FCC moves against pirates

The announced actions undertaken by the FCC against pirates is potentially dangerous to the welfare of part 15 operation for the reason that the legality of part 15 is not distinctly and clearly given a safe-zone category.

We are in an age of SWAT teams and fabricated terror and could easily fall victim to the "war on piracy."

There is handwriting on the wall and we could very easily become "collateral damage" in the whole pirate witch hunt.

Every day we are given more reasons to be embarassed and ashamed of the peculiar people running the government/corporate police state.

And Landlords can tell the difference between a Pirate station and a part 15 station how? Are we supposed to present our certified transmitters FCC ID number to the FCC? Will Landlords become paranoid and ban all antennas on all apartments and houses in fear of a Pirate radio operator? And what gives the Landlord the proper education and training to throw a person out of their apartment leaving them homeless when they visit and find someone like myself broadcasting on a Talking House AM or Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0? do we now have to keep the boxes that our transmitters came in? Yes I can see lots of innocent people getting wrongfully accused here. Imagine what happened to Mr. Bruce happening x 1,000 and many folks being under investigation for running a legal part 15 transmitter. This may mean Pirates will strike harder. And those who were legal and wrongfully accused to go Pirate. After all accuse me and I may as well do has been a school of thought since I was little.

There's something else going on with this Michael O'Reilly character. It appears that he alone is crying wolf over a claimed piracy problem, but in National fact the number of pirates is negligible.

New York City appears to have a few pirates once in awhile according to reports, same with Florida, but almost nowhere else.

The FCC has already done some play acting about cutting back enforcement, and it looks like they're trying to relegate their responsibility to state organizations but I expect some backfire.

Looking at the various letters that were sent to a small number of professional organizations it is a clear recruitment to become informers and local spectrum enforcers minus the funding that would accompany a serious action.

All these professional organizations are not in the security business, they have their own fields of endeaver, and likely will pitch these letters where they belong.

Bottom line: this is noise. Even if some professionals look into it they'll notice no radio prirates in their neighborhood, they certainly won't have the equipment nor ability to differentiate between licensed and unlicensed, especially with the glut of trash-casters on FM, so they'll drop the matter and get back to reality.

A Certificate of Part 15 Authorization from the ALPB is all you need if approached.

A landlord could probably add rules about no RF transmitting to a lease.  Part 15 intentional radiators are not protected by the OTARD rule.  Amateur radio operators have some protections, but a part 15 FM or AM transmitter is not an amateur radio device.  A landlord could probably ban Wi-Fi in a lease if they really wanted to; it would make finding tenants hard but as far as I know a Wi-Fi access point is not a right protected by the FCC.

There is a huge difference between using a part 15 FM transmitter to get audio into a device without a line in and being a pirate.  However the closer a transmitter operates to the 250uv/m @3m MAXIMUM the more likely a variation in the transmitter, a reflection from a random RF reflective surface, a random piece of metal acting as a director, some capacitive coupling to ground or something else is going to push the signal over the 250uv/m @3m MAXIMUM in some direction.  15.239 clearly defines what is legal unlicensed operation; anything above it is being a pirate.

The FM band is mostly packed.  Even if something complies with 15.239 a person operating a part 15 transmitter needs to remember 15.5 (b).  Causing interference to a licensed service is a violation of part 15 rules.

Realistically the range the FCC expects someone to get with a part 15 FM transmitter is 200’.  A good radio may work out to 800’.  A part 15 transmitter hundreds of feet in the air on a clear channel into an amazing radio may get 2000’.  Assuming a typical suburb, the more people a signal reliably covers the less likely it is part 15 and the more likely it is a pirate.  The more people a signal covers the more likely someone is going to call the FCC.

@Carl et al: I have a very good working relationship with the Dade City Police Department. (Not to be confused with Dade County) I was shocked to learn that they do not possess either an AM or FM FIM. In fact they thought it was OK to run 1/10 of a watt on FM but I set them straight!

Mr. Druid J. Dade just said, "In fact they thought it was OK to run 1/10 of a watt on FM"

That highlights a problem with the way the rules are written, the methods of measure for different bands are completely different standards, some of them written in a way that they can't be followed by average people.

