Comments on: Greely Pirate Radio

By: gordon.dewis.ca | It’s time to shut down your pirate radio station, Jayhaed

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 06:58:30 +0000

[...] doubt he’s read my other posts about this, but maybe he’ll see this one: Hey Jayhaed, it’s one thing not to have any [...]

By: William

William — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:41:09 +0000

There were two spots (barely) left on the dial. After an appeal to cabinet, some intra-corporate shuffling of frequencies at Astral-owned stations in Ottawa and Pembroke, and an unprecedented approval by IC of a second adjacent FM allocation, three were squeezed in.

The Ottawa, Smiths Falls and Buckingham markets currently have 29 authorized FM signals, including the three just licensed. Even if we moved EVERY current frequency in Eastern Ontraio to allow for third adjacent spacing (assuming that is even possible), the most that could be squeezed in would be 4 more. And that wouldn’t leave much room for stations in adjacent markets like Montreal, Kingston, Brockville, Arnprior.

By: gordon

gordon — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:23:35 +0000

I think IC was accepting applications for two slots in Ottawa sometime in the last year and there were ten applications. I don’t know if this means the area is saturated, or if they were only considering two slots.

By: Jan Pachul

Jan Pachul — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:10:40 +0000

The regs say interfence is “deemed not to exist” IF the frequency meets the
separation requirements. I’m sure 91.9 does not meet IC FM radio separation requirements hence interference to CBC. It could be there is NO frequency available that has the required separation.

I agree he should have stopped when IC showed up. There is no benefit to pissing off IC Spectrum Management. Maybe the kid should work on an amateur radio license so he knows something about rf and transmitting.

By: gordon

gordon — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:37:04 +0000

I’m sure that 91.9 is NOT the best frequency at that location. If you follow Industry Canada’s separation requirements for FM radio, interference is deemed not to exist.

But there’s that nagging issue that he is interfering with licensed spectrum users in the vicinity of his transmitter — CBC has a video report demonstrating this.

The kid, at the very least, should have gotten an FM broadcast license from Industry Canada before powering up his transmitter. And when Industry Canada came along and said to cease and desist, he should have.

By: Jan Pachul

Jan Pachul — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:30:37 +0000

The kid needs some filtering on the output of his transmitter. From my own experience as an amatuer radio operator, it’s pretty easy to get off frequency spurious signals. The transmitter needs to be tested with spectrum analyzer into a dummy load with full modulation. The harmonics should be at least 30 db below the main carrier. The carrier deviation width is also real important in FM modulation.

I’m sure that 91.9 is NOT the best frequency at that location. If you follow Industry Canada’s separation requirements for FM radio, interference is deemed not to exist. I don’t think the kid knows how to pick a frequency.

Also the kid at the very least should have gotten NAVCOM approval since he is so close to an airport.

The golden rule of pirate broadcasting is do not cause interference to other spectrum users.

By: gordon.dewis.ca | Industry Canada needs to fine the Saadés and confiscate their transmitter immediately

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:50:19 +0000

[...] last report, the pirate radio station I wrote about that being run by Jayhaed Saadé is still on the air, despite having been told to cease and desist [...]

By: gordon

gordon — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:57:00 +0000

While wading through all the comments on the CBC story, I came across an interesting reference to VankleekFM. VankleekFM is an ultra-low power FM broadcaster located in Vankleek Hill, Ontario. Operating on 88.7 MHz, VankleekFM provides local information about things going on in Vankleek Hill. If the kid adopted this strategy, he would probably have no problems getting a license, as long as he respected the conditions of the license.