Careful...

OK here is another concern and this doesn't even have to do with playing your favorite music (at least not directly).

Some people run seasonal part 15 broadcasting stations (Christmas) as talked about on the Light O Rama forums. Of course some of these transmitters go (out of box) a hell of a lot further than 150-200 feet. Some are sold as a Christmas Lights transmitter and have been sold in Christmas Light stores.

Imagine if you will Daddy Starbucks running his Christmas Light show and transmitting it on 87.9 Mhz and the station is getting out 1 mile. Next comes sheriff Hammy Ham with his iCom or Yazoo. He has it modified to receive FM and he doesn't have an actual FIM-71. Next thing you know he poinds on the door and swears at the man running the station and tells him “Your illegal and I'm gonna take you down!” The next thing that happens is that someone else in that famile brings out a shotgun and says “Get the F### of my property!” The very next day you have a swat team raiding the house.

Best wauy to solve this issue is to give up 87.7 and 87.9 Mhz to the individuals for low power on FM and to designate 1710 Khz for individual broadcasters to have a little public use on those frequencies and call it a day. Otherwise you'll see the wild west happening when individuals are allowed to play sheriff.

Artisan Radio once aired this message and may do so again: 'Artisan Radio is a Low Power Announce System, broadcasting under regulations issued by Industry Canada and the CRTC. If you have any issues with our operation, or programming, please contact us at <contact info>'.

Artisan, during the period when you aired the announcements were there any inquiries made?

I do something not quite as detailed... about four times a day I run: "KDX1 is an International Broadcasting Station operating under the Authority of FCC Part 15".

I now have a printed Part15 Authorization Certificate printed as a membership perk from the ALPB.

I'm sure I've posted this before, but...

I've run the following announcement 6177 times since going on the air just about 3 years ago. We're on the air 7 days a week 24 hours a day.  This works out to 4.25 times per day.

http://www.ironrangecountry.com/aboutirc.mp3

I've yet to have anyone who listens question me about it.  Of course most anything anyone woujld want to know is on the website. A website that you get to using the link in the announcement, or the call letters. Both domains point to the same website.

The only emails I've ever received were from people out of the area looking for information on how to start a station.

The only flak I've received was from a guy 100 miles away asking my boss if he knew who was "running the pirate station in Bovey". My boss, not being an idiot, passed that email on to me and I replied to this other station owner, explaining Part 15 to him. He apologized. 

TIB

Artisans idea is what we have to do here in New Zealand under out LPFM rules.

The "Contact Details" rule
Clause 3(2) requires that “Low Power FM transmitter operators must broadcast the contact details of the person responsible for the transmissions at least once every hour”.
This requirement can be met by a spoken announcement of the name by which the station is identified, or the name of the person responsible for the establishment and operation of the transmitter, where that name is the subject of a current telephone directory listing.
If there is no public telephone directory listing associated with the name in the announcement, the requirement can be met by including one of the following in the announcement:
• a business telephone number  
• a business address  
• a residential telephone number  
• a residential address  
• a valid e-mail address  
• a postal address 

I use my station name plus my web site address which have a contact form and my email address. This is done at the top of the hour or close to that time.

Tim's ID was an idea I have been using with my station.  So far so good no one has ever questioned me about my station or given me any issues.  It also gives a person a way to contact me if my transmitter ever pulled what my SainSainic did with the 11 Mhz spurs.  Of course I found about that before any complaints were ever made and thus no longer have that transmitter in operation.

I said 'Artisan Radio is a Low Power Announce System, broadcasting under regulations issued by Industry Canada and the CRTC. If you have any issues with our operation, or programming, please contact us at <contact info>'.

Actually, it wasn't issues, but 'comments' - I was going from memory and rechecked it.

No, I never actually received any comments from that message, at least directly, and I had a phone number in there (don't forget I was broadcasting to a small segment of Bowen Island, my friends and neighbours).

I had plenty of people drop into my storefront and comment on what I was doing, all positive (at least directly to me).

