Music concerts are regularly held in the park next to where I live. When they are, it is quite easy to listen to them from my balcony, and often even inside the apartment, even though the players are several hundred meters away.
My over-the-air BETS FM signal would have difficulty being heard at that distance unless you were using a really good radio.
There's got to be something wrong with the rules when audio waves, which you have no control over and will hear whether you want to or not, can be heard farther than radio waves (which you can turn off and on with a switch, or tune to another station).
A very good point about the audio waves VS radio waves. I was thinking of posting about this myself. Not just music but could be a lawnmower, or anything else. People talking at normal volume outside can be heard farther than a part 15(USA) FM station and if they are yelling as far as a BETS station, and yes you hear it whether you want to or not. I think the only reason the rules are like they are with radio waves is not the interference thing as decent transmitters properly filtered can solve that problem so there is little harmonics to get into anything else it's about the commercial stations that pay a lot of money to do this as a business and lobby to have governments protect their interests. After all you can't have someone like us come along and just do it license free and compete with them stealing their listeners. And the government makes a lot of money in the exorbitant fees they charge for licenses and other stuff and tax commercial stations pay.
So we get the little bit we do and if they could the commercial stations would stamp that out too.
Yes I know your point as with everyone that does this hobby. We should have more power.
A word describes my reaction to the fiddly rules that harness our reasonable desire to use otherwise empty radio frequencies, and that word is 'consternation', which means 'amazement that confounds the faculties, and incapacitates for reflection'. As trustworthy, decent and obedient citizens we politely measure our tiny antennas and microwatts while also feeling insulted and even cheated by governmental authoritarians who treat our minuscule footprint as if we were aliens trying to cross the border.
However I will say this... the FCC Part 15 Rules as they are is enough for my needs. Mainly AM is used to broadcast to a yard radio when I'm outside trimming the greenery or watching the birds, and our Chez Procaster Transmitter covers the yard perfectly and a few hundred extra feet. I sometimes check the range out of idle curiosity, but it really doesn't matter to me how much extra range I get. And FM is used to connect computer audio to radio receivers inside the building, and that works well enough so there's no real problem.
When I come on here or on my own Blog and complain about the 'fiddling' rules, I do so because there's no good reason the FCC can't relax the rules a bit to allow responsible uses of completely blank unused radio space for small stations and I would like to see the public have access to their public airwaves. The present oppressive rules are the wireless equivalent of banning books.