The AM Forum

From the ARRL Letter:


The FCC has proposed fining an alleged pirate broadcaster in the Boston, Massachusetts area more than $450,000. According to the FCC, Gerlens Cesar, who operated Radio TeleBoston, used three separate transmitters for his broadcasting enterprise, resulting in three separate violations of the law.

"The Commission proposed imposing the statutory maximum forfeiture amount for each of these three apparent violations," the FCC said in a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) released on December 12. Under the Communications Act, it is illegal to transmit above certain low-power levels, defined within FCC Part 15 rules, without an FCC license.

"Such pirate radio broadcasting can interfere with licensed communications including public safety transmissions," the FCC said. The FCC said Cesar apparently simulcasts Radio TeleBoston on three unauthorized transmitters on two different frequencies. "His operation thus had the potential to cause interference in various locations in and around Boston and at different channels on the FM dial," the FCC said. "As a result of the scale of this operation, its potential impacts, and its continuous nature, the Commission proposed the maximum penalty for all three transmitters."

The FCC reported receiving complaints from Boston-area residents of an illegal station operating at both 90.1 and 92.1 MHz. One complaint identified Cesar as the operator of Radio TeleBoston. The FCC said it had issued multiple warnings. -- FCC Media Release

FCC chairman Ajit Pai explains illegal pirate radio broadcasting in the context of two proposed fines against apparent operators in Boston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVeCpNnTu5Q&feature=emb_logo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVeCpNnTu5Q&feature=emb_logo)

The irony comes where it is later revealed the the market share for the pirate operation
was essentially on par or greater than the licensed commercial broadcasters in Boston??

I would almost bet on it, or at least against its genre-competitors.

Good!  After multiple warnings, if you don't cease operation, you deserve a big fine.

I have operated 2 pirate stations in my life - got caught both times.  I did heed the warning, particularly the 2nd time (which was a few years after the first incident, when I was 17 years old).  They threatened to pull all of my legit licenses if I did it again (had a 1st class phone and an advanced amateur license at the time).

"The FCC has proposed fining an alleged pirate broadcaster in the Boston, Massachusetts area more than $450,000. According to the FCC, Gerlens Cesar, who operated Radio TeleBoston, used three separate transmitters for his broadcasting enterprise, resulting in three separate violations of the law."


Are these guys brain dead?  $1/2 Million fine with multiple warnings..

Aside from pranks when we were kids, I could never understand why anyone would want to run a high power illegal pirate station, especially now when the FCC can DF anyone down to a few miles in minutes.

It's like waving a pirate flag and waiting for them to come and break the door down and fine the hell out of you.

Why spend the time building up an audience when they will just shut you down? Why not acquire a REAL commercial station and build a real business?

T

This is really the valid question...there are dark or about to be dark commercial stations for sale all over the country, mom-n-pop operations that can’t survive in today’s corporate media world.

I just looked on one of the station listing sites, found a full power FM in Hawaii for 165K, several AMs for 125-225K, even one on Massachusetts where this guy was, for a 299K asking price.  Over 300 stations for sale right now....   He can go buy a station, and its real estate, get on the air as a broadcaster, and make a go of it, but I’m guessing it’s only a thrill if it’s illegal...

Ed

I have 4 pirates opening within 3 miles of me. I’ve reported them. In time they were notified, went off the air, and came back on, on another freq. same guy behind all of them. Ironic part is, I doubt the FCC has collected a dime. Look at 7.200, flagrant violations and no action. ARRL said it was a freedom of speech issue.

I for one would love to operate a small AM station until I figure out I don't know anything about the business except that it costs a ton of $ every day to keep the doors open, plus liabilities for 'stuff happens'.

Where's the ist of stations for sale? just curious..

Pirates make huge money in large cities like Boston, New York, and especially Miami. The revenue is a sure thing while getting caught is a rarity. How many amateurs can you count who go on the air and describe their legal limit ++ stations in great detail down to the PA E and I? Same thing as waving a pirate flag, but again, the chances of getting caught are minuscule (and amateurs don’t even make any money).