I also got comments from the contact page on my website - e-mails from the Caribbean, somewhere on the East Coast of the U.S., and a few others from around the world, the precise location I can't remember.  They were all positive, some quite enthusiastic, and the individuals in question found my radio station on the Reciva and/or V-tuner websites (which supplies a lot of smartphone Internet Radio apps with their station links).  I had one guy from Pennsylvania become a programmer on the station - he did several pre-recorded shows a week until I moved off Bowen.

I think with the new focus on rooting out pirates, it's even more essential that legal low power broadcasters don't hide, but come right out and proudly proclaim what and who you are.  Hiding implies guilt, which implies piracy.

I've self-debated about being out of the closet or keeping to myself and perhaps any listeners the station may have. I'm encouraged that you had feedback and offers of programming though.

It seems like a website is too much trouble to maintain, and since the station is local, why would people in other areas even care? Maybe when I get past the Talking House stage and get my better transmitter, ( yes I'm still working on it after a year) I'll consider a site.

One thing I thought of was having a private page, and the address would only be given out on the air, so just the station's actual listeners could visit it.

I'm not in a hurry to decide.

Being only a hobby in my case and not a business, my stations exist to serve me with excellent programming otherwise nonexistent on local radio.

IF, and it's a big if, any neighbors happened to tune my AM stations, which I think is exceptionally unlikely, they have no way of knowing where they're coming from. I make no identification with local towns, I have no reason to "serve the community".

Having worked for local stations I know that most people have no sense of what's on the radio dial nor any reason to wonder.

A few years ago we had a station appear out of nowhere at 1190 on the dial. For a long time I thought it was a pirate, until I finally got the internet and found out it was a new licensed station that had been made possible by using directional antenna arrays, something that I think was not as technically achievable in former years, or perhaps too expensive in those days, but nobody reported it as a "pirate" because I was the only person who noticed this new station.

Only self-righteous self-imagined super heros in tights would hunt out unlicensed signals and report them to the Feds. It's the negative form of radio hobby practiced by twits.

Carl Said: "Only self-righteous self-imagined super heros in tights would hunt out unlicensed signals and report them to the Feds. It's the negative form of radio hobby practiced by twits."

WA4JM said: "This is also practiced by "former" amateur radio operators as well."

I have read through all the comments here as well as the ideas and motions people go through to get the message out about what your stations are all about.

I wish not to hear "MrBruce we heard this all before".

WXTZ did everything possible to get the message out as to who and what we were.

We provided pictures of the actual studio on our facebook account.

We provided a Wikipedia page explaining what WXTZ was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXTZ_87.9_Norwich

We provided a local telephone number 860-383-4452 (Number is no longer valid)

You would not think OUR trouble makers would have been a bunch of fellow part 15 radio enthusiasts and a forum board Adimistrator who maintains a part 15 related web site and forum board, but this was the case.

I know you are all sick of hearing about it, but to say that is to forget that it is not just a case of some people, the police or a licensed radio station being the only threat to you all.

People who are supposed to understand fully, what part 15 is and know the difference between a pirate radio station and a part 15 radio station are guilty of doing just what you and they fear someone else will do if the FCC allows this to happen, where average people can take the law into their own hands and harrass a legal part 15 radio station owner/operator!!!

Who would think that adinistrator would be concerned about his membership being falsely accused as being "pirates" when he, himself, is guilty of doing the same damned thing to WXTZ?

I can not post over there at HB, but if I could, I would bring that fact up to that person in his own topic complaining about part 15 operators will be falsely accused of being something they are not...pirates.

I am surprised no one who can post over there, has brought my situation up in that forum board, so the ring leader himself can see where HE is guilty of doing the same action against me, so where does he get off acting innocent?!?!?!?!?

I know there are members here, who post over there, why be scared to post the truth on my behalf? Because you'll get banned? WHy would you care if speaking the truth will get you banned from such a biased forum board?

I have tried to speak my mind at Radio World's web site where that person posts to the published articles, however, my posts are not published for all to see because the Radio World team do not see that person attacking me or accusing me personally on their RW web site.

They at Radio World are not aware of what took place on that person's web site, so they do not feel what I have to say can be allowed on their RW web site.

