Messages

316

General Radio Discussion / Re: Broadcasters Cheer Pirate Radio Bill

« on: May 12, 2018, 2019 UTC »

Where there is money..... etc.

I don't like being conspiratorially minded, but I see an industry (FM radio) that is worried. Worried about their future. Worried about loss of listeners. Worried about loss of revenue, including advertising revenue. Even though the numbers of radio listeners who have gravitated away to other forms of entertainment haven't yet been substantial, the writing is on the wall.

When you see massive businesses scrambling to wipe out gnats, you know that there is more to the picture than just whether someone was breaking the law.

which is precisely what is happening.
the conglomerate media companies who own several FM/AM stations in captive market areas are trying to recoup their losses by offering and venturing to several other media platforms to keep the investors and lending firms happy in addition to acquiring competitive radio stations to eliminate competition and stomping out the "gnats" of low power pirates in order to keep captivity on that specific market and keep revenue loss from advertising on the decline.
now imagine if one media company owned all the FM radio stations in the NYC market.

317

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1550 UTC 11 May 2018

« on: May 11, 2018, 2143 UTC »

I found over the years once the trees started to leaf out being heard was always a crapshoot. I never quite figured it out on HF?

it doesnt really affect the TX on HF since its such a low frequency, it just passes through the leafs and trees but the RF is also absorbed to a lesser extent as well depending on the density of the trees and leafs.

318

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1550 UTC 11 May 2018

« on: May 11, 2018, 1932 UTC »

Not even a trace of a carrier here at 1754z.  foF2 at Wallops Island is just 4 MHz, so that explains why.

but it was rather interesting that certain online SDR's received the signal quite well though you are absolutely correct, not even the SDR by you showed a trace of a carrier.
Warrenton, VA & West Chester, Ohio were the only two that received the signal with an S7 or better (with fades).
propagation is like playing the lottery

319

General Radio Discussion / Re: Broadcasters Cheer Pirate Radio Bill

« on: May 11, 2018, 1733 UTC »

As to what was mentioned about the big boys not playing by the rules either, Most commercial radio stations (especially the top dog stations in small markets) have countless FCC violations, most commonly poor EAS functionality and interference to other operations both broadcast and non-broadcast related. They will almost never directly report an FCC violation of a pirate or competitor station, as they themselves would then have to "clean up" I have seen many stations (mostly translators) which run at several times legal power, AM sites which are abhorrently in disrepair not meeting FCC regulations or even fire safety code, and a complete disregard for any other broadcasters in the market (unless of course they are owned by the same big company). 

To boot, most of the translators I have seen are sold in the community as the main market station, allowing the AM to become a more and more unreliable and poor quality signal. This is completely against the purpose of a translator, and yet, seems to illicit no negative response from the FCC or NAB.

on a second note, I wonder what would happen to a pirate operator who was caught if they had been running a sane and well controlled amount of power, with clean modulation, and monitored an EAS primary to actually participate in eas alerts and weekly tests? I am quite curious to whether the FCC could deem that pirate OPs action legally "harmful".

it doesnt matter how clean your RF is, how abiding and how professional you are as a pirate on FM, even with documented and diagnostic proof, the bottom line to the FCC is that you do not have a license.
it will never be the legal FM station itself that will make the report of a pirate, its always the NAB or other broadcast group associations that make the reports but these reports are done mostly for a different reason, take a look at how one conglomerate company owns several FM stations in a single market as an example, i know the reasons why this is done.
captivity is everything and money is the manipulator.

320

General Radio Discussion / Re: Broadcasters Cheer Pirate Radio Bill

« on: May 11, 2018, 1615 UTC »

in my opinion, this is a useless deterrent against FM pirates (the bad ones) because the FCC simply cannot collect the money from an individual citizen, they dont have the authority and until congress gives them the authority, this problem (as they claim it is) will continue despite the increase in the amount of fines levied.
red-hat once described the situation as a "whack-a-mole", that is exactly what it is.

This is incredible to me. How can they levy fines but not have any power to collect them? Try not paying your credit card bill or a traffic ticket for a few months and watch what happens.

there was an article i read that explained why the FCC doesnt have the authority to collect levied fines and even if they did have the authority, the AG has better things and bigger fine amounts to go after and collect so maybe increasing the fine amount to $2M will get the AG motivated ?
that still doesnt mean they will be able to collect the money though.

321

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1550 UTC 11 May 2018

« on: May 11, 2018, 1601 UTC »

1550z S5 on web sdr. Guessing this is the relay station? ID was Radio Free Connecticut.

