How the FCC Actually Monitors a Pirate Station in Modern Times

Is that KEN FM you are referring to?

Bruce.

Said by a spokesperson for the FCC:

As Artisan stated, what is the fascination with lumping Part 15 operators with Pirate operators. 

Yes, a Part 15 operation may be found non-compliant.  But, this is true for commercial stations also.  And yet commercial stations are not immediately referred to as a "Pirate" operators.

Regardless of the particular violation, the seriousness of the commercial station violation is of much more consequence than a Part 15 operation whose field strength may be 100 times over the limit due to a technicality.  And yet "Pirate" is the immediate cry.

Yes, "Pirates" exist.  The difference is they know they are violating the rules in a big way.  

Operation without a license does not a "Pirate" make.

I think it was. They've played classic rock and they also played 80s.  The title on YouTube was was ca hunting down a pirate.  He even shows his studio and the NOUO and then his brand new instruction permit for low power FM broadcast. His new frequency was around the lower end of the dial.  He had taught young folks about about Radio and had live bands in his studio. He got enough people to petition the FCC to get the station back on the air.

Yup, KNNZ-FM 89.1. I seen all his videos on youtube. His transmitter was a Cable TV FM Modulator for Cable FM carriage.

He built one hell of a studio in his basement and allowed local bands to play live in his basement while he aired those live shows on the FM band.

Now he has a fully licensed station. I was amazed with the video that shows the erection of his new broadcast antenna, we're talking something like 200 foot or more broadcast tower out in the sand pits. Not sure how he financed all that.

 Here is video #1

Here is the NOUO:

Here is the CP

Finally the broadcast antenna erection:

While I was on Youtube I found this video: Pirate radio station prompts residents to call the feds

Bruce.

The prupose was to show how the FCC invesitgates suspected pirate activity. It was meant as an educational tool.

Bruce,
Was a NOUO issued to you? How far apart were your FM transmitters? Were they all on the same frequency?

There are some edge cases in the part 15 FM and AM rules. One of them is using multiple transmitters.

On paper, if two part 15 FM transmitters are half a mile apart on the same frequency, if a measurement were taken 3m from one of them on the line between them, the total measured field strength could be ever so slightly over the 250uv/m@3m limit from both signals hitting the field strength measuring device. Then it is up to the inspector how to handle things because I have never seen anything talking about how multiple transmitters should be inspected.

From a personal point of view, I think that so much discussion of pirates on this Forum is anti-productive.

It just helps perpetuate the perception that Part 15 operation (particularly on the FM band) and pirates go hand in hand.  Which we all know isn't the case.

If we're ever going to convince the powers that be that Part 15 radio (again, particularly FM) is a valuable resource, and as such deserves an increase in range, I believe we need to focus on the positive aspects.  And not just a bunch of blantant rule breakers.

That's the FCC's job.

If others want to be negative and obviously far more paranoid, then let them waste their time.

I have to agree with AR.

Yes.  All I wanted to do was provide some insight as to how the FCC measures field strength from distances farther than 3 meters. I am assuming the former DOC does the same or similar.

I think the doc was pretty fascinating.

For those who want to know if their getting the max limit out of their FM Transmitter it is nice to know how the FCC does measure strength. Plus the mention of multiple FM transmitters in line in such that as soon as one signal is weak the other one will pick up the same programming and to what point the FCC would count that as one gigantic transmitter and when measured it would count as 250 uV/m x 10 say if you had 10 in a row each able to go 250 feet which if you arrange it just right you'd have 2500 feet in Stereo without fade till the end of the series of transmitters. I've always questioned the legality of that idea although in theory hey everyone is running a separate transmitter but the source materiel is from the same source (IP Address). Just like Rika FM but they were using an IP address from one studio and piping it into different transmitters in different states. I think in Mr. Bruce's case when an Anti FM dude found he was using multiple transmitters all coming from the same studio though he was the studio operator and the transmitters all belonged to a bunch of Album Rockers in the neighborhood who thought “Hey I'm a separate part 15 transmitter running the same programming I think in this case you'd be called an FM Repeater or translator and if I am not mistaken maybe that translators are illegal at any power level without a license. If this is the case my earlier question still boggles my mind. Could someone like me or Mr.Bruce legally apply for a Translator license for a 500mW-1W station and run that as long as your source material is something off the net and when asked in your permit why you are doing this you could use the term Promotional Internet Radio Translator. If this is legal we all could legally have 1Watt stations and ID ourselves as our Internet Radio station name.

I do know AS A FACT that the American Cancer society uses the FailSafe CZH-05B transmitter at 500mW for their Relay For Life (or at least they did when I lived in Lansing, Mich) and you could hear the event on your FM Radio. I've seen the transmitter in use. They never got a NOUO so again there is loop holes we may not be aware of in which would legally allow us the power we want with out paranoia of a NOUO. Just looking at events where more range was observed on FM from different public events. Someone also mentioned the cinema was using an FM transmitter and they were going out a mile in Stereo. All of this needs to be researched in depth. I'm not convinced they are “Pirate” so again just as a pro broadcaster told me that there was loop holes in the law that would allow you to legally transmit 1 mile to a digital boombox like I wanted on FM. If he tells me what it is and gives me the go ahead as long as I don't give his name I'll tell you. Maybe its something like he would apply for a translator license and then instead of his studio as the source you put in your Internet stream and the license would be for a transmitter at your address. I really don't know until he tells me what it is. I'm thinking that is really the only way unless there is a sub rule somewhere about unlicensed broadcasting we all may not be seeing. I'll report if I get the answer from the dude.

