A recent post over at Hobbybroadcaster discussed a non certified and certainly very questionable transmitter that had been submitted to their station directory. A great deal was made about how the transmitter supposedly had RDS, which actually shows very little knowledge about that technology, as any transmitter can be made to support RDS with the open source software JMPX (as long as it passes through the appropriate frequencies). Mono transmitters can also output a stereo signal with that and similar available software. I'm going to comment more on RDS and its usefulness with Part 15 transmitters in another post.
Hobbybroadcaster has a long history of accusing FM radio stations that aren't associated with their website of being pirates. Not so much with members. I began to wonder 1) if that station was put into the directory and 2) what other transmitters were being used by stations in that directory.
Well, first, since these guys hide a lot of info, I didn't know the transmitter model, so it was difficult to judge if the station was in the directory. What I did find is a large number of uncertified, questionable transmitters in the directory, period. Quite a few Ramsey transmitters, including the FM-100B (which is definitely overpowered and not certified). There were also a lot of 30's, and some stations didn't bother to list their transmitter (so you can probably guess how legal it was).
So, it seems that that site applies quite a different set of rules to everyone else, as opposed to those who participate there.