I am a case in point and just because YOU are not that person's victim, does not mean you won't be if you do not stand by me, because like it or not, YOU COULD BE NEXT!!!

This thread is just about what WXTZ went through, to say it wasn't you so you do not care or give a shi*t about me and WXTZ is to say you're not PRO-CHOICE, you could care less what happens to your fellow part 15 friends, it is all about you.

I am not a selfish person by any means, I personally feel, any action against you, has an impact on me and other people as well.

If all part 15 device operators are allowed to be viewed as "Blatant Pirates" by the uninformed population, this hobby will be at risk of constant attackes by those who are less informed, with the exception of thinking that any broadcast that is not performed by a licensed part 73 station is that of an illegal pirate radio operation!!!

Linch mobs will take action into their own hands, like many have done in the Citizens Band Radio Band hobby, people tearing down antennas or pinning a station's coax or cutting thier coax to shut down that CBers station.

I am sadden to see the lack of caring in this forum board, saying the shutting down of WXTZ does not and did not effect you personally, is a selfish and wrong way to think about this, because it does effect you in many ways you do not think it will.

The general public was lead to believe that what WXTZ did was illegal and IS what a pirate radio station IS!!!!

I just can not seem to get you people to understand my point, I can not in my own words, convince you of what people thought WXTZ was after the lies were published about that station. I am not going ask a large group of people to create an account here to tell you how some people felt about WXTZ after hearing the words of these people.

Some locals now call WXTZ the "Pirate Radio Station of Norwich that was" Huh? Pirate?

Who started the claim that WXTZ was a PIRATE radio station in the first place? The truth is over at the private forum section over at HB's forum board. Then behind the local scene, the other licensed local radio stations were told about WXTZ and that it was an illegal "PIRATE" operation that needed to be shut down.

The accusing person B.D., contacted the other radio station engineers that engineered the radio stations in my local market area and told them WXTZ was an illegal pirate station and they needed to help in the prosecution of the station owner MrBruce.

Apparently some radio station had callers calling in, discussing the pirate radio station called WXTZ. Although, this is hear-say, a few people told me a local college radio station had a listener call in program and there was discussions about the pirate radio station in Norwich.

I was not witness to this broadcast, I was simply told about it, word of mouth. So I can not say whether it really took place or not, so I have to wonder. But if it is true, why was my legal part 15 radio station labled a "PIRATE RADIO STATION"?????

The answers to my questions still remain UNANSWERED, but, it would have been nice to know WHO and WHY these accusations were made in the first place!!!

What did we do wrong and who felt that way to start these false allegations in the first place?

It would have been nice to know, so it will not happen again and we can take corrective action.

None of our on air programming contained profanity or other questionable content, all transmitters were FCC part 15 certified Decade MS100 transmitters operating at factory default settings using the antenna supplied with the transmitters.

7 different transmitters was used at 7 different locations which were primarily located in large apartment buildings. In fact, in another thread, I posted a picture of a large 4 story brick building, that was formerly an elementary school, now converted into 120 individual apartments. The signal carried quite well throughout this building, regardless of what that other guy says about that being impossible, stating that 200 feet is 200 feet and buidling materials will limit that down to 10 feet, no exceptions!!! You all know WHO I am referring to when I say "that other guy" but he is DEAD WRONG!! Any Radio plugged into a wall outlet on the 1st floor, to some degree, uses the AC mains as an antenna. If the Decade MS100 is plugged into the SAME mains supply, that FM radio's antenna is also active in the same wall outlet the transmitter is plugged into, so one can't say the transmitter is using the whole buidling as an antenna, the receiver is the unit that is most likely the one using the whole building's wiring as an antenna.

Conclusion:

I would have thought, if anything, either the web site owner, or if there really was a licensed radio station complaining about WXTZ, would have called the convienently available telephone number for WXZT and discuss with me what their concerns were.

