Pirate Radio Station Raided!

[W1TAV]

http://www.enterprisenews.com/topstories/x694778506/Feds-raid-Brockton-pirate-radio-station

Living in the area and paying attention to what is on the airways, we have a number of Pirate Stations in the area. I know that complaints have been made regarding some of these boots, however until it gets to the point that they are  are interfering with a government service,  the FCC seems content to let them stay on the air.  It wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't operate their stations like the worst of 11 meter operators.  It's not really hard to track them down, I have heard them do advertizing, giving out phone numbers and addresses.  While I certainly believe that there is a place for a Low Power Community Service, many of these pirates are doing themselves a disservice as along as the continue to pay no attention to what they put on the air, it is not a good example of what could be.  Given the general citizens understanding of radio to begin with, it is very likely in the minds of some, that Hams are no different then these Pirates.  

[W2PFY]

I wuz just checking the FCC site and there are loads of people getting busted for FM pirate stations. The FCC is not giving them much slack on the fines! I thought about if I wanted to be a boot on FM, how to get away with it? The only way that you might last some time is if you were mobile but the FCC has a roaming patrol out there too busting out of banners and hi power CB truckers. Then the other part, who would hear you? All these guys would be better off with the internet streaming and develop a following there.

[Steve - K4HX]

Sometimes there is no difference.   

it is very likely in the minds of some, that Hams are no different then these Pirates. 

[W4EWH]

The newspaper article quotes the FCC complaint, saying the station, which operated at 91.7 MHz, was interfering with an FAA frequency, 120.6.

I'm puzzled by the frequencies: 120.6 - 91.7 = 28.9 MHz, which is too much for an "image" problem and too little for harmonic problems.

Any ideas about what might have gone on?

Bill, W1AC

[flintstone mop]

ya 120.6mhz is pretty far from the on-air freq to be clobbered by second harmonic,,,unless the Pirate is very close to an airport and/or he was running high power.... a couple hundred watts.
If he was not using a mod monitor, cudda been over-modulating "To be nice and loud" and generating havoc to the airport.

[W1RC]

http://www.enterprisenews.com/topstories/x694778506/Feds-raid-Brockton-pirate-radio-station

Living in the area and paying attention to what is on the airways, we have a number of Pirate Stations in the area. I know that complaints have been made regarding some of these boots, however until it gets to the point that they are  are interfering with a government service,  the FCC seems content to let them stay on the air.

Steve:

Some of these pirate stations are ethnic in content and serve a non-English-speaking listener base.  From what I understand the FCC is tolerant of them unless there are interference issues as there were in this case.  Interfering with aviation communications isn't cool.

I recall seeing a guy at the M.I.T Flea in Cambridge MA from time to time who operaters a Haitian French/Creole language station also in Brockton MA.  Big heavy-set Haitian dude dripping gold.  He makes no secret of what he does.

Wonder if he's the one who was busted....

73,

MrMike, W1RC

[W2VW]

The newspaper article quotes the FCC complaint, saying the station, which operated at 91.7 MHz, was interfering with an FAA frequency, 120.6.

I'm puzzled by the frequencies: 120.6 - 91.7 = 28.9 MHz, which is too much for an "image" problem and too little for harmonic problems.

Any ideas about what might have gone on?

Bill, W1AC

RF power amp coupled to antenna without a decent bandpass filter. Any other strong R.F. can mix with the desired frequency.

[W1AEX]

I know that complaints have been made regarding some of these boots, however until it gets to the point that they are  are interfering with a government service,  the FCC seems content to let them stay on the air.  

Sadly, from what we have experienced here in CT this hands off attitude by the FCC seems to be the way it rolls at this point. There is an ethnic/religious pirate FM broadcaster in Waterbury transmitting on 106.3 FM on a regular schedule. Unfortunately, the output of a popular 6 meter repeater that covers nearly all of CT is at 53.150 which is exactly half of 106.3. Apparently, the RF chain they are using has a stage on 53.150 that is doubled to reach 106.3 and that stage bleeds through with enough energy that it breaks the squelch all throughout the eastern and central part of the state. It's strong enough that it makes a large chunk of the central portion of the state unusable, even if a tone squelch is used on the receive end. It's quite a PIA. The FCC has been provided with all the details, including the address of the offender and photographs of the pirate transmitter's antenna sitting on top of a house on a nice big hill in Waterbury. In the past year and a half the FCC's response has been to ask a few questions which were then followed by a big yawn. Makes me wonder why I bother to throw my ID out every 10 minutes when I'm on the air...

Rob W1AEX

[WA1LGQ]

Rob, Pete, K2AEP told me that John moved the repeater to another frequency. But I don't remember what he said! Do you know what it is? Thanks.....

