Do they actually have advertisers? One would think that if an ad for Bob's Discount Autos was heard on a "pirate" radio station then a visit from the FCC and a fine would encourage Bob to not advertise and thus the radio station would go away fairly quickly. If the power requirements are so low that the stations need not advertise then perhaps a more reasonable approach would be a low cost for low power broadcast license?
1000 watts is what an electric space heater might use; the cost would be below 20 cents an hour. 1000 watts is enough to be received in your car 20 miles away. Within 10 miles of the pirate transmitter, the pirate could easily overpower a legal station. This might cause financial harm to the legal station and its advertiser who expects to be heard in the pirate's region.
Your solution is not unreasonable, but the low power licensee would have to actually obey the restrictions he's licensed to operate under.
1000 watts is what an electric space heater might use; the cost would be below 20 cents an hour. 1000 watts is enough to be received in your car 20 miles away. Within 10 miles of the pirate transmitter, the pirate could easily overpower a legal station. This might cause financial harm to the legal station and its advertiser who expects to be heard in the pirate's region.
Your solution is not unreasonable, but the low power licensee would have to actually obey the restrictions he's licensed to operate under.
Antenna height matters more than output power. VHF amateur radio stations typically run 20 to 100 watts and work fine at 20 miles or more. Less than 20 watts is fine for line of sight operations outside of the Fresnel zone [wikipedia.org] to the horizon.
Yup, When I was working in the deployment of AMPS in New Zealand in the 1980s, we were able to work 20W cellsites in Wellington from the skifields at Turoa (about 150 miles away and sited at about 300feet AMSL) with a 3W bagphone and unmodified antenna. Being at ~4500 feet AMSL and having a clear line of sight helped.
We could trivially pick up 100W FM stations at that distance too.
As I understand, it's mostly private hobbyists and folks who care more about the prestige of running a radio station than about following the law.
These days, building a radio station costs under $1000 if you already have a suitable antenna location. You can get a $100 kit to do the interface, and a transmitter for about $500, then just a bit more for the antenna construction. It's well within the disposable income of many folks, who can then boast that they "own an independent radio station". Sometimes, tha
Supporting and financing an illegal business. Please don't tell me the US has all sorts of ridiculous laws but that's NOT illegal.
Not sure, but I bet you that if they have a law like that it would be incredibly grey. Do you go to every advertiser and ask them for their complete set of documents showing their license to operate? That is assuming Bob even approached a radio station rather than some 3rd party advertising service that put his advert on a few different services some of which happen to be illegal.
That's the problem with these laws. "What do you mean I financed an illegal enterprise? The guy selling me a hifi from his van sa
I don't know about your country, in mine you are expected to get suspicious of deals that are too good to be true. If someone sells you a brand new Mercedes for 50 bucks, you can pretty much expect that the police won't believe you that you didn't even think it could be stolen. Likewise, if you're advertising on some radio station, claiming that you didn't know that it's a pirate station is most likely not going to sit well with a judge, who might just up the fine because he thinks you're trying to bullshit
I don't know about your country, in mine you are expected to get suspicious of deals that are too good to be true.
So its illegal to be fooled / scammed?
If someone sells you a brand new Mercedes for 50 bucks, you can pretty much expect that the police won't believe you that you didn't even think it could be stolen.
Why would it be stolen? Maybe it's contaminated with a carceongen. Maybe its owner thinks it's possessed by a demon. My own neighbour just bought a $4000 antique for $50 at a garage sale because the owner didn't know what they had. You would do well to remember the proverb: "If it's too good to be true, then it probably is." *emphasis mine.
claiming that you didn't know that it's a pirate station is most likely not going to sit well with a judge
What won't sit well with a judge is that this flimsy waste of time case is brought before him in the first place. I would wager you
I've found a few pirate stations. A lot of it is weird, non-mainstream music. I've heard, but not personally found (for I live in the UK), that a lot of pirate stations in the US are run by church figures or political activists with intensely anti-governmental views - they aren't going to submit to the FCC as a matter of principle.
Who pays for pirate radio? (Score:5, Interesting)
Do they actually have advertisers? One would think that if an ad for Bob's Discount Autos was heard on a "pirate" radio station then a visit from the FCC and a fine would encourage Bob to not advertise and thus the radio station would go away fairly quickly. If the power requirements are so low that the stations need not advertise then perhaps a more reasonable approach would be a low cost for low power broadcast license?
