Wouldn't the fact that the FCC has measured the performance of unlicensed stations claimed/expected by their operators to be compliant with Part 15 and found by FCC NOUOs not to be compliant, distinguish stations/operators that are compliant with Part 15 from those who are not?
Once that boundary is crossed, then it is a subjective call as to when, by some percentage above the FCC limit, that operator/operation qualifies to be labeled as a pirate.
That definition is left to others to discuss and decide -- hopefully including (somewhere in public) by the author of that Radio World opinion piece.
I have an answer to this. When is it that a driver is considered a racer because he goes over the speed limit? Say if the speed limit is 70 miles per hour and you drive at 75 are you a racecar driver? Are you driving on the street as a race driver? Same goes for part 15. If you have a Transmitter that puts out 251 microvolts per meter at 3 m and which by the way you have no way to measure. The same analogy would be like driving down the road without a way to accurately measure your speed. You can guess how fast you were going by counting the number of seconds it takes to go from mile marker to mile marker and hope that you get it right. The rules as they are now makes it so only one avarage person can only guesstimate of what it takes to reach x range. Most folks (myself included) only has the guesses of other folks on the internet who have said x range equals x field strength by x radio and your milage my vary parden the pun. I operate a Transmitter that claims to be certified. That means that a test was done in a laboratory and was submitted to the Federal Communications Commission in which they granted for use in the United States. Now that in mind if John Doe inspector says Hey you're going out and transmitting at 260 microvolts per meter at 3 meters you are a pirate and we're going to get a 85 million dollar fine because hey we don't like pirates on fm. Is that fair? I think not. Hence all the more my case instead of field strength we need X amount of Mw to be allowed. This is something just about anyone can measure. You can buy Watt meters online. So that being said do I think that someone who is caught maybe going slightly overpowered but yet is well under any reasonable amount of power say 500mW for the sake of arguement. Are they a pirate? If you take the rules at face value with no logic behind them the other extreme would be 252 microvolts per meter and then you are called a pirate well according to the rules you should be fined and thrown in jail with no other excuse for you. This is what could happen and probably will if all this crazy pirate talk doesn't stop. Many part 15 operators will find themselves in jail thinking that they are operating legally. So what is the answer abolish all non licensed AM and FM transmitters? Because that's exactly what's going to happen with all this crazy talk about piracy. Piracy to me is like the station in New York that the station owner called the individuals that were operating the station and said hey you're interfering with our translator. Instead of turning the power down the operators taunted the station owner. That to me is Radio terrorism and should be called a pirate. These are the people who have no regards to whether or not they are causing interference on the dial. These are the people who run dirty Transmitter that bleed the entire band and don't care. That to me is a pirate. Pirates don't care if they interfere or not they just operate. That makes them a pirate. The definition of a pirate to me as someone who steals something. So someone who deliberately jams a license signal or has no regard of jamming a license signal is a pirate. But one that might accidentally go over the rule not knowing its not a pirate. Yes he broke the rules but he is not a pirate. If he is going over a lot I'm sure he damn well knows he's a pirate. I'm sure that those operating those little 7 watt Transmitters damn well know they are a pirate. This is why I believe more field strength should be allowed but let's stop calling it field strength to start thinking in the terms of milliwatts when we ask for more power. You might ask yourself why does the FCC favor am as far as part 15 goes? Why can you run 100mW into the final and yet folks running fm have to hope and pray that they're not going over? Something is wrong with this and needs to be changed. Why is AM less worthy of being called Broadcast band? For more AM stations are being put on there but yet part 15 AM is still allowed more power than FM. There is something wrong with this picture here and you fail to see the picture. Another question you have to ask yourself why is it that a petition was made for am to have more power but yet nothing was said about fm? And no one even really thought about trying to increase FM? That's crazy. As hobbyist we should try to make things equal and I don't see an equal playing field here. As hobbyist there's too much AM vs fm and if your fm you don't mean squat and it should never be this way. Both part 15 websites need to work together to make this petition happen. In fact everyone should work together to make this petition happen I don't see why the heck not.
Guest commentator said: "Once that boundary is crossed, then it is a subjective call as to when, by some percentage above the FCC limit, that operator/operation qualifies to be labeled as a pirate."
What Mr. Guest Commentator is saying is that it is an arbitrary call whether the station is to be labeled "pirate."