(Source: WAFF)
A Guntersville man is being slapped with a $15,000 fine from the Federal Communications Commission. They say he’s been operating an illegal radio station.
Some people in the neighborhood say they were aware of Michael Dudley’s radio operation. Others say they weren’t, but many people say it’s a pretty stiff penalty.
The FCC shut down the makeshift radio station running from Dudley’s home. In documents from the FCC, Dudley was confronted twice last year for sending music through the airwaves on 103.9 FM without a license. The first time was a warning. The second prompted the fine.[…]
You can operate an FM BC station legally in the US but the output is limited to 50 mW, not much. For AM unlicensed operation on the BC band it is 100 mW. A good example – those TalkingSigns. According to the op manual, a 3 meter antenna is the length limit including the feedline. Have used these TalkingSigns and the range is about a 350 foot radius using a good ground stake. Not a ground steak hi hi! Pretty limited range but fun nonetheless. Years back the real estate industry used “Talking House” transmitters that sent info on a place for sale over the AM band; now you can get ’em used on Ebay and ShopGoodWill.com
Funny how the FCC can protect us from pirate music, but can’t keep India scammers from calling my phone 5 times a day fishing for credit card info while calling from a number that doesn’t exist.. Thanks for protecting us.. SMDH
FCC seems to be working on this, finally. https://www.fcc.gov/document/blocking-unlawful-robocalls
I worked on the air for more than 30 years. Been there. I can assure you that there are people who will do almost anything to be “on the radio.” Incidentally, pirate radio programming is usually quite bad. A $15,000 fine isn’t enough.
This action is just more silliness by the worthless FCC unless he was interfering with other channels. I have a neighbor who is using an ILLEGAL, i.e. defective or non-compliant, power supply for an indoor “garden”. 😉
Ban the FCC. Leave policing to concerned parties at the state and lower levels, i.e. individual users. Far and away, the end result would be much more effective than the political agenda of the FCC which has nothing to do with mitigating interference, but mainly acts as a proxy for corporate interests. (fascism)
“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”. – Mussolini
Ha ha, the neighbors think the fine is stiff. What they don’t know is no one seems to know how often the FCC actually collects these big fines from pirates. I’ve heard (but have no proof) that’s close to zero dollars because they lack the legal ability to really force someone to pay.
By the way, what do you have to do to get caught broadcasting illegally in Guntersville? There’s only a few local stations. They probably ratted him out because they didn’t need the competition!
As a regulatory organization, the FCC has next to zero authority to enforce or collect.
Unlike the FTC which is law enforcement and can send you to prison.
Bet it was one of those 5 to 30 watt elcheapo jobs you see on Amazon and Ebay.
Spurious City.
And uninformed citizen.