Re: (Score:1)
Unfortunately there hasn't been an open filing window since 2013.
Re: (Score:3)
1000 watts is what an electric space heater might use; the cost would be below 20 cents an hour. 1000 watts is enough to be received in your car 20 miles away. Within 10 miles of the pirate transmitter, the pirate could easily overpower a legal station. This might cause financial harm to the legal station and its advertiser who expects to be heard in the pirate's region.
Your solution is not unreasonable, but the low power licensee would have to actually obey the restrictions he's licensed to operate under.
Re: (Score:2)
1000 watts is what an electric space heater might use; the cost would be below 20 cents an hour. 1000 watts is enough to be received in your car 20 miles away. Within 10 miles of the pirate transmitter, the pirate could easily overpower a legal station. This might cause financial harm to the legal station and its advertiser who expects to be heard in the pirate's region.
Your solution is not unreasonable, but the low power licensee would have to actually obey the restrictions he's licensed to operate under.
Antenna height matters more than output power. VHF amateur radio stations typically run 20 to 100 watts and work fine at 20 miles or more. Less than 20 watts is fine for line of sight operations outside of the Fresnel zone [wikipedia.org] to the horizon.
Re: (Score:2)
"Antenna height matters more than output power."
Yup, When I was working in the deployment of AMPS in New Zealand in the 1980s, we were able to work 20W cellsites in Wellington from the skifields at Turoa (about 150 miles away and sited at about 300feet AMSL) with a 3W bagphone and unmodified antenna. Being at ~4500 feet AMSL and having a clear line of sight helped.
We could trivially pick up 100W FM stations at that distance too.
Re: (Score:2)
As I understand, it's mostly private hobbyists and folks who care more about the prestige of running a radio station than about following the law.
These days, building a radio station costs under $1000 if you already have a suitable antenna location. You can get a $100 kit to do the interface, and a transmitter for about $500, then just a bit more for the antenna construction. It's well within the disposable income of many folks, who can then boast that they "own an independent radio station". Sometimes, tha
Re: (Score:2)
a visit from the FCC and a fine would encourage Bob to not advertise
And what is the legal basis for fining Bob?
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Supporting and financing an illegal business. Please don't tell me the US has all sorts of ridiculous laws but that's NOT illegal.
Re: (Score:2)
Supporting and financing an illegal business. Please don't tell me the US has all sorts of ridiculous laws but that's NOT illegal.
Not sure, but I bet you that if they have a law like that it would be incredibly grey. Do you go to every advertiser and ask them for their complete set of documents showing their license to operate? That is assuming Bob even approached a radio station rather than some 3rd party advertising service that put his advert on a few different services some of which happen to be illegal.
That's the problem with these laws. "What do you mean I financed an illegal enterprise? The guy selling me a hifi from his van sa
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about your country, in mine you are expected to get suspicious of deals that are too good to be true. If someone sells you a brand new Mercedes for 50 bucks, you can pretty much expect that the police won't believe you that you didn't even think it could be stolen. Likewise, if you're advertising on some radio station, claiming that you didn't know that it's a pirate station is most likely not going to sit well with a judge, who might just up the fine because he thinks you're trying to bullshit
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about your country, in mine you are expected to get suspicious of deals that are too good to be true.
So its illegal to be fooled / scammed?
If someone sells you a brand new Mercedes for 50 bucks, you can pretty much expect that the police won't believe you that you didn't even think it could be stolen.
Why would it be stolen? Maybe it's contaminated with a carceongen. Maybe its owner thinks it's possessed by a demon. My own neighbour just bought a $4000 antique for $50 at a garage sale because the owner didn't know what they had. You would do well to remember the proverb: "If it's too good to be true, then it probably is." *emphasis mine.
claiming that you didn't know that it's a pirate station is most likely not going to sit well with a judge
What won't sit well with a judge is that this flimsy waste of time case is brought before him in the first place. I would wager you
Re: (Score:2)
I've found a few pirate stations. A lot of it is weird, non-mainstream music. I've heard, but not personally found (for I live in the UK), that a lot of pirate stations in the US are run by church figures or political activists with intensely anti-governmental views - they aren't going to submit to the FCC as a matter of principle.