios and people came in and took them without paying, would you love that too? Bottom line is, are the pirates paying taxes? No. ASCAP/BMI/SESAC? No. Following rules/regulations to prevent interference to others? No.

There's no reason for these people to set up shop wherever they want. There are plenty of AM's in the area that would gladly lease time to them.
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Corporations are controlling FCC and owning every radio stations. People we need to do local radio and the only way is to be a pirate.
 
I work at 2 AM's that would be happy to lease time to them, we have decent coverage in Boston, reasonable rates, happy smiling staff, etc.

The problem is the illegal broadcasters want the profit without the overhead expenses, which I have typed in ad nauseum over the years.
 
mescutia said:
j117 said:
Corporations are controlling FCC and owning every radio stations. People we need to do local radio and the only way is to be a pirate.
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Start a podcast.
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Do you think radio is dead?????? WiMAX and LTE rolling out soon and people would listen to pandora from palm of there hands.
 
j117 said:
Do you think radio is dead?????? WiMAX and LTE rolling out soon and people would listen to pandora from palm of there hands.
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Soon? SOON? I've been hearing that forever. It might be coming...but it's not soon.

Pandora is not radio.
 
Don Juan said:
j117 said:
Do you think radio is dead?????? WiMAX and LTE rolling out soon and people would listen to pandora from palm of there hands.
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Soon? SOON? I've been hearing that forever. It might be coming...but it's not soon.

Pandora is not radio.
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I didn't say that Pandora was radio but in this day people are discovering new music on the internet. Read this

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/09/commerical-radio-is-dead-why-cbs-radios-k-rock-format-switch-in-new-york-wont-make-a-bit-of-difference-in-fight-against-technological-irrelevance/
 
PIRATE RADIO IS THE FUTURE OF RADIO ! BIG City, Touch-FM,HOT 87.7, Choice-FM and 105.5 Worcester RULES !!!
 
rapking said:
PIRATE RADIO IS THE FUTURE OF RADIO ! BIG City, Touch-FM,HOT 87.7, Choice-FM and 105.5 Worcester RULES !!!
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Rapking, have you ever added anything resembling original thought on this board?
 
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