The Boston pirate was running multiple transmitters which is the norm. They often approach sellers of upper floor apartments and offer to pay a monthly fee to keep “communications equipment” there while it’s on the market. The pirates have many locations like these and move the transmitters frequently. They can even switch between them hourly to make DFing harder.

Even if a transmitter is found, all that’s there is a cable internet connection, transmitter, and antenna. Everything is paid for with cash or shadow accounts. If a pirate loses a site they can switch to another quite easily.

I’m impressed that the F.C.C. found them, and dozens in the New York City area a while back. However, most of the NYC pirates are back. They always will be. There’s way too much money to be had.

Sure makes a statement about the health of radio advertising and niche markets.

As for buying a station, the city stations cost millions and are usually owned by large corporations. The option is to spend a few tens of thousands and put your own signals on.

The 7200 crowd goes way beyond freedom of speech and there are very identifiable violations of Part 97. But unlike broadcast band pirates and their Part 73 violations, the amateur service isn’t involved in commerce. Broadcasters pay A LOT for their licenses, and in return, the F.C.C. is obligated to protect them from interference. BTW, commercial licenses cost much more than non-comm licenses.

There’s also the public safety angle. Broadcasters can be hit with crippling fines for failing to maintain their EAS (Emergency Alert System) responsibilities. So when pirates interfere with them it’s a big deal.

Very interesting, Clark.

Where does the pirate revenue come from and how is a commercial account solicited?    I would think in an afternoon, a clever FCC agent could go undercover, sign up for advertising at a few pirate stations and get them cold.   At the same time, DF and stop by every suspiciously loud pirate for ERP tests.

Obviously the FCC priority is low. If it were a big deal, a $billion and a new agency like ICE would knock them out quite quickly.

Or, maybe I am misunderstanding this. Are there tons of stations running legal low power making money and a handful decide to ramp up the power to stand out? Why would they make more revenue than existing commercial stations that have been developing an audience for decades? Or maybe the advertising costs for customers is very low, being low expenses, thus a better deal and bigger demand for pirates..   I can see why the commercial stations would be POed with the unfair competition.

T

Many good questions here and worth some answers...

Most of their revenue is from advertising, whether the stations sell it themselves or sell their time to show hosts who go out and sell their shows. This is the same as brokered programming on legal commercial stations. Club money is big too. Pirates will promote clubs and even broadcast live. You’d think this would make them easy targets, but unless the F.C.C. can identify the signal as coming from the club, there’s nothing that can be done. Pirates don’t worry about undercover agents buying time as they only sell to trusted advertisers, and most of them cater to niche markets.

Pirate stations can charge decent ad rates because they reach customers that the legit stations ignore, and since expenses are low, profits are high. This makes the gamble very appealing. Religious pirates are typically funded through churches because the followers believe it’s their duty to support spreading the word.

I doubt any pirates operate at legal power (Part 15) or as LPFM stations since those are prohibited from running ads and have very strict ownership requirements. That plus the lack of available frequencies in large cities make setting up a pirate station a much more practical approach. At one point, I couldn’t receive a single Connecticut FM station in the New York City area because of pirates. They basically choose any frequency that doesn’t have a local station and run some power. Amps are cheap.

Even if an operator is identified and busted, collecting a fine is a nightmare. Since a lot of money is at stake, pirates lawyer-up and even get local representatives to argue on their behalf. It seems like it should be so easy, but...

A few well-placed, frequency-agile jamming transmitters, remotely controlled by the local FCC field engineer over an Internet connection, would make pirate signals unreadable. Essentially, using their own tactics of cheap transmitters and multiple locations against them. The pirates would soon give up the ship.

