someone in this area has a range master on top of a 2-3 story building not much further than 5mi from lakewood fcc office
someone in this area has a range master on top of a 2-3 story building not much further than 5mi from lakewood fcc office
was here in this block area west bound side of alameda between federal and s
king where i seen am1k up on roof mounted atop a 20ft mast.
google earth and street view yield nothing for pic's
anyone have an idea?
i would like to meet and pick this persons brain as to how they passed fcc inspection.
Were you able to tune them in, and see what their range is?
couldn't locate them. will take an ac inverter and my spec analyzer and try to hunt their signal down. rangemasters go from 1200-1710 khz so there is very limited spectrum they can be hiding or i may just simply locate the owner of it and knock on their door.
turns out it's a procaster and it's atop iglesia de cristo el shaddai church west bound alameda here in denver. just a block or two past federal.
turns out it is in fact a rangemaster with a procaster side mount antenna
That is a strange config. The Rangemaster has its antenna top-mounted, makes no sense to have it side-mounted. If it is grounded to the 20' mast, it must, by definition and any number of recent NOUO's, be an illegal installation. If you are having trouble finding the signal, maybe the FCC is too. E.g., if they limit their broadcasts to short times between, say, 5:30pm and 8:00pm, the field agents have all gone home, and probably won't respond unless someone complains.
... Just musing ...
"if they limit their broadcasts to short times between, say, 5:30pm and 8:00pm, the field agents have all gone home, and probably won't respond unless someone complains."
The FCC field agents do not work banking hours nor do they take the weekend off. If they got an investigation or field inspection, even if that goes beyond 5pm or is done on a weekend, rest assured while your thinking they are at home sitting in the recliner watching PBS, they are actually right at your front door or across the street taking measurements.
Chances are this church only uses that thing for services, probably at most twice a week..Wednesdays and Sundays for a couple hours each day.
Other than a licensed broadcaster, who's gonna complain about a church broadcasting their services?!!
Seen the pics of the install and it is in fact an illegal setup. Though not very clear, it can be seen the transmitter's "ground lead" is connected to the horizontal mount bars which those are mounted to the metal mast and the guy wires on the metal mast are not isolated, thus the entire mast and guy wiring are a part of the return path for the TX.
A KENC all over again..cept this one is holy and there is no water (tower).
Some months ago there was an NAL notice in the Bureau Feed about a church getting tagged for a similar setup that was installed by a 3rd party who did many installs for churches and went around the country selling installation deals for these churches. I bet this setup is one of them...cept the
church has yet to be tagged. Rest assured, it will if the FCC get's wind of it..being the Enforcement Bureau is less than 5 miles away from that church!
RFB
About 1971 I had the all night shift on the progressive rock FM and around 1 AM a man called into my open window, claiming he was an FCC inspector. I took his word for it, anyone can print up an ID and no one ever told me how to validate an inspector.
He spent quite a bit of time at the transmitter. I had the clip-board for transmitter readings, and believe he deliberately gave me a chance to fill in the half-hourly readings I hadn't taken, then I went back and added some real readings.
The last thing he did was ask to see my transmitter log.
Dishonesty must be done at the right time.
A tour of the local AM many years ago, the engineer told us you can usually get away with being behind on the log but never, never let them catch you AHEAD on the log.
"The FCC field agents do not work banking hours nor do they take the weekend off. If they got an investigation or field inspection, even if that goes beyond 5pm or is done on a weekend, rest assured while your thinking they are at home sitting in the recliner watching PBS, they are actually right at your front door or across the street taking measurements.
My friend involved with radio research for more than 55 years says there aren't nearly as many open field offices anymore. That doesn't mean they aren't still out there, but I think they generally are chasing down real pirate stations. If not, then they're picking on Part 15'ers because it's easier.
I'd venture to say most of us are trying to comply, whereas genuine pirate stations are heavily into the game, constantly thinking up ways to outrun the law ... all you need is a portable 1000 watt tranny and wireless access to the internet. You can run around town throwing an antenna up in a tree for awhile, then move it somewhere else when you feel the heat. Tough to run down that sort of operation, especially if the people doing it have a homespun spy network on watch for the Feds.
They say "Catch me if you can." and the FCC says "We'll catch you if we can." ... and 'round it goes ...
"My friend involved with radio research for more than 55 years says there aren't nearly as many open field offices anymore. That doesn't mean they aren't still out there, but I think they generally are chasing down real pirate stations. If not, then they're picking on Part 15'ers because it's easier."
I think so as well that the open field offices are far less than 10-20 yrs ago. An interesting prospective about them going after Part 15'ers because it's easier.
Reviewing recent enforcement activity suggests the Part 15'ers that got tagged were using certified gear but installed in violation to the 219 rule, which most all seem to have something to do with the height of install and the use of a long ground conductor to the surface, which does of course radiate since that long conductor (mast/water tower) is a longer element than the intended radiator element at the top.
"I'd venture to say most of us are trying to comply, whereas genuine pirate stations are heavily into the game, constantly thinking up ways to outrun the law ... all you need is a portable 1000 watt tranny and wireless access to the internet. You can run around town throwing an antenna up in a tree for awhile, then move it somewhere else when you feel the heat. Tough to run down that sort of operation, especially if the people doing it have a homespun spy network on watch for the Feds."
No doubt about making every attempt to be in compliance. Indeed the die-hard pirate operations go to great lengths to be ahead of the curve. Thing is though, what the pirates can think of, so can the field engineers chasing them.
Eventually an IP address can be isolated to it's source if the investigation calls for getting that information. Since major ISP's are now in cooperation with DHS and recent acts signed into law, won't be long those hopping TX sites along with the source location are tracked down and shut down.
It's the blatant violators they go after when it comes to the technical. And yes it's known the go after stations not running 1000 watt site hopper setups but due to either a complaint or an install violation.
Question now is what exactly what was in this missing field book and certification documentation to the Rangemaster. If it is true this unit was approved and given certification as described elsewhere at a height of 20 feet on a metal pole being used as both a mount structure and ground conductor then why would those stations that got shut down get shut down and why after that two important pieces of evidence are suddenly missing as if never existed?
Now here is another instance where a particular unit set up on a tall mast similar to the described certification setup of the same transmitter.
Let's throw in another curve ball. Note: I am not implying anything in the following statement. It is merely an observation of events which unfolded.
Shortly after this site changes ownership, the ad banner for the Rangemaster disappears.
A rather interesting pattern that the falling chips made eh?!
RFB
haven't seen hamilton in a while either come to think of it. wonder if they axed his user account along with his ad's