PCS-Electronics

From a USENET post:

Long time ago I had a pirate AM/FM at 1610/107.9 in the Santa Cruz
Mountains - KO-AN Mountain Fine Arts (KOAN). The FM was at a very high
residence and covered a large area. I would go live with classical
programming
http://okay.com/koan108.ram

... and then translate classical KDFC San Francisco which I could
receive reliably from my high transmitter site. This way it could be
on full time even though I only had time to broadcast myself
occasionally.

The KDFC chief engineer was a friend of mine and well aware of KO-AN.
He even came down and drove around to see its great coverage area on
several occasions. Other SF broadcast engineers came around and heard
it also but just seemed to be amused. Everyone just looked the other
way.

After 3 years the FCC shut me down - such a sad day. The KDFC CE
called from SF and said I had a lot of listeners since they got lots
of calls and letters wondering where the music went. The potential
audience was approximately 10000. When KDFC's owner found out about
it, he was just flattered. This is quite different from KWVE!!!

KWVE is owned by the Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa.

BTW, the two FCC agents were here for hours and were nice guys. They
even apologized for having to turn off my station. They were both
university educated and liked classical music it turned out. They
didn't take my equipment nor pursue a fine. They were here for several
hours and loved all my homemade toys including the 35 watt AM
transmitter and large helical AM antenna in the back yard. I had been
a defense industry technician and could design and make low and high
level RF equipment and antennas myself. My homemade 5/8 wavelength FM
vertical antenna really talked good from 1250 feet ASL.

That's what microbroadcasting *RESPONSIBLY* and with good, tuned, and maintained equipment may yield it's operator. I learned this lesson long ago when I was first involved with pirate broadcasting. I was lucky enough to be exposed to it by a guy who was a stickler for technical excellence, and took necessary precautions (such as never interfearing with the college station on the frequency we utilized, until AFTER they went off the air) and we never overmodulated, or exposed our listeners to offensive program content.

The station even has a liner/positioner which went something to the effect of: "This is the way FM aught to sound, the way FM is supposed to sound, the way FM should HAVE TO SOUND!.. because we took such pride in pumping out such a clear signal, with just the right amount of processing that made the signal really stand out from the rest of the crowd of major-market stations in the area.

Hell, back then- we even used loop lines (anyone remember them?) and would take calls from listeners, and on several occasions we received calls from persons claming to be involved in commercial radio stations who would tell us they love what we are doing.. but more importantly- they wanted to know what we were using in our audio chain That's about the fondest memorie and largest compliment I recall we received from those days.

Currently, where I'm broadcasting from, there is another (IRRESPONSIBLE) pirate broadcasting on the desired frequency of choice in my area, and although it would appear we seem to have a mutual understanding about not stepping on eachothers broadcasts due to the times we broadcast and such, when I do hear these folks on the air, I do cringe at first, then just wonder how long it will be before the agents sniff them out. Every other word out of their hippity-hop garbage mouths is either some cuss-word, or calling eachother the "n" word, and these guys even promote a website, and local apperences at some after-hours club one of most of these folks spin at. Oh, did I fail to mention the signal is totally overmodulated and distorted?.. and what makes it worse, they are a mono station as well, so while they have a seemingly strong signal with what I deduce is fairly decent coverage (since they are coming in from about 15 miles away) any person with functioning ear drums and even a four year old's appreciation for sound, and can discern the difference between normal sound and distorted sound, would immediately tune away or just go * OUCH! / YUCK! * what's that!

I tend to champion the underground/pirate scene, and would never wish ill-will on folks attempting to make a difference, and offer some unique alternative to the same old dull, boring radio being pumped out by the major companies, however- in this case I really have to admit I wish one or two of those agents down on Varrick Street would get off their bum and take their van out of the carpark for the evening & head on into Melrose and do their jobs.. (they'll probably need to have a police escort, since those crack-houses can be pretty dangerous after dark) <g>

Ok, stepping down from my soapbox now, but the bottom line is, if you want to get shut down, act irresponsibly and be as blatent as possible, and aside from having your equipment confiscated, you can expect a fine as well, but if you are truly going out of your way to provide an alternative form of programing, and don't ruffel too many feathers, and don't become too greedy being on the air too long at any one time, the chances of being sniffed out and eventually being slapped with a fine, and having the feds drive away with your gear is a lot likely.

Just a seasoned microbroasters opinion, for whatever it's worth to those who read this post.

Ohhhhh GAAAAAAAAAAAA!
((RadioBoy))

Kudos to you for your technical excellence and sensible
on-the-air attitude.

Making sure your signal is clean and without excessive modulation
is of extreme importance.