"It Would Take a Strong Man" by Rick Astley.

yes sir.
i am relaying a live show from "Radio Free Connecticut" at the usual 50 watts - im happy to make RFC's day today.
thanks for the report Tuco
thanks to Matt_B for the broadcast and tunes today, you are always welcome to broadcast on my station as well as anyone else, have a great weekend.

322

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1758 UTC 10 May 2018

« on: May 11, 2018, 0355 UTC »

Are you getting WXNZ OTA or by the web? Do you need the url?

at 7 watts (2 watts ERP) 98.1Mhz, there isnt too many who could get WXNZ OTA though the height and type of antenna being used will likely translate 2 watts ERP into +20 watts.
i currently get WXNZ from the web.

323

General Radio Discussion / Re: Broadcasters Cheer Pirate Radio Bill

« on: May 11, 2018, 0339 UTC »

in my opinion, this is a useless deterrent against FM pirates (the bad ones) because the FCC simply cannot collect the money from an individual citizen, they dont have the authority and until congress gives them the authority, this problem (as they claim it is) will continue despite the increase in the amount of fines levied.
red-hat once described the situation as a "whack-a-mole", that is exactly what it is.

324

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1758 UTC 10 May 2018

« on: May 10, 2018, 2105 UTC »

Just turned the radio and getting a nice S3+ signal with little noise now. Good signal. PSA for upcoming musical events.
2055 off.
Oops just stepped back in the room at 2100 and back on.

i had "HooSkow" radio WXNZ-LP 98.1 going through (really good station) but it seems the station signed off at 2055z so i switched to another station in the Maine area.
thanks for the report

325

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1758 UTC 10 May 2018

« on: May 10, 2018, 2102 UTC »

Better alive than fried.

though sometimes fried is much tastier
thanks for the report
be safe in the t-storms.

326

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1758 UTC 10 May 2018

« on: May 10, 2018, 1917 UTC »

be safe with the impending t-storms Chris, they look pretty bad on the radar.

Thanks, there is a severe t-storm watch in the area, although it stops about 1 mile north of where I live. I suspect things will be worse down in VA, already reports of hail and wind damage there.  A little polite rain for the garden would be welcome, however 

The signal is fading in and out here. If the ionosphere behaves like yesterday however, things should improve, and peak around 0000z. We'll see.

unfortunately for me, i will be off the air before 0000z though.
the ionosphere  is surely acting weird today.
normally, i reach the western part of PA strong during the day but not today, i am reaching West Chester, Ohio pretty strong with a bit less of lightening static.
its not possible to monitor myself on any VA receiver, the lightening static is over-powering though i am reaching the Warrenton, VA receiver, just not as good as the Ohio one.
audio bandwidth for the broadcast today is at 5Khz.
how are those toads/frogs in the little pond you have doing ?
----
edited for Chris' reply below:

Lots of frogs in the ponds now, including at least two rather large bullfrogs. And several thousand toad/frog tadpoles.

several thousand tadpoles ?!?!
will that eventually turn into several thousand frogs/toads ? lol
id love to see more videos/pics when you have time.
i wish i could set up something like that here.

327

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1758 UTC 10 May 2018

« on: May 10, 2018, 1848 UTC »

be safe with the impending t-storms Chris, they look pretty bad on the radar.

328

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6935 AM 0225 UTC 6 MAY 2018

« on: May 06, 2018, 0229 UTC »

0225 - test tones S9 on st Louis, MO SDR
0227 - steely dan "FM" - lots of bass but low on the mids and highs
0233 - female spoken about 20,000Khz to 20Hz then test tone from 20,000Khz to 20Hz
0234 - Elton John "bitch is back"
0241 - finally identified with my ears another EJ song "saturday nights all right for fighting"
0243 - fleetwood mac "dreams"
0247 - EJ "benny and the jets
0256 - Heart "magic man" (didnt know the other song prior to this one)
0307 - hall & oats - "shes gone"
0310 - heart "crazy on you"
0315 - gloria estefan "rhythm is gonna get you"
0319 - off after last played song
(the operator of this SDR keeps switching it off to transmit)

329

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Seven Trees Radio 6905 AM 0044 UTC 06 MAY 2018

« on: May 06, 2018, 0212 UTC »

0209 - S8 on the st Louis, MO SDR - 300Hz - 4Khz audio bandwidth - hearing "peskies" @ LSB but not too bad
0211 - off after last song played

330

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 0206 UTC 6 April 2018

« on: May 06, 2018, 0208 UTC »

0207 - S8 on the st Louis, MO SDR - 4Khz audio bandiwidth.
0215 - Chris S is going to love this song hehe