It's probably possible to put a 100 watt pirate FM on the air for under $1000, and have a fairly good operation.  This is not beyond the means of a hobbyist.  Look what we hams spend on our stations!   Many years ago I worked for a manufacturer of FM transmitting antennas. Occasionally we would hear of one of our old used antennas, usually a single bay out of a stack, being used by a pirate, and occasionally I would get a call from someone who wanted free information on how to tune one of them to different frequencies.  In those cases, I would suggest that they purchase a new antenna (which was terribly expensive) as we had too much real work to do.  I don't believe that we ever sold an antenna to anyone whose call sign we could not confirm.
On a number of occasions, we would get pictures from FCC busts showing our products used by the pirates.  My favorite was a shot of a single circularly polarized FM bay sitting inside a window on the upper floor of a ratty building.  The window sash was open, I suppose because someone thought that the signal would "get out" better. 
73 de Norm W1ITT

While this is technically not a problem, I rather doubt that it is legal for the FCC to operate in this manner.

                  _-_-

Fwiw, I have yet to run across an obviously pirate station in the NYC market, when I was
driving through. I guess it is possible that they all play Spanish language stuff and "inner city" type
"music"?? In which case I would not have listened for more than a microsecond, I guess.

Comet Antennas (http://www.cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/fm-broadcast-antennas/ (http://www.cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/fm-broadcast-antennas/)) are the most popular for pirates for their low cost. Notice the term "amateur-radio" in their URL? Didn't think of it like that, did you?

The directional model is often used for bouncing signals off nearby buildings to make DFing harder. Both models are vertical only, which works fine for in-car and boombox listening.

One NYC pirate about 20 miles away placed themselves on our 96.7 frequency even though our signal was quite listenable in their "service area". We ended up moving the station significantly closer to the city before selling it. That sure ruined things for the pirate!  I wouldn't be surprised if they filed an objection with the F.C.C. about our being a "rimshot move-in" and causing interference.

They ended up moving to 96.5 and had to get new banners for their studio (they streamed a live studio cam on the net) and the logo repainted on their van.

I'm not making this up, btw

I think the FCC could authorize itself to operate a transmitter as they are the authority that authorizes use of the radio spectrum and is specifically tasked with spectrum enforcement. So who's gonna stop 'em?

As far as identifying pirates, the FCC already does that (probably as a response to complaints from legal broadcasters) and keeps sending them NAL's and such — with little long-term effect on the problem.

Pero Señor Oso, ¿no te gusta la musica bachata? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRt2sRyup6A

WhT ever happened to self policing our own bands?

I've found that the cuff 'n stuff method gets the attention of someone very quickly. The IRS gets it's point accross quite nicely.

KLC

That’s what the F.C.C. wants, and we should too, but it relies on the honor system. The thinking is that anyone becoming a hamateur would be responsible because they had to study and pass exams for the privilege of using the bands. The occasional bad apple would be discouraged by being ignored, thus denying them the attention they want. It gets pretty boring when no one wants to talk to you.

What has happened instead is that the gangstas have settled on frequencies where they are joined by ops who are like them or who encourage their behavior (3840, 7200, 14313, etc). Birds of a feather flock together...

This actually turns out to be a good thing as they tend to stay in Jurassic Park and not wander about the bands. Visitors are always welcome at their own risk, of course.

One one local pirate was caught transmitting on a customer's frequency. The local school board had leased about 30 square meters of property to a tower company at the back of the high school's property in which the company put up a 110' monopole with welded climbing steps starting about 15 ft above ground. You guessed it, one night they climbed it and installed a Comet Antenna and a long run of coax.

There was already a Part 15 setup in the High School where they installed their own equipment and sent audio to it via VOI. No one noticed the extra equipment in the High School's studio because they were always experimenting with various boards and processors.

The FCC nabbed them after monitoring for about a month. Local police are investigating as this had to be an inside job with the assistance of someone with keys to the various buildings (like maybe an evening janitor?).

BTW, the FCC does contract with local cellular companies which have fully equipped monitoring trucks.

Phil - AC0OB

Indeed. On a similar subject...

One of the most shocking "heads up" I've ever seen was about 15 years years ago when a ham friend stopped by with a handheld "cell phone enabled" scanner.  He had modified his scanner to pick up cell phone calls and demonstrated it. He said it was a simple mod. Same with monitoring trucks. He said he has heard countless conversations of Ho's talking to their Johns, drug deals, etc..    I suppose buying time on a phone in a 7-11 for cash is hard to trace, but for most of us with registered phones, it's like talking on a public address system. In addition the phone number that is called could be registered and the other party could lead it back to you.