Two different FM transmitters operating on the same frequency that are close enough together to both be receivable at the same time will cause a "beat frequency" which will completely ruin the reception at that location.

I have tried it. I ran Wholehouse 2.0 in one room and C.Crane FM in another room, and watched the jiggling pattern on the spectrum analyzer indicating the carriers were beating against each other. On the radio this manifest as a loud 4 kHz tone.

To make it work properly the two transmitters would need to be synchronized, which is not easily achieved.

stvcmty Said:

Bruce,
Was a NOUO issued to you? How far apart were your FM transmitters? Were they all on the same frequency?

Guys I am not trying to take this topic off topic I'll address that issue shortly, but I am going to answer stvcmty's question.

There never was an NOUO issued against my station, because I made a decision to pull the plug before it got that far. More on that momentarily.

Yes, we used multiple FM translators that acted like how our cell phone system operates, they plant cell towers in a triangular configuration to cover a larger area.

The FCC was never involved in the investigation being conducted against my station. However, those that were investigating my station, were doing a lot of what took place in the article that this topic is based on RIKA FM.

They were visiting and taking information from our station's Facebook page, stealing photos, taking screen shots of the page. Seeing who created it and who had liked the page.

They came to my house (but never made visual or oral contact with me) and took photos of the exterior of my house, showing an antenna array on the roof, that antenna array consisted of three UHF television antennas, pointed in three different 'fixed' compass directions and one scanner antenna. None of which helped in the operation of the radio station, the UHF antennas were used for UHF television reception.

WE are still on topic here, because this is what was done to RIKA FM, photos were taken as evidence of station operation. (Note: There is no need for me to identify who conducted the investigation against me, because that has been posted on this site many, many, times.)

Trouble is, those antennas have nothing to do with my station's operations. Also, the Facebook pages only showed a studio, no transmitters were shown, because, the studio had no transmitters.

I seen a familiarity with RIKA FM and my station, only because that article stated that RIKA FM's studio provided the entertainment via the internet to the transmitters that were carrying the feed on the FM broadcast band, which were located elsewhere in the city and not directly controlled by the studio.

That is how my station operated, however, the difference is that RIKA FM broadcasted with a field strength 8,000 times the allowed field strength. I do not know if RIKA FM's transmitter power output was ONE Watt or 100 Watts, but it appears it was over the limit, whether intentionally or not I do not know and we do not know what transmitters were used at RIKA FM, but I do know this, we used 'FCC certified branded' Decade MS-100 transmitters and nothing was done to increase the power output of any of the 8 that were used, they were not altered to exceed their default factory settings.

I do not think those videos related to KEN FM or the other radio station are off topic, if time is taken to watch those videos, they show someone who operated a radio station for the good of his community and he was subject to an investigation, I do not see him saying "Hi I am a PIRATE and this is my PIRATE station" He operated believing he was not breaking any laws.

If it was otherwise, would the FCC really have granted him a license? Pirates do not get licenses from the FCC, once the FCC connects you to a pirate radio station's operation, you are banned from ever being part of a licensed station's birth. If you were caught operating a pirate radio station and you are on the committee or staff trying to get a Construction Permit, the application would be rejected because one of the applicants was previously involved in pirate radio activity.

So, I don't feel that Ken FM subject is about a pirate radio station.

Bruce.

He said he had modified a Cable FM modulator to fit into a box and hen he fed his mixer console into it.  From what I gather he really was not running that much power, but he did have a 4 bay antenna.  This does support the fact that if you have enough GAIN on your antenna a transmitter which was a Cable FM modulator connected to an antenna could get you a NOUO.  He did note that he was going to ask the FCC if he could work out a reasonable part 15 setup that would be OK with the FCC.  So if he was trying to Pirate why would he want to work something out.  And at the end of the video he said he was not trying to Pirate.  He took every precaution not to cause interference with other stations.  He had a very nice specturm analyzer something I am sure not every part 15 operator has.  I sure wish I had one.

KEN FM yes could happen to any one of us.  Who'd think a cable FM modulator would have enough power since its meant for cable FM (Not over the air) so the power would be less than a C.Crane FM transmiter or even the Belkin that only gets 2 inches from your receiver's antenna.  What was done was to make an antenna that had so much ERP that he was way over the field strength.  But again as he said no measirements were made.  They were simply informed he was running a station on 94.9 Mhz.  How weird is that?  No measurements, no inspection and yet he was given a NOUO.  So like I said that could happen to any one of us.  He done right by asking the FCC "What can I do to make it right wth you?"