Now having a bunch of idiots trolling our Facebook pages to download images to use as evidence and morons driving around my house taking pictures of my "television antennas" and "scanner antenna" claiming them to be "a mess of clutter on the roof on the chiminey and a dominator antenna for FM broadcast" A dominator for FM broadcast has a halo type ground plane, mine had a tripod set of elements that were tuned for VHF low, VHF high and UHF bands. Too widely tuned for a possible good SWR at the FM broadcast band without a lot of antenna tuners in the line and if I was to use an outdoor FM broadcast antenna, it would have been horizontally polarized, not virtically polarized like a scanner antenna is.

Bruce.

Long ground leads....

Almost everyone now understands we are living in a police state all under surveillance and all subject to suspicion.

It's heyday for the brown-nose crowd to butter-up to the authorities by reporting neighbors, co-workers, friends, members of hobby organizations.

Being "legal" and making courteous announcements about how compliant we are is little more than wearing a yellow star so we can be easily singled out and disappeared.

What the brown-nosers don't realize is that they themselves raise the question "what are they trying to hide(?)" by pointing fingers at others, and they too may soon vanish.

Our new leader will be either a man whose lie changes every ten minutes (Trump), a man whose voice sounds like a 9-year old boy (Cruz), or a woman whose voice sounds like a man (Hillary).

Their FCC, our "bosses" as it were, seems to be saying that "it's not in our job description" as they fob off their responsibilities to mobs they are trying to incite.

Heil Homeland!

MrBruce, just because your situation isn't discussed every day doesn't mean that people don't care.

Most individuals here know the shortcomings of the Hobbybroadcaster web site and its owner/moderator.

There are some that choose not to participate at that Forum, such as myself. I wouldn't be caught dead over there, just for the principle of the thing.  And certainly if I ever had 2nd thoughts, what happened to you reminds me of those principles.

There are some that choose to participate at both sites for various reasons.  But do you honestly believe that any posts about your situation, or even posts that take contrary stances to that webmaster would last long over there?  It's already been shown that he's willing to toss people out for much less than that (never mind delete posts he disagrees with).  I believe those participating understand that reality.  And if you ignore the politics and personalities that sometimes dominate HB, they do have some good information and experience.

Then there's those that only participate over there, and close their minds to what sometimes happens (and sometimes even participate in the shenanigans directly).  I feel sorry for them, and I believe that that's the way you should look at it as well.  Do you really care about what the people who play those kinds of games think?

Yes, what happened to you is a forewarning of what is to come if private individuals and organizations are allowed to make piracy accusations.  Particularly those who don't know what they're doing.

I don't think that it should stop people from participating in the hobby, but as the topic of the thread says, be 'CAREFUL...'  Ensure that you are compliant with the rules as best you can, and go out of your way to inform people that you are legal.

The true pirates are those that willfully ignore those rules, and attempt to hide (at least from the authorities).

And, to quote one of my favorite sayings, 'Don't Let The Turkeys Get You Down'.

There ARE pirates, and they ignore the rights of others (i.e. both licensed and Part 15 broadcasters) by stomping all over existing signals and empty channels (while justifying it by vehemently proclaiming THEIR rights to free speech and even sometimes stating that they are saving radio). That means that unless legal practitioners of Part 15 broadcasting don't want to be lumped in with these pirates, and waste their time and energy proving their compliance, they can and probably should just take some easy steps to prevent that.

If your signal can't be picked up outside of your property, then there's no reason to do it.

But if it can, all the idealism in the world doesn't change the fact that it is probably a reality.

I don't see it as being onerous.  But then, that just may be me.

Artisan just addressed the situation very well, and I can add that you have friends here on this part 15 forum who realize what happened and we are not happy that it was done to you but we also have no way to do anything to reverse the harm except to welcome you here.

Perhaps you are concerned that the story might fade into the past and be forgotten, and that shouldn't be allowed to happen. We have an obligation to keep people informed about the risks of part 15 as well as the benefits.

What I would see as a triumph for you is to have the success part of your story memorialized without any reference to the creeps who caused harm... Your network of Part 15 stations was a great accomplishment and I rank you with Mighty 1650, Tim in Bovey, End 80 Radio, Friday Harbor Tiny Radio and many others who built amazing and highly clever radio operations.

I say you can be proud of yourself for what you did, and to hell with jealous fools who tried to hurt you.