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General Radio Discussion / FCC activity
« on: March 05, 2012, 1434 UTC »
(to address some comments from the WEAK Radio post)
I think there might be some misconceptions about the FCC and their enforcement from some in the hobby who have been listening or pirating for less than 13 years. We've been lulled to sleep by the FCC's inactivity over the past decade, but they have the technology to close a house-operated station quickly. This bit isn't meant to be comprehensive, but I've heard a number of Qs on the topic and also assumptions about things that I believe are really stretching and I thought I'd mention what I know. Hopefully, it's a help.
The FCC closed at least one pirate in the '80s during the station's first broadcast. In the '80s, the rule was keep the broadcast under 30 min. and only broadcast once or twice per month and you *should* be safe.
Whether an active station gets closed is more a matter of an intersection of the FCC's funding, current feeling/internal policy on SW pirates, and the location of their agents than anything. If an FCC agent is sent to your town to close high-powered CBers, an FM pirate, or to check a licensed AM or FM station, you will be in much greater danger if you fire up on 6925 for a few hours that night. Evidently, the FCC simply ignored SW pirates between about 1999 and 2009, but from late 2010 to early 2011, they cared again.
This is normal. Over the years, they've let things slide and then suddenly closed stations down for a few months or even years. They don't write about why the enforcement levels change, so we really have no idea what causes the change in climate. But this is how they operate. This batch of closures is similar to the ones in '98 and '85. There were also stretches from about '77-'83 and '89-'93 when the FCC closed a number of stations and seemed to be taking a very active approach toward SW pirates. In fact, in 1991 (I believe), a guy was relaying Voice of Laryngitis programs on 15050 kHz (I think) while driving through the Midwest. This was a clear freq that was occasionally used by pirates (in other words, he wasn't QRMing the USAF and this wasn't a primary pirate freq, like 6925 is now). But they set up a roadblock on I-70 and busted him near Denver.
Any time a pirate broadcasts, if the FCC is checking, they can narrow the QTH down to a few square miles with distant DFing. Maybe not the town you're in, but the next town over at least. The problem is sending people out to close stations and do the close-in DFing. They can do it, but it's really expensive and shortwave is finally a low priority.
The FCC has never worked with an active pirate, so there's no chance that a particular SW pirate is selling out other pirates in exchange for keeping himself on the air. The FCC simply doesn't work that way. Also, one particular person complaining to the FCC about a pirate won't make much of a difference overall. Pirates are broadcasting, afterall, and fact is that people are complaining to the FCC about pirates. Some hams (and other people) do listen to pirates and complain to the FCC. In one of my old FOIA requests, I have photocopies of QSLs that one guy was receiving from pirates so that he could send to the FCC to use as evidence against these stations.
One comment made at the Winterfest was that a couple of the stations that were closed interfered with MARS frequencies. I don't know if this is the case, but interfering with MARS *will* cause a reaction from the FCC.
I think there might be some misconceptions about the FCC and their enforcement from some in the hobby who have been listening or pirating for less than 13 years. We've been lulled to sleep by the FCC's inactivity over the past decade, but they have the technology to close a house-operated station quickly. This bit isn't meant to be comprehensive, but I've heard a number of Qs on the topic and also assumptions about things that I believe are really stretching and I thought I'd mention what I know. Hopefully, it's a help.
The FCC closed at least one pirate in the '80s during the station's first broadcast. In the '80s, the rule was keep the broadcast under 30 min. and only broadcast once or twice per month and you *should* be safe.
Whether an active station gets closed is more a matter of an intersection of the FCC's funding, current feeling/internal policy on SW pirates, and the location of their agents than anything. If an FCC agent is sent to your town to close high-powered CBers, an FM pirate, or to check a licensed AM or FM station, you will be in much greater danger if you fire up on 6925 for a few hours that night. Evidently, the FCC simply ignored SW pirates between about 1999 and 2009, but from late 2010 to early 2011, they cared again.
This is normal. Over the years, they've let things slide and then suddenly closed stations down for a few months or even years. They don't write about why the enforcement levels change, so we really have no idea what causes the change in climate. But this is how they operate. This batch of closures is similar to the ones in '98 and '85. There were also stretches from about '77-'83 and '89-'93 when the FCC closed a number of stations and seemed to be taking a very active approach toward SW pirates. In fact, in 1991 (I believe), a guy was relaying Voice of Laryngitis programs on 15050 kHz (I think) while driving through the Midwest. This was a clear freq that was occasionally used by pirates (in other words, he wasn't QRMing the USAF and this wasn't a primary pirate freq, like 6925 is now). But they set up a roadblock on I-70 and busted him near Denver.
Any time a pirate broadcasts, if the FCC is checking, they can narrow the QTH down to a few square miles with distant DFing. Maybe not the town you're in, but the next town over at least. The problem is sending people out to close stations and do the close-in DFing. They can do it, but it's really expensive and shortwave is finally a low priority.
The FCC has never worked with an active pirate, so there's no chance that a particular SW pirate is selling out other pirates in exchange for keeping himself on the air. The FCC simply doesn't work that way. Also, one particular person complaining to the FCC about a pirate won't make much of a difference overall. Pirates are broadcasting, afterall, and fact is that people are complaining to the FCC about pirates. Some hams (and other people) do listen to pirates and complain to the FCC. In one of my old FOIA requests, I have photocopies of QSLs that one guy was receiving from pirates so that he could send to the FCC to use as evidence against these stations.
One comment made at the Winterfest was that a couple of the stations that were closed interfered with MARS frequencies. I don't know if this is the case, but interfering with MARS *will* cause a reaction from the FCC.
