HFU HF Underground
Loggings => FM Free Radio => Topic started by: d3crypt on January 14, 2016, 0158 UTC
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I'm wondering if there are any FM pirate stations in Los Angeles?
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I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are at least 3.
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Well, I haven't found any in my area.
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Why not start one!
:D
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I would love to start one, but i don't have the money for the equipment as of now.
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So far I haven't received any in the LA area. I'm in the east LA area and so far nothing on the "east side". Tune the lower part of the FM band
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Yeah, good luck finding a free frequency in LA on FM. Ya might be better off going onto AM there. But beware, I remember reading that engineers from commercial stations tried to take two Part #15 AM stations off-air, but the FCC actual couldn't do anything, because they were compliant. This was back in the 1990's. So, even if the FCC doesn't hunt ya down, some asshole, brown nosing, commercial station might there.
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The thing that limits FM pirates is the lowish power of most of their transmitters and the clear height they can get their antennas to. The FCC takes FM piracy very seriously. Successful FM pirates try to be low key and not to be noticed. If they throw up a tower in their yard/or on their apt. building, buy a high powered transmitter, and start blasting away in the middle of a large city, they're going to have Federal visitors on them quick. FM stations are very easy to DF. You've got to be in or near the area where they operate when they're on to hear most of the ones that last.
As the Dood said, the FM band in most large cities is filled cheek to jowl with stations. Even if you run low power and depend on the "capture effect" to hijack a frequency to cover your neighborhood, you're going to be messing with a station who's listeners nearby are eventually going to report you. Management is going to call the FCC, their bosses pay for them, and there goes your station. Large corporations with money and influence give a damn about pirates stepping on or close to their precious station's frequency in the AM and FM spectrum as do their poorer competitors. There's money in those airwaves and pirates take part of the audience that buy the products of the advertisers that keeps the cash rolling in.
MS-13 is pretty heavily into FM piracy in the cities of El Salvador and Honduras. As L.A. is where they formed, I've got to think their doing it there and wherever else they've got a sizable presence in the States? If you run across one of their stations, I'd strongly advise not trying to locate exactly where it's coming from. Stay safe and just listen. Those young men don't welcome strangers.
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I used to hear http://www.piratecatradio.com/ when I visited my family in the LA area over the holidays. They had some sort of relay setup, as I believe that the station originated out of San Francisco. They got busted a while back, and I don't know if they are still on the air.
I have a pretty nice Pirate Cat Radio t-shirt from when they were trying to raise money for their court case.
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The thing that limits FM pirates is the lowish power of most of their transmitters and the clear height they can get their antennas to. The FCC takes FM piracy very seriously. Successful FM pirates try to be low key and not to be noticed. If they throw up a tower in their yard/or on their apt. building, buy a high powered transmitter, and start blasting away in the middle of a large city, they're going to have Federal visitors on them quick. FM stations are very easy to DF. You've got to be in or near the area where they operate when they're on to hear most of the ones that last.
As the Dood said, the FM band in most large cities is filled cheek to jowl with stations. Even if you run low power and depend on the "capture effect" to hijack a frequency to cover your neighborhood, you're going to be messing with a station who's listeners nearby are eventually going to report you. Management is going to call the FCC, their bosses pay for them, and there goes your station. Large corporations with money and influence give a damn about pirates stepping on or close to their precious station's frequency in the AM and FM spectrum as do their poorer competitors. There's money in those airwaves and pirates take part of the audience that buy the products of the advertisers that keeps the cash rolling in.
MS-13 is pretty heavily into FM piracy in the cities of El Salvador and Honduras. As L.A. is where they formed, I've got to think their doing it there and wherever else they've got a sizable presence in the States? If you run across one of their stations, I'd strongly advise not trying to locate exactly where it's coming from. Stay safe and just listen. Those young men don't welcome strangers.
I'd drop a dime on ms guys in a heartbeat.
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Amen. I'd drop an anvil on them in a heartbeat.
MAGA!
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You can't blame the Hobbyist for wanting to broadcast a mile or two and since Channel 6 no longer uses 87.75 Mhz befcause its Digital now and has moved into the UHF band the FCC should indeed allow 87.7 Mhz to be a sort of Public Access Channel where especially in Rural Areas your allowed 5-15 Watts.
At around 15 Watts you can cover a minimum of 3 miles with a 1/4 wave Ground plane on a 1 story building whereas the antenna is about 10-20 feet from the top of the roof. Yes this may take away a few listeners from the big guys, but I can already tell you that the rural area that I live in they don't cover the weather in that area.
Hobby operators could use information from Viper Radar apps which get their info from the National Weather Service to inform the folks in that area of severe weather. Many Hobby Stations I know do this. There is way more than the NAB wants the public to know about why these guys cry wolf when many hobby operators are responsible and don't interfere with any stations. You have a few idiots who just throw up a transmitter on a frequency too close to adjacent stations. However the real Radio savvy hobbyist does his or her homework and uses equipment to maintain a clean and quality signal with friendly programming to the public.
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You can't blame the Hobbyist for wanting to broadcast a mile or two and since Channel 6 no longer uses 87.75 Mhz befcause its Digital now and has moved into the UHF band the FCC should indeed allow 87.7 Mhz to be a sort of Public Access Channel where especially in Rural Areas your allowed 5-15 Watts.
Many of the larger markets have 'franken FM's' which are low power stations on channel 6 intending to broadcast on FM. Operating on channel 6's aural is not possible in such areas.
In larger markets, a low power AM makes more sense than FM, simply because there is usually more available spectrum, especially during the day. With the advent of HD translators, FM spectrum in ALL markets is becoming extremely scarce.
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Why not start one!
:D
If you're really into this, you should go Part 15, which doesn't need a license. That's what I do....risking the wrath of the authorities, and possible prison time and/or fines, just isn't worth it.
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MS-13 is pretty heavily into FM piracy in the cities of El Salvador and Honduras. As L.A. is where they formed, I've got to think their doing it there and wherever else they've got a sizable presence in the States? If you run across one of their stations, I'd strongly advise not trying to locate exactly where it's coming from. Stay safe and just listen. Those young men don't welcome strangers.
I remember reading about one of the many street gangs in Chicago operating a pirate FM station that served not only to broadcast their views and (unedited) hip-hop but also to broadcast warnings of police activity to gang members in the area. It's likely that social media has replaced that function, the station was raided by the FBI and Chicago Police anyway.