40 lines
1.7 KiB
Plaintext
40 lines
1.7 KiB
Plaintext
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From: jduncan@got.net (Jim Duncan)
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Newsgroups: alt.radio.pirate
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>I have never seen any posted on this 'newsgroup'.
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>Does it ever happen?
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>
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My "pirate" station was busted by the FCC on 7/31/79. Two agents
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showed up at my house in a big station wagon, responding to a
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complaint from a commercial broadcaster.
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It was KOAN FM 107.9 and AM 1600 in Scotts Valley, CA. The FM was 5
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watts from a 1200 foot hill and had a large coverage area. The AM
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used 35 watts. This simulcast had been on the air 18 hours per day
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since Nov. 1975. It was KOAN (KO-AN) Mountain Fine Arts, translating
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classical music KDFC from San Francisco most of the time, while I
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could go on live from time-to-time. It was a blatant, long running
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violation, and I figured my broadcast engineering career would be
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damaged. Numerous broadcast engineers were aware of it and had even
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been to my house. I can't believe I ever did this. Having been a
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defense industry technician, I designed and built everything myself -
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antennas, receivers, transmitters, etc., and it was all optimized for
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maximum coverage.
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The agents seemed to be amused by the whole scene, actually, and
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visited with me all afternoon. I got an ugly looking citation, but
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there was no fine at the time. KDFC apparently got a number of phone
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calls and letters wondering where the music went (in the Santa Cruz
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mountains).
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The FCC people made it clear that a repeat visit for the same type of
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violation would be a bloodbath. Naturally, if microbroacasting were
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to be legalized in some form, KOAN would instantly reappear, however,
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again with its fine arts format.
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--
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<< Jim Duncan: jduncan@got.net >>
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SEMPER FAC TOTUM
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