Sand Flea Powered 106.5 from 401 Cay FL has some concerns regarding recent legislation in sunny Florida.
Only recently I came across the mention of the passing of a Florida statue ( s 0877.27); making “radio transmission in this state unless the person obtains a license or an exemption from licensure from the Federal Communications Commission” a third degree felony punishable under 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084…
Sand Flea Powered 106.5 from 401 Cay FL has some concerns regarding recent legislation in sunny Florida.
Only recently I came across the mention of the passing of a Florida statue ( s 0877.27); making “radio transmission in this state unless the person obtains a license or an exemption from licensure from the Federal Communications Commission” a third degree felony punishable under 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084…
While appearing origionally as a House bill (H 1197) creating the Office of Statewide Prosecution under the Department of Legal Affairs (Homey-Land Security?), it seems to have ‘morphed’ into a Senate version (SB 2714). The final version lost all instances of creating another enforcement entity (costs money?) but left the modified ‘rider’ as a passable statute.
This should send shivers down the back’s of any “John Q.” who owns or operate’s the myriad of communications devices in our trendy world, and a sense of real power to the licensed few.
Noted in reading of SB 2714er: it first requires an exemption from “licensure from the FCCommission”.
This will be troublesome in that the FCC doesn’t work that way. The FCC does have ‘exemptions’, attempting to define jurisdictional concerns, stated in many of it’s codes. Just don’t ask for a personal one, they’ve already explained it in leagal-ese.
Then, the ‘meat’ of s 877.27 “Unauthorized transmissions to, or interference with, a public or commercial radio station licensed by the FCC prohibited”, implies even more far reaching ‘Orwellian’ senarios.
I’m sure this was a well meaning attempt to protect the few corporate entities that control most of the “public” airwaves and allow for local (state) reparation’s collection in the lucritive FCC “NAL” fines market. The FCC is already very succinct in interpretation; “willfully violated Section 301 of the Act ‘ is found in most NAL orders.
However, the (state) interpretation implies far reaching public interventions (as implimented). sic;
Your kids in the backyard playing with his R/C controlled model cars. The “licensed” HAM neighbor has suddenly lost contact with a remote QSR contact and traces the problem to the ‘harmonics’ coming from the toy(?) xmtr. “Busted?” Call your attorney?
You’re helping the wife prepare her ‘cassarole de’ nuclear’ and after hitting the “reheat” button on the microwave, unbeknown to you, half your neighbors portable phones go ‘blinky’, as well as the microwave link from the ‘commercial’ news feed covering the ‘irate’ HAM operator screaming explicative’s next door. “Busted?” Call your attorney?
You’re taking the family for a vactaion, getting away from it all (and the neighbors), crusin’ toward ‘Mickey’s Palace’ with the top down and the kids busy with “Mr. Microphone” in the backseat, you hardly notice the guy in the new Lexus along side.
He notices you though, as CEO of Clear Channel (maybe COX) he usually listens in on local affiliates while driving through, when they’re not singing “it’s a small world”. “Busted?” Only if the car’s in your name?
My interest in the emerging world of micro-broadcasting brought this legistration to attention. Florida is already the most active enforcement state for the FCC in such areas. There seems to be a large community of small community broadcasting interests developing.
Mostly scaled towards the ‘new’ LPFM service offering for more localized radio services, then below them is the grey area of less than 10 watt neighborhood / hobby radio. ( Techie part / FYI: 250 microvolt per meter @ 3 meters is FCC legalese for “exemption” for FM band xmtr, your average car radio requires about 1.7 microvolt/meter before it mutes the signal.
So with inverse square physics in effect, it takes alot of power to reach your anntenna past a few hundred meters ). Yet, in Florida, “Mr Microphone” may be a felony if it’s antenna is too efficient.
In our brave new world of communications, the toys we buy operate well beyond the 1934 intentions that generated the Federal Communications Acts
The old notion of “Pirate” radio has evolved into more community based venues, most truly attempt to stay within the ‘spirit’ of law and offer a service, still others do flaunt the regulations. The “licensed” FM community is small, by ownership, yet their interpretation of “interference” usually goes beyond signal strength.
Already, the potential that someone in your neighborhood wants to listen to a microradio broadcast seems enough for federal enforcement proceedings. Now, in Florida, even Prison!
Some Floridians have questioned why the state needs to step into the pirate fray, saying pirate broadcasters are serving their local areas with low-power signals featuring community-based programming and providing an outlet for ethnic music.
Broadcasters have maintained that illegal broadcasts ‘could’ interfere with emergency broadcasts during hurricanes and other disasters. They also “could” threaten the weakening ‘shares’ and revenue of the same industry that abondoned the AM band when new technologies garnered public interest.
Personalized entertainment venues from internet and satellite will certianly ‘interfere’ more greatly than the Mr. Micro Radio down the street from us.
When hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, most commercial venues could have been informative, until they went off the air, but they are not the backbone of emergency information broadcasts.
Perhaps, based on this history, FM too will return to the ‘People’, even if only to those within 1.7 mircovolts of the state penn.
Sand Flea Powered 106.5 from 401 Cay FL