Forced Off My Frequency By A Pirate

Well.....it's not your frequency either. LOL! I am reluctant to contact the FCC about anything, unless you want to invite them to your door as well. If the pirates are real, local broadcasters will take care of thet for you.

Oh yea... LOL
Well when your mad you don't think so well.
The Pirate is off.. for now. I hope they don't come back.
All I can hope for is that 99.5 And 100.3 get annoyed by this.
Along with FOX 4 I cant watch them when the pirate is on.

I had problems when I first started up Artisan Radio with some yahoo broadcasting an empty carrier (with occasional music). I eventually figured out that it was someone who had purchased an illegal transmitter and he was running his satellite radio through it - he/she didn't realize that the transmitter still transmitted even though the satellite radio was turned off. So it may not be an intentional pirate - just someone who doesn't know what they're doing.

That's what I'm Thinking. Could have been someone just listening to an internet stream over their FM radio. Not sure why they would pick 99.9 . I blanket the neighborhood.
All Im hoping is it doesn't happen again.
I was able to pick up this station pretty far out.
But strangely enough in places my station took over.

From time to time, I read posts about people wanting to increase the power for unlicensed operation, especially on FM. The problem with that is that with unlicensed operation, nobody has any more right to the use of a frequency than anyone else. That is why the Federal Radio Commission originally came into being.

If you are using a frequency on an unlicensed basis, you have equal standing with other unlicensed operators including someone who is using a satellite "rebroadcaster." Just because you are "serving your community" does not give you any special privileges. In the eyes of the FCC all such devices are unlicensed "intentional radiators" and the only requirement beyond the applicable Part 15 requirements on field strength, etc. is that they must not interfere with licensed stations. Of course, if you can find a way to cooperate with the owner of the interfering station (assuming it's unlicensed), that would be highly desirable. But you have no legal right to force that person to shut it off-- nor could they force you to go off the air. If it's actually a licensed station, that is a different matter entirely.

So next time you read comments about bumping up the power to half a watt or something like that, just keep in mind that we are not the only fish in the pond. Used car dealers, religious organizations, and kids' toys would all be allowed to use the same amount of power, and we would not have anything to say about it.

Excellent Points WEAK-AM!

Sometimes We Forget we aren't the only ones doing these Kinds of things!
Just I'm guessing we're so few and far between we arent used to others in the same area wishing to do the same!

i still say that just eliminating the antenna restrictions on part 15 am won't make it any more popular with pirates then it is now, but will allow a part 15 operator to do something useful with the band.

pirates will almost always choose FM because of increased fidelity and simple plug and play operation.

so while this is a valid argument against increased power for FM it is not a valid argument for AM.

Really just keeping the 100mW input to final limits while eliminating antenna restrictions will make it more useful to experimenters, it will still be considered largely useless by would be pirates.

it would strike a good balance between too little and too much.

I am full agreement fm should be left alone.

if ch 5 and 6 get annexed to the fm band then there is no excuse to not allow some exclusive frequencies for part 15 FM analog operation using 100mW ERP under part 15. this will be similar to the am counterpart.

If you really are Part 15 compliant on FM, then you're only going to cover a 3-4 house radius, a few more when listening in your car. The chances that someone else has a legal Part 15 station in that radius is pretty small.

I was commenting on the fact that it's so easy to get an ILLEGAL FM transmitter, and many are doing that for their homes, cars, whatever. These transmitters can easily cover 1 mile or more with no special antenna, line of sight considerations, etc. And most of these people really don't know what they're doing.

Here in Canada we're allowed 4 times the field strength. I put my transmitter in a weatherproof box, on top of a rooftop with line of sight to my intended audience and got about the range I expected. Then this illegal transmitter showed up, and literally blanketed my signal and went far beyond - there's no way it could have done that if it was legal.

No one has the right to operate an illegal transmitter (sorry, pirates), particularly when most hobbyists go out of their way and spend a lot of time and money and learning in an attempt to be legal.

a little each day.
It seems that the few channels that radio-locator claim to be vacant still have other stations broadcasting but in cities farther away from me.

I left 95.7 fm in favor of two other "vacant" fm channels, 89.9 fm and 106.7 fm. Those channels aren't really vacant either and i have found that if you compare data on the fcc website against that of the search function on radio-locator.com these stations are either close enough that my station could cause interference or the licensed stations have enough power that even though they are far away i could receive them here so i would be inclined to think that my station would cause problems.

AM & the Internet are looking like my only options to broadcast.
I left 95.7 fm because of interference from wqmf-fm and jack-fm, both stations take turns hammering this area. Wqmf-fm is 130 miles away from me! I have no idea yet where jack-fm is.

If your wondering how many fm channels are "vacant" in my area go to www.radio-locator.com and click on the link labeled Find Vacant FM Channels in your area, then enter 40744 as the zip and Ky for the state. To do a more advanced search us the Advanced Search funtion using 89.9 fm and 106.7 fm to get a idea what i am up against.

