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Pirate Radio in Kennesaw/Acworth?

H

HippieGuy

I live in the area of Mars Hill and Stilesboro Rd in the Kennesaw/Acworth area. Over the last few months around the 93.4 dial I have been picking up a strong signal. Never an id with call letters, only a recorded voice over of a kid about 10years old who says, "you are listening to Kids Radio in Brookstone". Brookstone is a subdivision in the area mentioned. I have driven around and the signal seems to have a radius of about a mile. It plays 60's genre of music, yet each song is about 40seconds long with each abruptly ending with another starting. The weather report s the only voice you hear, another kid, but the weather is never correct. It is the same report every time. It could be raining, yet calls for 'perfect pool weather.

Very strange.

I do know, the FCC permits LP Radio and assume this is one.

Any thoughts?
 
Some kid playing with a Mr. Microphone?
 
HippieGuy said:
I live in the area of Mars Hill and Stilesboro Rd in the Kennesaw/Acworth area. Over the last few months around the 93.4 dial I have been picking up a strong signal. Never an id with call letters, only a recorded voice over of a kid about 10years old who says, "you are listening to Kids Radio in Brookstone". Brookstone is a subdivision in the area mentioned. I have driven around and the signal seems to have a radius of about a mile. It plays 60's genre of music, yet each song is about 40seconds long with each abruptly ending with another starting. The weather report s the only voice you hear, another kid, but the weather is never correct. It is the same report every time. It could be raining, yet calls for 'perfect pool weather.

Very strange.

I do know, the FCC permits LP Radio and assume this is one.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

with tons of low power FM transmitters from China on that auction site, it's easy for anyone with a PC, Winamp and a ton of MP3's to put an FM signal on the air. The frequency choice will get this one popped being that close to Star as soon as someone complains.

Back in 2004, some Haitian guy from Philly spent some serious coin setting up a fairly high power (20 watt) FM pirate on an office building in Smyrna across from Cobb Center mall. It was on 103.7, but was so overmodulated it was interfering with Kiss 104 when you got to Windy Hill Rd. I DF'ed it and it wasn't hard to find spotting the Ramsey groundplane antenna on a pole on top of the building. There was a phone number on the building for "space to rent". It was a cell that went to the landlord. He actually came right to the scene, after I told him I was an amateur radio operator and this "station" was unlicensed and causing interference. He actually took me to the suite and let me shut off the transmitter. What I saw was a Chinese transmitter with a crude automation system consisting of a PC and some Mini-Disc decks.

The landlord was about to crap his pants, though he said he knew his lessee was operating a radio station he ASSumed it was licensed. A check of the ULS confirmed no license or application. He then actually called the tenant on his cellphone and handed it to me. The guy called himself "Loco" and proceeded to tell me he was in another city setting up a similar station that was licensed. I told him his sounded like crap, was causing harmful interference to Kiss 104, and the FCC would be all over him if they got a complaint. I was trying to do this guy a favor. So I left. Three days later it was back on.

I emailed the FCC and Cox engineering, a week later, no more pirate. I drove by and the antenna was gone from the building! Tried to tell him. Your Brookstone bootlegger will suffer the same fate, especially on 93.4, which 100khz spacing isn't even used in the USA. Or did you mean 94.3? Even worse being an adjacent to Star 94.

Kids these days. At least he/she isn't out robbing stores with his pants on the ground!
 
Ironic. This AM on local 46 News, they had a story about some guy who moved here from elsewhere, set up at a house on Burnt Hickory Road, (which is in the area of Brookstone), has a 140' antennae in the back yard and broadcasting 'a radio station'. They interviewed him, he says, despite the summons from Cobb County to remove the antenna, (complaints from neighbors), he says he will not cease because, "radio stations are federal and not locally regulated"....he is due to appear in Cobb court this week.
 
HippieGuy said:
Ironic. This AM on local 46 News, they had a story about some guy who moved here from elsewhere, set up at a house on Burnt Hickory Road, (which is in the area of Brookstone), has a 140' antennae in the back yard and broadcasting 'a radio station'. They interviewed him, he says, despite the summons from Cobb County to remove the antenna, (complaints from neighbors), he says he will not cease because, "radio stations are federal and not locally regulated"....he is due to appear in Cobb court this week.
Click to expand...

He is an amateur radio operator. He is also very misinformed. He is trying to claim that FCC ruling PRB-1 grants him some blanket immunity from local zoning ordinances and covenants. It simply does not. This guy does NOT represent the majority of amateur radio operators. (I am also a ham, have been since I was 9.) I find his arrogance deplorable. Typical of some "blow in from..." resident who is ill informed and then when he learns of the law, he has a middle finger attitude. His claims of using his four tower array for "emergency service" are downright laughable. I have been doing community service through amateur radio since 1990 when I turned 15, and it never requires four towers in a backyard and a room full of radios.

He's just a self-important ****** with more money than he has sense. He thinks he is going to intimidate the county zoning board and the county commission with his media town cryer tactics. He will fail, watch and see. What he is succeeding at doing is being a complete ****** nozzle and making the close to 1,000 licensed hams in Cobb county (including me) look like the last person you would want living next door. FWIW, I have had a setup for years, and with low profile good performing antennas, no towers, or building permits are needed. My neighbors don't hate me, and most don't even notice. That's not only part of being a good amateur radio operator, but part of being a good neighbor. This guy is just an eccentric jerk. Also to be noted, thanks to the work of many hams who were here well before him, Cobb county has some of the most generous antenna structure exceptions for amateur radio operators, up to 70' tower with nothing more than a simple building permit. This fool didn't bother to get any. Now he's whining it's his "right" to do what he wishes because he has a ham license. Last I checked, licenses don't grant you rights, they grant you privileges.
 
Ditto!!!!
 
There's a pirate station on 103.9 in the East Stone Mountain - Lithonia area. Sometimes, early in the morning, it actually bleeds over into Kiss 104.1's spot just a little. A lot of the time, it's just silence, but when they do play music, it's old school R&B.

This pirate signal seems to be centered around the Rockbridge Rd/ Deshon Rd. area of Stone Mountain!!
 
I forget the formula but "power" lost is something like a fraction of a DB per meter really line of sight not power is what really makes FM "go". I have always wondered say you have a 30 or 40 story apartment, could a "legal" on your deck station FM cover a lot of ground?
 
secondchoice said:
I forget the formula but "power" lost is something like a fraction of a DB per meter really line of sight not power is what really makes FM "go". I have always wondered say you have a 30 or 40 story apartment, could a "legal" on your deck station FM cover a lot of ground?
Click to expand...
that's where the FCC got smart and revised part 15 devices in the FM band to limit field strength a number of years ago for incidental radiator devices, such as low power FM chips used in modulators, etc. Used to be there was only a limit of 100mw at the final amplifier stages, but none on field strength. So back in those days, a Ramsey FM10 into a nice Yagi or even ground plane omni from the top of a building in say, NYC, could give a listenable signal for several city blocks, and it was all legal. You could serve thousands of listeners that way. Many people did it.

Of course, corporate stations don't like this, and lobbied to tighten up the rules which now actually limit how far a signal can go, so devices cannot radiate a field strength of more than 250uv/m at 3 meters from the antenna. This means anything other than the manufacturer provided antenna (usually a piece of wire or telescoping whip), you're potentially exceeding this limit and can be in violation. It takes an expensive meter to measure field strength, so the only way to absolutely be in compliance is to use an FCC approved part 15 device and not use anything but the provided antenna and not make any modifications. This usually equates to an FM signal that can't be detected by a good car FM radio from 300 yards away.
 
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