I'm impressed any police are aware of some remnant of part 15 rules, given the vast and ever changing laws constantly being added to the books.

To the relief of police, courts have ruled that police don't actually have to know the law.

The entire legal system tilts in favor of attorneys who actually start hobby banks to contain all the fees they earn defending people against mistaken charges.

I like how the first document linked to Robin Cowell states:

I’m proud to

join together with my colleagues on this important step toward taking back the airwaves

from pirate radio operators, who steal listeners and resources from community

broadcasters and endanger the public in the process.

END OF QUOTE.

I like how the broadcasters think they are doing their communities due justice with CRAP programming and then cry that a puny little privately owned station steals their listeners.

Let's think about that for one moment. Do you listen to the radio for background noise or do you listen to the radio for entertainment?

By entertainment I mean programming that is directly related to your local community, not a bunch of studio programming produced in another part of the country and discusses issues in another city unrelated to your community.

Now don't get me wrong, I do realize some national talk shows cover our nation as a whole, such as the presidential election.

What a lot of communities lack is their local news and politics, their local stations might favor other communities and their community might be within their foot print but is totally ignored by the station as a member of that station's local market area.

When I see the words "steal" and "listeners" together, I really have a hard time feeling any sympathy for the station who is making the claim.

The answer is broadcasters need to serve your "license to cover" with entertainment your area is interested in listening to and the pirate stations will go un-noticed, fail to steal your listeners and they will go away.

You can tell the program directors at radio stations that time and time again and they insist they are providing the best programming that is available out there and that is that.

If they are a member of the nielsen ratings, their numbers say differently, they show the station is in 9th place and slowly dropping into 10th. Is that showing that people like the programming? Hell NO!

When I seen link #3 at Radio World, before I clicked the link, I said to myself, I bet if I look below before reading it, I'll see a comment from YOU KNOW WHO. Yup I was right. That logo stuck right out. Now time to read and laugh at what I expect to read from the respondant. Not to mention a bit of free publicity for his site.

Bruce.

This has happened before with government agencies when funding is reduced. Create a "crisis" or "a common enemy" and exaggerate the effect, then ask for funding to counter the "threat".

If a pirate owns their own home does this mean the FCC and/or local police can go after the bank which holds the mortgage?

Do asset forfeiture laws apply?

This could be a legal mess which could be tied up in courts for many years, but when practicality sets in this will most likely fade away.

Neil

For 99% of the US the local PD, Sheriff, and State police have no jurisdiction or interest in radio related enforcement. So no surprise there when they don't have an FIM or know what part 15 even is.

No what will happen is if a local sheriff hears a hobby broadcaster and hates what he or she is playing he'll bust them. But if they play his kind of music he'll just do nothing at all. Because at the end of the day its just the corporations crying that someone is competing with them. My heart bleeds for them...NOT!

In my upcoming presentation before the FCC I'm going to demonstrate a simple inexpensive solution to the pirate problem that will cut down on fuss.

What we have here is little jamming transmitters that broadcast a loud cartoon nose-blowing loop on a narrow-band signal that will neatly block the pirate station without splashing into adjacent frequencies. This can be left running until the pirates give up and do something else.

Place your order now.

It was meant to be a joke.

Has anybody learned the actual definition of a "Tiger Team"?

Is it a military term from the Navy Seals?

In reference to this notice (also posted above)

http://www.radioworld.com/article/fcc-rattles-sword-against-pirate-operations/278268

It is my firm belief that the ALPB should ALSO send a letter to the associations listed (how convenient of them to provide us a list) explaining briefly what Part 15 radio is, and explaining the difference between us and a pirate.

I would be willing to write and pay to mail such a letter to all those organizations listed (letter to be approved by someone.. of course). The time is coming, people, where the ALPB is going to make itself known and start education the masses.  This may be a chance to  dip the toe in the water.  I just need someone to give me the go-ahead.  I never make the Teamspeak meetings, ';cause I'm in bed by then!

In reference to the concept of a landlord adding no rf radiation to a lease, that would also eliminate tenants having cell phones, baby monitors, cordless phones, wifi, ham radio, cb radio, law enforcement, fire, fires responders, etc from living there who utilize department handie talkies at their homes, etc. Not exactly practicle. 

TIB