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Pirate transmitter, tropo-skip, or ?

B

bizwriter84

Yesterday, May 22, I tuned to 87.9 / 88.1 FM and heard the Howard Stern show. I don't have Sirius in my car, but I heard the show unmistakably. It was at approximately 8:45 a.m. I received it in the corridor on Shea Blvd from about 54th Street to about Hayden.

Today, in a different car, I tuned to 87.9 FM, at about 1:25 p.m. I heard a very brief ID that said Sirius 62. The format was country-western music. (My on-line search confirms that Sirius 62 is a C&W channel.) I received it this time whilst driving Eastbound on Shea Blvd, picking it up at about Scottsdale Rd and continuing almost to 90th. In some spots it fully captured my receiver.

There seems to be some correlation between the presence of the heavy cluster of power lines that runs along that same route. I can scarcely receive the signal when I'm away from those lines.

I did some searching on-line but did not find any clues to this phenomenon.

Hypotheses:

1) Someone has hooked up their Sirius box to a low power FM transmitter in that region.

2) There is some broadcaster somewhere that relays Sirius to terrestrial FM, and that signal is skipping in the troposphere (as FM will do in the summer)

3) Someone is using a very low power FM transmitter in their car to ferry the Sirius signal within the car, and I just got lucky and picked it up ... twice ... as we both were driving on Shea.

4) There is some retransmission going on that is carried passively via the powerlines.

Does anyone know what might be going on?

T in Phoenix
 
You could just be coincidentally driving next to a car with an FM modulator. The low band is usually where these get picked up. Sirius has gotten into some trouble with the FCC for having manufacturers produce receivers that exceed the 100mW maximum output. In fact, some of those manufacturers are now sueing Sirius over this issue.
 
Someone on a car near you is using his built in FM transmitter in his satellite radio.

A little known fact is that these devices can also enable certain contact lens wearers to see right through your tank top.

The FCC in conducting a probe into this.
 
fiazco said:
You could just be coincidentally driving next to a car with an FM modulator. The low band is usually where these get picked up. Sirius has gotten into some trouble with the FCC for having manufacturers produce receivers that exceed the 100mW maximum output. In fact, some of those manufacturers are now sueing Sirius over this issue.
Click to expand...

That would certainly explain it ... thanks!
 
It was me, my Sirius Starmate puts out a good FM signal and I use 87.9....hope you enjoy Sirius- far better than anything offered on our local terrestrial outlets. ;D
 
I hear these all the time, mostly on 88.1 MHz. But using one on 87.9 is illegal, at least in the U.S.

And the Part 15 rule for FM is 250 uV/m at 3 meters, which is approximately .017 microwatts ERP into a quarter-wave (2.5 foot) antenna, a bit higher with the normal 3-6 inch antenna used on these little transmitters. 100 mW input (40-70 mW out, depending on the transmitter) into a 3-meter antenna is the rule on AM, not FM. Even with that miniscule power level, these little FM transmitters are good for a good 30-50 foot range inside a car.
 
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