The CB band is filled with people running illegal amplifiers (in many cases with hundreds or even thousands of watts), malicious jammers, music broadcasters and lots more - in other words, a perfect example of what can happen when you loosen regulation and virtually eliminate enforcement in a segment of the radio spectrum. It's what you don't want Part 15 radio to become.
I agree that Part 15 broadcasters and pirates perhaps share some interests - I just don't believe that the pirates are going about things the right way. I understand that there may be 'good' pirates; good in the sense that they understand what they are doing, avoid interfering with licensed broadcasters and want to serve their community (even if I don't agree with their breaking the law). But for every 'good' one, there are many bad ones that just don't understand what they're doing (and/or don't care) and generate interference. They're the ones that get the press, they're the ones the FCC goes after and shuts down, and they're the ones that cause the FCC and the media to lump all into the same bucket. They're also the ones that would stop the FCC from relaxing the Part 15 rules - heck, right now the FCC and the media even regard most Part 15 stations as pirates (or potential pirates).
The best thing that the well-intentioned pirates can do is to stop what they are doing and go Part 15. Let the FCC deal with the bad ones. If the Part 15 world can demonstrate that it is responsible and can deal with a relaxation of the rules, then perhaps that would be considered.
Although I wouldn't bet on it.
Interesting that there's been some discussion here about pirates.
I have an RF CD changer in the car, which uses a very low powered FM transmitter to drive the radio. I have it tuned to 89.1 FM, which is (or at least, was) clear where I live in Pitt Meadows. However, tonight, all of a sudden and out of the blue, there's a station there. It was playing 80s alternative music (good stuff, it could almost have been my Surfin' The New Wave show) and it had no commentary. I heard it throughout Pitt Meadows clear and relatively static free (about a mile and a half), so it had much greater overall range than that.
Now, according to what I've been able to find, there should be no station on that frequency in British Columbia, and the closest one in Washington State is about 400 miles away, which I have never heard in the past. So, unless a new station has just been licensed (the frequency was clear yesterday), it's a pirate.
And while I liked the music, it certainly did a number on what I really wanted to do, which was to listen to my CD changer. And it was strong enough to cause interference to adjacent channels on 89.3 and 88.9 - not stations that I listen to, but legally licensed with the expectation that they won't get tromped on.
That, in a nutshell, is the problem with pirates. If they don't know what they're doing, they make things worse for those (both licensed and unlicensed) that operate within the law.
Wouldn't be a new licenced station because stations in any given geographical area are assigned at least 2 frequencies over from any other.
I make sure that my legal station here in Toronto doesn't interfere with anything else by walking around the block with a regular radio that's not as selective as a car or hi-fi tuner and make sure that nothing else is being interfered with.
I also have a receiver that has the communication band just above the FM band and make sure nothing is getting into there. The 110 to 160 mhz range.
Problem is others don't do this....like the other post where some pirates got busted because of everyone in an area had reception problems and reported it.
Mark
This goes out to Artisan Radio, now that I've hit comment I can't read what you posted, so I'll have to remember.
First CB, I have a flea market CB that I made an 18 foot dipole for, and it seemed like I was getting good reception, but all I get is a few Good Buddys on the truckers channel, and some local talk, and skip on channel 6, but otherwise not much on around here.
Cool signal intrusion Artisan, and I've had the same thing, with my little transmitter playing a USB stick of tunes, and Howard Stern used to break in occasionally on Sirius, plus other unidentified signals.
Did you notice anything about the audio on the possible pirate you got? That's what gives them away to me, the pirate audio is different in some way. Most licensed stations have a uniform sound across all stations, but pirates aren't using pro processing or using old college station 10 watt exciters as I've read, or the new cheap FM transmitters that probably don't have the best audio sections.
What did the station sound like?
It is often emphasized that this website is all about legal low power broadcasting under the FCC rules, but we naturally have concerns and curiosities about the pirate operators.
Foremost among our concerns is fear of being accused of piracy while we keep legal stations... it's happened from time to time, has it not?
My curiosity is a desperation for something on the dial, anything, other than the bland programming that has marked this metropolitan area for decades. I'm so hard up that I now listen to frequencies vacated by two local AM stations... I'm finding the blankness more interesting than what those stations did.
A new discomfort comes from recent queer antics by the FCC: the takeover of the internet without disclosing the new rules (shades of "The Patriot Act"); the sudden unexpected proposal to cut down on field inspection offices with talk of "flying tiger teams" ... suggestive of "Navy Seal" FCC parachutists SWAT teaming pirates; the wobbling weaving stements from Commissioner O'Reilly suggesting the outsourcing of "taking them (the pirates) out" by licensed station security squads and HAM vigilante lynch mobs.
The way is being set to militarize the RF spectrum. Rant or reason?
It was definitely a pirate - they were gone by this (Saturday) morning.
Yeah, I noted that they did sound different than the commercial stations (and even mine) - much softer, not as booming, so probably limited or no audio processing. Just someone throwing on a transmitter and fed directly by computer.
They actually had interesting music, but they were going about things the wrong way. And they probably knew exactly what they were doing, minimizing the chances of their getting caught, as they basically had a Friday night 'special', and were down the dial amongst the NPR's, tourist stations and the like (i.e., non commercial broadcasters who likely won't react as quickly to an intrusion over their signal).
