The FCC Concedes that Part 15 is a Legit Broadcasting Method

I concur with Mister Hill's take on the item linked...

One line in the letter is our license for existence and we can awake tomorrow and the tomorrow after that and all the tomorrows knowing that what we do, which is very little, is good enough to count in our favor and save us from a hefti fine.

I would go so far as to say that we low power broadcasters have reason for pride and were we to hold a pride parade we could broadcast it.

I know I would.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever. -- Napoleon Bonaparte

Besides mention of several FM transmitters being used, there is no mention of the ERP he used on each of the FM transmitters, or how many FM transmitters were used. It simply says "From Several Residences"

Which brings me to the question, did he simply use enough FM transmitters in triangulation to cover enough ground to be considered a LPFM service?

Being that I know, any legal FM transmitter setup is going to cover very little ground, placing those FM transmitters in triangulation within a small area, could extend it past what is expected from a single part 15 FM transmitter setup.

Such a system was used by my part 15 radio station WXTZ 87.9 Norwich. Although, none of the 8 transmitters used, were close enough to the other transmitter, for a continous none stop signal, without total loss of the signal before reaching the next available transmitter in the area.

As a side note, I would believe even if that was possible, because in my case, the Internet was used to provide the studio to transmitter feed, timing issues, with the feed arriving at different time intervals to the available on-line computers, would have caused the solid signal to have out of sync timing delay issues.

I know with having two devices on my Internet connection, picking up the feed of my Internet radio station from an off site server, one device is slightly slower to pick up the stream content than the other device on the same Internet connection. So I can imagine the results if a the feed was picked up and rebroadcast from different locations, intended to triangluate the signal into a small local neighborhood with a solid signal.

Perhaps, things would be different, using an out of band FM stereo transmitter device to provide the signal as an STL over the air waves.

That article lacks a lot of relevant information and also lacks a link to the NAL document.

Bruce.

"In addition, the Commission has authorized the operation of certain low power radios pursuant to Part 15 of the Commission's Rules. Thus, operators of these radio facilities are not required to have individual licenses. However, these operators are required to operate their stations in a manner consistent with the Commission's operational and technical rules for those services. "

In WDCX's quote, it states "In addition, the Commission has authorized the operation of certain low power radios pursuant to Part 15 of the Commission's Rules."

Hopefully that was a mis-quote, specially the part about "the operation of certain low power radios"

Most of my radio receivers are "Low power"

Bruce.

I too am low power or in the words of one D.J.T. "low energy."

https://transition.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2015/DA-15-1334A1.html

Has more than the article above but as usual no indication of field strength, etc.  But it does note he was a repeat offender.

TIB

No mention was made in any of these documents to the programming sent by WBIG with the exception of a very small mention of "community service efforts".

Evidently the FCC made its conclusions of violation entirely and only on technical grounds, which is a fact we've observed before and it hasn't changed.

However in my own judgement I would take into account the nature of the "message" broadcast by an unlicensed station as to whether it rose to the level of civil disobience based on firm ideological footing, such as warning the public about Hillary Clinton's shrill cackle.

Merely claiming "community service" is too feeble to stand unless the community were actually in support of and in need of the "service" provided.

In my experience communities pretty well serve themselves and benefit very little from anything done by a radio station that forces itself into the scene.

My own "community service" amounts to keeping food refrigerated so it doesn't spoil, but this doesn't warrant broadcasting above part 15 limits.

I agree with whichever side of an argument is the winning side.

Although it doesn't need to be pointed out i will anyway.
WDCX said "The FCC Concedes that Part 15 is a Legit Broadcasting Method"
And here is the line in the article that backs that statement up, "the bureau said in its ruling, adding that Turner could have performed his public service via low-power unlicensed transmissions, but he chose not to do so."

It's just nice to hear someone, in this case the FCC admit that our efforts are considered broadcasting and not just some hobby to pass the time.

Barry of Blue Bucket Radio

I agree with you Barry, it is nice to see that.

Bruce.