[W1AEX]

Larry,

I know that he relocated the repeater from the original location in Tolland to different sites twice. I believe it is now in Torrington. The last time I spoke with him he was planning to meet with the frequency coordinator(s) to see about moving away from 53.150 which appears to be permanently trashed by the pirate. As I recall, he was looking to go to 53.230, but my memory ain't what it used to be!

Rob W1AEX

[KB2WIG]

Try these guys. They have pull with the FCC.
      Richard Blumenthal
      Christopher  Murphy
The following gang of five have some pull, but you've got to get to them around October of the year.

1st — Rep. John Larson 
2nd — Rep. Joe Courtney 
3rd — Rep. Rosa DeLauro
4th — Rep. James Himes 
5th — Rep. Elizabeth Esty

klc

[flintstone mop]

Sooooooooo, Mr Mike
If I wanted to start a boot FM station and I am focusing on the Italian people in my city, the FCC would me allow to operate, as long as I didn't cause interference to other services?

[Opcom]

Why can't these pirates run AM like decent people! No class!

[W1RC]

Sooooooooo, Mr Mike
If I wanted to start a boot FM station and I am focusing on the Italian people in my city, the FCC would me allow to operate, as long as I didn't cause interference to other services?

Good question.  You'd likely do better in one of the languages spoken by some of the illegal (oops, sorry, undocumented) immigrant communities.

[flintstone mop]

Hi Mike,
I think, like everything else going on with the Gummint, they are so overwhelmed and over paid in most things they do, and enforcing the millions of laws can no longer be done at all.
Interference to emergency services and airports is the only concern.
Many Hams and myself included, in about a week, re-transmit music or iPod stuff over small FM Transmitters that are available from many companies. Ramsey is very big. You can buy commercial 10W exciters retired from radio stations for $300.00.
I'm gonna bug the audio off of our living room XM radio and 'pipe' that to the air. There's a lot of open space (spectrum) away from the big cities.
Ramsey seems to have some decent AM and FM transmitters. They do warn that the owner/buyer must be aware of FCC rules for LEGAL operation. It's funny how Ramsey offers these devices and has never been shut down by the gummint. They sell kits and factory built units. The better TX's have CATV connector, so there must be some design to the output that it is 75 ohms. PLL circuits, fairly clean RF, reasonable FM stereo audio, and a little RF juice. I bet a Ham radio guy is the owner HA!
Ramsey seems to have decent stuff and even offer a 1 watt booster.
Heres a link
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/hk/default.asp?page=amfm

I had a nice system set up for a church. The FM25B and a 1 watt booster and the recommended antenna. It was a nice solution to the nursery and the hearing impaired folks. All they needed was to bring a small cheapie FM radio and earbuds. Or the church would hand out a small radio that was locked to the freq. and a headset. Never any problem from the FCC, but I did turn down the RF output to serve the campus only, when some people mentioned that they could hear everything on the air from the stage 2 miles away. When ever the sound system was turned on, the FM TX was turned on also.

Fred

[W1ATR]

Why can't these pirates run AM like decent people! No class!

Antenna size, and intelligence required. I would say it might cost you a couple hundred on fleabay for a cheap low power stereo FM tx'er, some coax, and a small antenna. Ad a computer, idiotic gibberish, a bad music selection, and for some reason, echo or reverb, and you've got yourself a nice little hometown bootlegger station.

[W4AAB]

Sounds like it is time to start a Ku Klux Radios organization and introduce these illegal pirate radio stations to bolt cutters and straight pins in some coax.It worked on some cber's I know.It is a shame what the fee cee cee will allow on the air these days.
                                      Joe W4AAB

[flintstone mop]

Why can't these pirates run AM like decent people! No class!

FM is more bang for the buck. 10-Watts will go quite a distance with a little height and a matched ground plane antenna.
AM takes a lot of know-how for good audio and getting good coverage.

Fred

[kb3ouk]

The newspaper article quotes the FCC complaint, saying the station, which operated at 91.7 MHz, was interfering with an FAA frequency, 120.6.

I'm puzzled by the frequencies: 120.6 - 91.7 = 28.9 MHz, which is too much for an "image" problem and too little for harmonic problems.

Any ideas about what might have gone on?

Bill, W1AC

I wonder if there's something on 28.9 in that area that might be mixing with 91.7? Sure that's right in the middle of 10 meters, but who knows. We have an FM station on 95.1 in this area that is on the same tower as an AM station at 800 khz. There's a station on 94.3 that I listen to that's a few miles south of the 95.1/800 transmitter site. When you get close enough to that tower, you can't hear the other station because 95.1 Mhz - 800 khz = 94.3 Mhz, so it's possible.

[KM1H]

You would be surprised at how far 100W goes on AM above 1600 into a good antenna

[kb3ouk]

I know that there's some people out there who have managed to DX those 10 watt TIS stations, so it's possible. And those things aren't working into anything close to a good antenna.