I think most people get lulled into a false sense of security after a while, and talk freely.

Years ago I had a cell conversation with an attorney and cautioned him that he may be talking about sensitive matters. There was a long silence - then he expressed his dis-belief others could be listening in. Gawd, what a platform for blackmail if a crook wanted to.

The bottom line is how could anyone believe a cell phone is secure in this day and age considering how closely monitored we are in other areas? Obviously, same goes for over the internet conversations.  Public address system, baby.

T

When Radio Shack was closing these two guys came in while I was in the store shopping. I overheard their conversation. They were looking for a scanner, to gather social security numbers. Many police departments will run SS numbers when they make traffic stop when they suspect the person has outstanding warrants. If I ever get stopped and asked for mine I’d definitely refuse and mention their broadcasting of such info.

Some of the police seem ignorant to the fact that people do listen.

We can all take comfort in knowing that nobody in the AM community has never transmitted on 6.9xx or on 7.415 back in the day. :-X

(cough)


In regards the FM guy in Boston, I guess it pays to actually read those Notice of Apparent Liability and take heed.

Here the police use the in-car computer for that, which means nothing today.
There is no 'routine' reason to give the police the SS number. One has the state issues photo ID which is enough.

 Turned on  the IC-7100 while cruising around in the mobile last night around 1900 Eastern time and the radio was blasting the The Beach Boys Fun, Fun, Fun on 3885 from somewhere.  Several other classic 60s cuts followed. Lasted about 20 minutes after I first heard it, not sure how long it had gone on before that.

Fun is fun, but in this day and age when the SDR networks make DFing by anyone who knows how to do it, it’s pretty risky, I would think, to do stuff like that.  Won’t be much fun when Daddy FCC takes the license away!

https://youtu.be/_JasiSpmfsU

It gets even scarier when one recognizes that there are networks out there that are much more  capable than the Kiwi network, and that the data are stored on big honking drives for later review.  The only thing that saves folks from being bagged is that the FCC has more important things to do and not much time to do it with.  But if a situation becomes chronic or notorious it's much easier than in the old days when the radio cars had to run patterns locally.
The good old days of horsing around on the air are behind us, for better or worse.
73 de Norm W1ITT

I small thread hijack, sorry.

I don't think any commercial (legal) FM stations occupy adjacent channels in the same area. If there's a station at 88.1, then 88.3 will be unused, etc.

Does anyone know why?

Bill, W4EWH

Doesn't seem like it would be simple for a scanner: there are several different standards, and the cellphones are often moving from cell-to-cell, so any scanner would have to deal with CDMA, TDMA, and GSM, and also have a  capability to follow a specific IMEI, in order to be usable.

Bill, W4EWH

15 to 20 years ago that was just coming into play.

Not to mention, I had phone by Verizon that could be put into service mode with an internet available passcode.  Once in service mode, it could be put into monitor mode, and it would "decrypt" any traffic it came across.

I believe the cell sites are harder to listen to now, but 15 years to 20 years ago, it wasn't the case.

--Shane
KD6VXI

The incident you mentioned was likely more than 15 years ago. Before cell service went digital, it was all analog in the 800-900 MHz band. After the FCC passed laws, the scanner manufacturers had to restrict reception in that part of the spectrum. The mods, to restore receiving capability, were readily available and were usually nothing more than adding or cutting a jumper.  Once it went digital, the mods were useless.today I see no purpose for the restrictions, especially with SDR receivers now being so versatile.

When cellphones were still analog, but scanners were made so as to prevent 'jumper hacks' to include the desired frequency band, one could sometimes enter a frequency that was half the celluar frequency + or - the scanner's 1st I.F. and receive the calls. high pass filters were sold to block the 450MHz range so that this would work better. If it worked with the particular scanner, it was a simple matter to set scan limits. Also IIRC there were 666 analog cellular channels? hehe. None of that matters any more.