This was PMed to me from someone who wishes to remain anonymous:
So we got the ol' visit from our favorite 3 letter organization last Thursday. Basically he was in a black and gray van and came down from some place on a Monday, and watched the place for 3 days. 1 agent and 1 local police officer stopped one of my friends coming out of their place for work, and flashed 2 badges and a few ID cards, one being the Dept of Homeland Security, in his spiffy shinny blue suit. After vague threats of 10k + in fines and , lol, possible jail time, if they would give him the transmitter, he wouldn't pursue it anymore, and wouldn't pressure them for my name. They basically told him they were hosting the station for a friend.
So after talking with the guy, he turned out pretty cool with them. They told him about how we were trying to go legit with it when they open the application filing window. He was trained by homeland security to look out for domestic terrorists, he got the vibe we were not, and because he had been listening to us for several days. So long story short, this guy only took our amp's power supply. He took a pic of the power supply, jotted down only the serial of the power supply. And left us our transmitter, amp, meter, etc. So obviously this guy knew what he was doing and could have very well grabbed the costly stuff. He left us with a "Notice of Unlicensed Operation", and a "Voluntarily Relinquished Illegal Radio Equipment" form with our Amps 28v power supply serial info. LoL, and also on the Notice, there's no mention of the stations name or anyone else's name, just the frequency number.
So just wanted to pass that along, we are going to continue the internet stream, and keep persueing things locally for it. And then apply for a LPFM license and go that route.
Luckily the person who messaged me didn't mind me posting this modified to remove any personal info as I felt it was really bizarre that they sent DHS along with the FCC and a cop. Since when did they start sending DHS guys to pirate radio stations? That is a bit frightening to say the least. I'm starting to think pretty soon people will be labeled a domestic terrorist until proven otherwise.
Surprised that DHS was tagging along? Come now. We no longer live in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave anymore. The day the Patriot Act was signed into law, is the day the United States began its march towards the 4th Reich.
When 5 year old kids are treated like AL-CIA-DA terrorists at airports and babies in nap sacks get stripped searched...should anyone be surprised the alphabet agencies would join hands and sing Kumbya while marching you off to the Arbicht Mact Fri camps (FEMA)?
Do not be fooled by that smile and wave behind the podium and teleprompter. It is a lot more than what it appears to be.
"Yes We Can...Because We Can...so We Cant Wait.....We Wont Wait"
Seig Heil.
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
Well I didn't know this was happening, but it didn't really surprise me either. This is the first story I have heard from someone telling of this happening but maybe I am just living under a rock.
Well I didn't know this was happening, but it didn't really surprise me either. This is the first story I have heard from someone telling of this happening but maybe I am just living under a rock.
Nah, not a rock. I heard of these on closed mail lists.
This was PMed to me from someone who wishes to remain anonymous:
So long story short, this guy only took our amp's power supply. He took a pic of the power supply, jotted down only the serial of the power supply. And left us our transmitter, amp, meter, etc. So obviously this guy knew what he was doing and could have very well grabbed the costly stuff. He left us with a "Notice of Unlicensed Operation", and a "Voluntarily Relinquished Illegal Radio Equipment" form with our Amps 28v power supply serial info. LoL, and also on the Notice, there's no mention of the stations name or anyone else's name, just the frequency number.
This is the really strange part in all of this. It would suggest a couple of things to me. For one, this visit was not really intended to be one led by the FCC. And two, something else went on at that place, or is going on or will go on that has nothing to do with running an unlicensed station.
Here is what I think is going on.
That operator is transmitting a lot more than just music and jibber jabber. Something was going on that caused the DHS to be notified. The DHS's new "see something say something" snitch program is like a wide open hen house door letting in the fox. It could have been nothing at all and a sheer misinterpretation by whomever was doing the snitching. Not surprising since DHS does not define or hand out any "how to" guideline to the common sheeple under the DHS snitch spell to tell the difference between kids having fun with a Mr. Microphone or a real threat.
Since radio was involved, DHS notifies FCC and the party is on. Or it could be that the snitch contacts FCC and states they hear program content on this weird radio station talking about stuff that would interest DHS, or simply talking about terrorists in general with no intention of causing any trouble or harming anyone, and the entire content was taken out of context by the untrained, uneducated wannabe who "did their part to protect the homeland" and the itchy dial finger went to pushing the call in number to DHS and or FCC..out of excitement "Oh boy this is my first catch yay!".
Since the station was monitored, as they always do anyway, and found not to be containing real terrorist programs making threats, but just some folks running an unlicensed station, they show up, with DHS in hand, and do their thing. Which here we get to the real unusual part of it all.
If they (FCC) were intending to shut this station down, there would have been a lot more done than just taking a picture of a power supply and removing that only.
What I see here is one of two things.
1. The FCC and DHS are giving these operators a little bit of wiggle room to see if they continue their endeavor to check for any real threat as well as continued violation of the rules.
2. The entire story is just that...a wild story.
The FCC is not going to leave out names on their notices, especially on a NOUO or NAL. They are far smarter than that to leave themselves open to a lawsuit to which if they did leave out crucial information like names and locations and field strength measurements, the FCC has no chance of upholding the NOUO or NAL in court.