I may look into AM if I can use a wire inside the house or carier current and go at least 1/4 mile. It would have to be Digital so I could go to a car Radio and find a blank AM frequency day and night. It would have to be around $75 as I am not prepaired to spend tons of money on Mono as I am sure to have few listeners on AM but could get some car radio's to tune in or hobbyests. Still like FM way better at looking @ 96.3 FM with a certified transmitter.
You should be able to find a brand new Talking House for well under $100 - certainly within your budget. I used a Talking Sign (similar to the Talking House but made by Chez Radio, the precursor to the ProCaster) and got the wire up over the rooftop (the Talking Sign was installed inside on a shelf near the ceiling of a rancher, I drilled a hole in the wall and ran the wire to the outside. The wire was attached to a small diameter PVC pipe. I managed to get well over a mile range in that fashion - it surprised even me. I've found that obstructions are the biggest impediment for Part 15 AM range - if you can get your antenna up over most of them, your signal will go a lot farther.
And with the Talking House (or Talking Sign), you don't have to worry about the length of the ground wire, as they're certified with the ground via the supplied power adapter (they use the AC outlet's neutral, I believe).
I do have a problem however I live in a rental house and I am NOT able to drill Wholes for wires. What about broadcasting from inside my home with either of these Transmitter do they also use carrier current where I could use the power line as an antenna? This is where fm could be my only choice. what about the ability to use my 3.5 millimeter patch cord and use my computer as output source? remember I do use nextkast which does have built-in audio processing.
If a portion of the spectrum was set aside for hobby and low power stations not needing a licence but with a little more power, where would that be? If it's not somewhere in the AM or FM bands where a radio will get it, it's no good. Since anologe TV is gone the 85 to 88MHZ on FM could be for that or 1700KLZ to 1800KLZ on AM could be used but again....no good if peoples radios can't tune to it.
Mark
At first not many but if all NEW Radio's had the hobby band they would eventually get listeners. This hobby band could also have travel info stations so if they are with in a mile from a theme park or the welcome center for a state or a truck stop that place could have travel info on a blank frequency in the band. Probably from 76-87.9 Mhz and no more than a watt or 1 1/2 watt. This would do about 2 miles or so.
Best case we can hope for is they raise the power to mW's to a watt on the FM band and force the new part 15 transmitters to search for empty frequencies as said above. I see Internet Radio being a Major competitor to commercial Radio. As far as being another CB I doubt it there could be enforcements. There is good use and need for public radio hobby use.
You can broadcast from indoors using any Part 15 transmitter (over-the-air). FM travels through walls better than AM. But AM has potentially the greatest range, all things being equal.
You could run an antenna wire through your window and up the side of wherever you live - it would be practically invisible from a distance and give you some range in front of the antenna. If you thread the antenna wire through a small diameter PVC pipe that is the same color as the outside of where you live, it will be relatively easy to install (otherwise, you might be forced to dangle the wire down from the window).
Carl here on the Forum has developed a window frame antenna - he built a coil to tune a metal window frame (less than 3 meters in length total) and that is practically invisible from the outside.
Amateur radio operators living in condos have been dealing with these issues for years, and you might want to look up stealth antennas. In one apartment, I hid my antenna (it was a whip) inside a bamboo pole, and that pole became a tree/plant holder on my balcony. You could put a Talking House transmitter, say, inside a weatherproof box, run a short feedline to that whip and voila, you'd have an outdoors installation (that Talking House could be placed behind the planter, or inside some balcony furniture.
Where there's a will, there's a way. You're not going to get the same range that you would in open space with no obstructions, but at least you can get on the air. And supplement with an Internet stream.
The puzzle of providing good AM service to a neighborhood from an indoor transmitter is a mission of mine and I will give a report of progress that has been made already and that which is yet to come.
Many of the traditional radio engineers are certain that only an outdoor antenna free of buildings and obstacles will give the maximum range, but I have other, perhaps naive ideas.
The outdoor antenna is of course based on the logical technology for transmitting high power signals from licensed stations. Designing indoor antennas for such stations would obviously be absurd and has never been attempted.
The micro-power of Part 15 is a different matter and there might be new inventions ahead.
Artisan is right that I have developed what I call the Wintenna, but there is more to it than he described above. It is a fully 3-meter antenna that places a signal both indoors and outdoors by using the metal window frame as a portion of the length, the rest made up by wires attached to the bottom and top of the window.
Soon I'll be launching a dedicated AMT3000 at 1640 kHz to test indoor designs. Full results will be posted for everyone to share.
ALSO, yesterday I made a list of observations that, in combination, may lead to a whole new antenna technology never before imagined. I will describe it only after trying it, and will do so openly even if it doesn't work.
It will not take as long as a rocket trip to Mars.
Well might as well dig out my 20 watt transmitter again.
That's exciting KRNI. Wow. I have a 20-Watt carrier current transmitter but have never tried it with an antenna. It would probably provide all the coverage a hobbyist could ever want.
Somewhere I suggested we have an annual civil disobedience day on Milord Filmore Day. 20-Watts is plenty of civil disobedience.
Late at night it would be fun to track the range covered by 20-Watts, but I would be asleep at the time.