Everyone I am sure has had this problem on fm before and maybe even on AM as well. I had no idea it would be this hard to carry fm in a small town like London,Ky but it appears fm is hot in this area and proper-gation is working against me.

Well Can't Help Tropo. I get quite A Bit of it on 99.9 up here. But when there is no tropo I go pretty far. With tropo I tend to reach the end of the 2nd Block. Or the End Of My Block.
The Entire 95 Band looks empty where you are. Monitor 95.1-95.9 to see which are clearer.

Just for kicks, I did that vacant FM search, and it said none were available! It did list some frequencies under good and categories below, but many of these are new stations in SW Ontario which Radio Locator has not picked up on.

From personal experience, every commerical frequency in .4 steps is being used to some degree, and the non-commercial band is a mess. That's what happens when you are in reach of four radio markets in an urban area!

Hi everybody!

Here's what happened to me.

My AM frequency (1700) and it's coverage area
started to be affected by another Part 15 station
in my area that I believe is using a Certified
transmitter such as the Rangemaster or Talking
Sign unit. They have a much bigger coverage
area than I do but I believe they are legal.
Also, their programming is in another language.

I tend to be very low key. My only listeners are
my son (when he's in my house) and a really
good friend who listens on his car radio when he's
driving around the center of our town, which is
about 3000 to 4000 feet away. He always listens
in his car and his car radio is REALLY sensitive. He
also does a lot of errands in our town, so when my
AM system is running, I tell him and he always
tunes in. As far as I know, those two people are
my only listeners. Has anybody else come across
my station? I'm thinking the answer is probably no.

Other people in my neighborhood have expressed
interest in hearing my station, but until I have some REAL
programming (if ever) I will not be encouraging them
to tune in.

(As a side bar to this, I have a good friend in another
state who has a local AM station on 1340kHz running
1000 watts day/1000 watts night. He told me that
the station was giving away free pizza, and that
nobody called them to take their offer. Was anybody
listening to that station? It was recently reactivated
after being dark for a while. It also has a new format.
As someone who worked in broadcasting long ago,
I certainly wish them the best.)

Anyway, so my 1700 coverage area was being compromised.
But - only during the daytime. I never ever could hear the
other 1700 at night. The channel was fairly quiet (there
was some skip from Florida and I'm in Connecticut, but
it wasn't too bad.) Maybe the other 1700 decided it was
not worth it to operate at night, I don't know.

As some of you know, I designed and built an automated
system so my station could run on 1690 during the
day and then switch to 1700 during critical hours and
at night. At local sunrise, the system switches back to
1690 and the process automatically repeats itself. Since
my station is just a big experiment, this was no problem
for me and it was really fun getting the "frequency switching
system" to work.

My FM transmitter goes a couple of hundred feet on 90.9.
In the time I have been on the air, two pirates have
come and gone on that channel. 90.9 is a frequency
of interest in my area. My local friends in the broadcast
bizz have mentioned that sooner or later, 90.9 will get
grabbed by some authorized group. Maybe it will be
a new local station or an LPFM or a translator. Well,
I'll find some place to go. I can certainly empathize with
those of you who are sending programming to a target
area. But for me, and my experimental set-up, with
almost no listeners, it's not a big problem.

However I certainly wish the best to those of you who
are running Part 15 stations that are really getting out
to listeners. Yup, the bands are crowded.

Bruce, MICRO1690/1700

I am impressed that you built an automatic frequency shifter! The only way I would know to do it is with two separate transmitters, but I suspect you've done it with a single transmitter. Wow!

Hey Carl!

Hope all is well. I am really enjoying your website.

All I had to do to get my Automatic Frequency Shifter
to work was this:

I have an SS-Tran AMT-3000. It turns out that to
go from 1690 to 1700 only involves changing one
dip switch. (I can't remember which one, because
I haven't looked in the transmitter for a while.)

Anyway, all I had to do was put a relay across that
switch. Inside the house is a 24 hour timer that is
connected to a 12 volt supply. A wire goes from that
timed-power supply in the house to the relay in
the transmitter outside. If the timer turns the supply on
the transmitter is on one frequency. If the timer
turns the 12 volt supply off the transmitter goes to the
other frequency. And that's it. I have to change the
settings on the timer every once in a while because
of sunrise and sunset times, but that just makes it
more fun.

Only one problem. I found that the 1690 signal is
more powerful than the 1700 signal. That led me
to believe that my weird-self-designed antenna
loading coil (it's not the same as the one described
on the SS-Tran website) has more Q than I thought.
Simply moving up one channel from 1690 to 1700
at sunset shows a noticable drop in signal strength
within a couple of hundred feet from my house.

So in the spring, when the weather is better, I'll
have to rework the coil so another relay will switch
taps, to have max output on 1690 AND 1700.
I have a feeling that this is going to be somewhat
of a challenge.

Best wishes to you and everybody else out there.

Bruce, MICRO1690/1700

P.S. I think there were, or maybe still are, one or
two real licensed AM broadcast stations in the U.S.
that actually have different daytime and nighttime
frequencies. But I'm not sure... That would be
one for the trivia people.