All we have to do to verify this is to simply look at the history book of NOUO and NAL notices and clearly see all the important information is contained within the notices. These notices are going to be written prior to the inspection, and is why they monitor and measure prior to the knock at the door so they have all the necessary info in hand. They then add more information to the notice during the visit, including taking photographs of EVERYTHING, not just one irrelevant piece of gear.
Also two results could happen during a surprise visit. They either confiscate all of the transmitting devices and connected associated equipment, or they tell you to turn it off and not operate it again. But to take just a power supply unit and leave everything else there is highly suspect in of itself. There is obviously something else going on with this that the person has not communicated to you in that email.
No doubt they will be listening for this station to fire back up again, that is a given considering they left everything there necessary to go back on the air. In other words, laying bait. Setting them up to walk into their own self made trap. They want to verify if there is any real threat or not. This person/s and the residence is now under scrutiny by DHS and being monitored in every form you can think of, including monitoring the radio frequency/s they were transmitting on next to tapping phones and placing bugs and gps tagging equipment on any vehicles that were there.
Out of all the NOUO's and NAL's that have taken place over the years, and knowing the history and procedures taken by the FCC in these cases, does anyone else find this "story" just a bit tilted too?
I hope everyone can see the strangeness in this one. I am not saying that a visit did not take place or that they did not have just one irrelevant piece of equipment taken, but everything noted in what did take place is totally inconsistent with the established procedures and history record of what the FCC does do in dealing with an unlicensed station.
I smell a rat. Rotten eggs. Sewer gas. Hot air.
Kage, since you have this email and its headers and other information...information left out of an official government document on that NOUO, lets wait and see when the FCC publishes this NOUO on their field enforcement posts if the crucial information was left out there too.
Peace!!
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
Just taking the power supply was a technique of the old Department of Communications (now part of Industry Canada) back in the 70's and 80's to unplug the illegal Cee Bee lin-ear (the PSU being usually worth a few times more than the actual unit back then). I wonder if the FCC guy was a former Canuck?
Reading that post, something clicked.... ... I wonder if the FCC guy was a former Canuck?
Possibly. Or the field agent had other more important things to attend to and wanted this particular inspection to be the quickest and most lenient in history.
Either way it is still strange in how it turned out. It just wreaks with too many hints that they are giving this particular operator more rope to hang themselves with. If the inspecting agent's task was to simply take this station off the air, the operator would have been told to shut it off and receive the familiar NO-U-dOn't notice, or the entire transmitting gear confiscated.
But to just snap a pic of the power supply unit and then take it while leaving everything else and no picture of the other offending equipment?
That almost sounds like handing over the entry key to Ft. Knox to a bank robber and taking their picture and walk away...leaving it up to the bank robber to decide what to do next.
Overall it is incredibly odd IMO. But then again, we live on an odd ball of a world anyway...so surprises are as natural as the ball circles the sun.
Peace!
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
The FCC agent was the DHS agent, he was cross trained. Which makes me wonder how many other FCC agents are now working under DHS as well.
As far as info on the NOUO, it was directed to "Residents and Owners of: *address*" and mentioned the frequency.
And yes I still haven't quite figured out the whole Power Supply thing. On the "Voluntary Relinquished Illegal Radio Equipment" form, it says FM Transmitter next to 'Equipment Type'. The actual transmitter was in a pc power supply box, and the amp was in another old box. But, he knows enough to follow the antenna coax. And the transmitter had an LCD lit up hanging out of the box in plain view with the frequency on it. So who knows. I'm thinking he just wasn't being a hard ass, because it wasn't theirs and they were voluntarily giving it up. He just wanted compliance and it's not going to run without power. But we actually could have with just the transmitter at 10 watts as opposed to 40 with the amp.
And I still haven't seen it turn up in their system yet, daily business files or the unauthorized operation section. However I did see listed where a few days later he stopped by at another legit station in the state, and fined them for a bulb being out on their tower.
Post by Ozone Express Radio on Nov 14, 2011 18:26:25 GMT -6
This indeed reeks of the spurious DHS emissions that we've seen over the last few years. THat is an agency that has no obligation whatsoever to give cause, reason, or justification in what they do. They work with full ability to pursue anything they deem a crime, bypassing the Constitution completely. Like the CIA of days gone by, they can pull in any other government branch for their use in going after anything or anyone as they see fit.
I am not usually a tinfoil hat/black helicopter person, but I don't trust DHS one tiny bit, and if they showed up at my door, I'd be looking for bugs, cameras, or other devices in my home afterward.
The FCC agent was the DHS agent, he was cross trained. Which makes me wonder how many other FCC agents are now working under DHS as well.
This is no surprise considering the Patriot Act passed in the blink of an eye back in 2002. It basically tore down the walls separating the many departments of government. With federalizing local authority along with it, any one agent for a given agency can actually be working for another, or more than one.
Things are not what they used to be in the agencies. We can now call the agents "Cross Agents".
Peace!
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
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