With all the talk of radio pirates coming from another Part 15 website & Forum, you'd think that there were pirates lurking under every rock. And in every Part 15 Forum (except theirs, of course).
That kind of talk is all a load of rubbish, meant to make them look better (after all, knocking others down is much easier than building respect).
This Forum, like theirs, doesn't condone pirate broadcasting, and never has. After all, it's a "community for low power, unlicensed, legal radio" (as you can read in the upper left of each web page). And its well known that that other Forum has had multiple pirates (ex and otherwise) as members throughout the years.
All that being said, I believe that the biggest problem with pirate operators isn't the Part 15 broadcasters who experiment with a bit more power, inadvertently or otherwise. Or even the blatant ones using hundreds or thousands of watts. They all know what they're doing, and usually try to not interfere with anything else - that's the quickest way to get shut down.
No, the biggest problem is with those who you might not traditionally associate the term pirate operator with. The casual user who purchases one of those 5 watt Chinese transmitters to use in their car (hey, it's a long way from your phone in the car console to the car antenna), or to use around their home. When they aren't using these transmitters, which is most of the time, they usually leave them on, transmitting dead carrier for blocks or even miles.
And when you have a mobile radio station, what is a clear frequency in one area may not be so clear in another and so they tromp over licensed stations while driving.
These are the ones that I usually run into. Your mileage may vary, but I've only run into one real pirate station in over 20 years of amateur (I like that term better than hobby) broadcasting. It operated for a few days on an empty frequency Artisan Radio was using, and then went away.
But I've had issues with many car-based overpowered transmitters, particularly on Bowen Island. One there, in particular, wiped out my signal for most of its intended coverage area (in fact, it covered a great deal of the island), and I finally had to go to the local newspaper and shame whoever it was into stopping (or at least changing frequency). After all, Artisan Radio was legally operating as the island's community radio station; they weren't.
This is the real reason Industry Canada and the FCC need to crack down on the inexpensive, uncertified, illegal transmitters available on ebay, amazon & other sites. Including the bogus certified ones. To get them out of the hands of those who don't know what they're doing.
What worries me being on FM is that someone may get one of these cheap Chinese transmitters, even the "certified" Retekess(rebranded CZH-05B) at 100-500mW and be right in my area and screw me up. Frequency space is at a premium here(Toronto) and there aren't a lot of choices. Last year Long and Mcquade Music stores here in Canada were selling these and anyone could just go to the store and buy one and they were advertising them as part 15/RSS-210 compliant, no license needed.
If that happens I have 3 choices, move to a different spot which is hard in Toronto, just bring out the Procaster and move to AM again where this wouldn't be a problem as no one does this on AM, or report the offending illegal transmission to ISED. The way I see it I pay way more for a proper quality certified transmitter that actually operates at or, if it's over, not more than 10 to 15% above the limit. I operate legally, don't interfere with anything else, have the proper equipment to check for harmonics and overmodulation, and if I am screwed by someone who isn't(legal), and I've heard these dead carriers that Artisan mentions, I would report it. But if they are doing it with a legal transmitter like a Decade which anyone can get also but most don't want to pay for it, not much I can do as we don't have protection from interference in that case. Two legal transmitters, interfering with each other! Don't call about that. Those ones for cars to get your MP3 player to your car via FM are now becoming obsolete as all cars have bluetooth to use with a phone or an audio jack for direct connection. And why would anyone get a 5 watt Chinese one for that? By the way you can know if another signal is legal or not just by seeing how much ground they are covering. On FM that is.
As for the "other forum" having ex pirates, or ongoing pirates, who would have thought.
The odds of someone using a Decade and seriously mucking up your signal in any given area are pretty low. But those 500mw and even, heaven forbid, 7 watt transmitters can go for miles. They can easily impact your range if they're anywhere close to you. And odds are also that they're going to migrate to the frequencies we choose, as they're empty, and there's not much choice, at least in urban areas.
What bugs me the most about these guys (meant in a gender neutral fashion) is that, as I stated, they leave them on most of the time transmitting dead carrier. What a waste of spectrum, and it's either pretty selfish, or pretty ignorant. They probably should be reported for their own good.
Yeah, the Retekess TR-508 was sold as RSS210 compliant (in its advertising) here in Canada, although it's only certified with Industry Canada for RSS123, running at around 400 milliwatts. How it got Part 15 certified in the U.S. is beyond me. Although, I suppose if you run it at low power (the manufacturer only states that it's less than 100 milliwatts) without an antenna, it might pass. The fact that it did, even though it can run at the Canadian-measured 400 milliwatts, and stays certified, says something about the FCC certification process.
As for others having pirates or ex pirates as members, or past members, I don't think it's all that uncommon. All radio Forums probably do and did. It's the holier than thou attitude when discussing radio piracy that is very annoying.
Anyway, what really matters is what happens in discussions on this Forum. We actively discourage radio piracy in any form, which is why it's sometimes talked about. Education is the key to legal, unlicensed, broadcasting.
The licensed world also has its pirates but I think they call it "unauthorized operation", for example daytime stations that stay on at night and those that operate with daytime power at night. There's often a Radio World article about these violators, but they don't use the word 'pirate'.