I am placing this in the DX column since there is no topic title available hope you find a laugh or two.
In the last few years I have heard many myths and stories about the FCC and it's monitoring of Broadcast stations, AM FM .TV and of course ham radio. This article does not have the intent of encouraging you to break the rules and regulations of the amateur service on the contrary just be informed.
I worked in the broadcast profession for over forty-five years, I not only worked full time at a local tv station, but on occasions would service AM or FM Radio stations as well. In all that time I never met, or saw any one from the FCC, no surprise inspections as were often rumored. In fact, no fines, or violations were ever registered against the station where I was employed.
The rumors often surfaced among broadcasters that the FCC was in town, but what was the basis for this rumor? Well, in some investigation we found a few people spotted a white panel van unmarked and with a US Government plate. Now this could have been any service of the government including in this area a shuttle for Veterans to the Marion, Illinois facility. There were no other markings on the van, but one thing for sure we knew it was not the FCC. No, they do have a big sign on the side of the van, that is if indeed they are using a van.
In fact, I had an opportunity to converse with the driver of the van and yes, it was a shuttle van and not the FCC snooping around. Often these phone calls who claimed they spotted the FCC were unfounded and no basis to the claim. BTW any one from the Commission has the proper ID and unless you see their ID, do not let any one in your house to inspect anything. If they are properly identified comply with their request. However, unless you are really doing something very bad, or in one case in Maine an unmanned transmitter they do not bother you.
I heard one rumor about the fact that an amateur in the tri-state obtained his license, he claimed the FCC was in his driveway the next day… Let’s take a look at that myth, first did he ask for any proper ID? No, it was just assumed. Oh, but let’s not forget the fact that amateur stations are no longer inspected by anyone other then you. The old Federal Radio Commission of the early days of radio and to the FDR era did inspect amateur stations prior to gaining an operators license. This practice went by the way side shortly after the FRC became the FCC in the mid thirties.
One evening I was working and a knock on the back door of the station, there was a rather rough looking character at the back door and told me he wanted to come in the station. We normally did not let anyone in after hours and that was five PM. Yes, we were on the air 24 hours, but business offices were closed. This character got back in his car drove away, came back about an hour later and told me he was from the FCC. I asked for his ID and he produced a driver’s license for a few seconds, I told him no he was not coming in the station. I did get his name and license tag number, we captured it on security cameras. I then called the law to report someone impersonating a federal officer.
Last I saw of him local law enforcement was having a chat in the parking lot and guess what, he was not an FCC man! Gee, no surprise!
One of the best stories in my line of myths and assumptions centered on a radio station in Newington, Ct. I was in the army back in 66 and during that time I met another young man who also worked in the broadcasting profession. On weekends we would travel around and stop in various stations on the East coast, our reception was very cordial and we had some good visits. However, one Sunday morning we were in Newington, I wanted to see ARRL headquarters at least the outside of the building and the antenna farm. In coming through Newington we spied a radio transmitting tower belonging to WPOP radio. We got out of the car and I was showing my friend Doug about RF fields, I had a Simpson 260 VOM in my car and I switched it on and let the leads dangle in the breeze.
We walked around the fence housing the tower and the meter would dance up and down depending on where we were on the ground and in the main lobe of the station’s antenna.
Now picture this, my car then was a 62 Ford Galaxy painted blue, dark blue, it had some antennas on it since I operated mobile. Ok, so here we are with a meter of some sort taking measurements or at least gave the indication we were taking some type of measurements.
There was one young man at the station that morning, he stuck his head out and we asked if we could come in the station. This boy was sweating bullets, we looked around at transmitter readings, modulation, frequency drift , etc. Even the station log, by this time he made a phone call to someone and apparently they did not know any more then he did.
We thanked this young man for his time and left, but as Doug and I got in my car and drove away, we looked at each other and had a good laugh since the young man at the station must have thought we were FCC. Yet, we were not asked for any ID, it was just an assumption on his part, a panic alert and nothing more. We made no pretense of being from the FCC, nor did we tell him we were, had he asked we would have told him we were just two guys who worked in the broadcasting profession and were now in the Army.
One more item to add, we all know that the legal limit on our operating power is 1500 watts and no alarms go off at the FCC office if we are 1501 Watts. In fact broadcast stations are allowed a 10% above and 20% below the operating power. Yes, I do know that many amps on the market today will exceed the legal limit and some push the envelope. But contrary to rumors alarm bells do not go off at any FCC office. Where they do get a little tight is clandestine FM, or AM stations, power is limited to 250mW and cannot exceed a certain Field strength.
So the moral of this article, be sure your record is clean, no clandestine radio stations, or unmanned transmitters, be sure you ID your station properly and at the intervals required. If you keep your house in order, doubtful you will ever see an FCC man.
