There is a simple pattern in FM NOUO’s; when people go above the part 15 field strength limit they get in trouble.
I am 16 miles north east of Baltimore’s TV Hill. I have a very full FM dial with stations from Baltimore, DC, Philly, Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, and so on. I have struggled finding an “open” FM frequency, because I did not want to step on any licensed stations toes.
Then I realized in all the NOUO’s I have read, I have never seen a NOUO for someone operating a part 15 field strength legal FM transmitter on the same frequency as a licensed station. (If anyone has seen such a NOUO, please let me know).
So rather than needing to find an open frequency, I just need to find the least bad frequency. If I am competing against a licensed station, my range is going to suck, but I will be on the air.
Is it possible to get in trouble with the FCC for being on someone else’s frequency, or adjacent to someone’s frequency?
It makes sense when you think about it.
If someone is looking for "stations that don't belong," where else but the open frequencies?
They already expect to see signals on the licensed channels, so you will be hiding "in the shadow of a bigger tree," so to speak.
You've got a good brain.
Is interference only interference if
somebody hears it and is upset
about it? What happens if nobody
at all hears it (hypothetically)
except for the person
running the transmitter?
Its sort of like a tree falling in the
woods - that sort of thing.
I remember about 30 years ago I
was in a car driving up a hill. On
the frequency was a station that
could only be heard on a car radio.
Or - a good indoor radio set-up.
In other words, we were on the
fringe coverage area of the station
we were hearing. Suddenly, out of
nowhere, something else came over
the radio. It was obviously an unlicensed
station run by kids. It was very obvious.
It covered about a 100 foot stretch of the
road we were on. We could see the house,
and we knew it was there because we drove
back and forth a couple of times. The coverage
area was very very small. Those kids had probably
listened to the radio and had not noticed the licensed
station on the channel.
The thing is - I don't think a Part 15.239 compliant
transmitter could even do this well.
Very very interesting.
Bruce
P.S. I just tried to edit this and the edit
was lost. If it's on another thread -
sorry about that.
You chances of having anything happen
are probably zero if you are on the
fringe of a station.
If you go on top of a bad signal that no one would be listening to or miss you're OK. What you are picking up as a weak but listenable station in a car would be just empty space on a regular radio so in the car you could be interfering with another station but be interference free with a home radio.
My take on it is that you want your signal to go as far and with as good quality as possible with allowable limits. The other commercial stations are drowning you out so there's no point to going on top of another station..even a weaker one. You won't cause much interference to them but they will kill your's.
Mark
Another thing to consider is being next to a HD station. It will wipe out your signal.
yes clear channel has pretty much saturated the x-band here in denver with HD/IBOC. graveyard end of the band is not so bad
IBOC is neither in-band or on-channel.
How can IBOC survive day after day as so many stations have dropped or never used it and the audience isn't arriving?
Is there reason to be optimistic?