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Ahoy, Air Force Academy FM: It's a Pirate !

J

joebtsflk1

Star Participant
(this is a repost from the Colorado board)

Forgive me in advance if it seems a lot of my threads lately have to do with improper station operation if not illegal operation, as in no license at all.

In the latter category is Air Force Academy campus radio KAFA 97.7 in Colorado Springs. First a quick reception report, received KAFA 50 miles south of the academy on the southside of Pueblo. Nothing like having a couple of thousand feet height advantage over Pueblo as well as active thunderstorms in the area.

Question is this: I haven't seen this station in the FCC database for a couple of years. Maybe if you're attached to the federal government like the academy, can you just force your station on the air?
 
If you're "attached" to the federal government, you get your license through NTIA, not through the FCC, which is why your station doesn't appear in the FCC database. We were having these same conversations about KAFA (and the now-defunct WKDT at West Point and WRNV at Annapolis) back in the very early 1990s in the pages of the old FMedia! newsletter long before there was even an internet on which to discuss it.
 
fybush said:
If you're "attached" to the federal government, you get your license through NTIA, not through the FCC, which is why your station doesn't appear in the FCC database. We were having these same conversations about KAFA (and the now-defunct WKDT at West Point and WRNV at Annapolis) back in the very early 1990s in the pages of the old FMedia! newsletter long before there was even an internet on which to discuss it.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the FM band is considered non-government. Does the NTIA have the authority to license stations outside of frequencies allocated to the Federal government?
 
fybush said:
If you're "attached" to the federal government, you get your license through NTIA, not through the FCC, which is why your station doesn't appear in the FCC database. We were having these same conversations about KAFA (and the now-defunct WKDT at West Point and WRNV at Annapolis) back in the very early 1990s in the pages of the old FMedia! newsletter long before there was even an internet on which to discuss it.
Click to expand...


And if you are somewhat differently attached to the federal government, you can put a 100,000 watt AM station on a (former) 1-A clear channel with no call letters at all!

Or, more nefariously, you buy a steamship company that has no ships and build a 50,000 watt station on a US/Honduras owned island in the Caribbean, also with no call letters.
 
DavidEduardo said:



And if you are somewhat differently attached to the federal government, you can put a 100,000 watt AM station on a (former) 1-A clear channel with no call letters at all!

Or, more nefariously, you buy a steamship company that has no ships and build a 50,000 watt station on a US/Honduras owned island in the Caribbean, also with no call letters.
Click to expand...

I would have to guess that the Air Force Academy does not have the same authority as such... uhhh... "agencies." ;)
 
So, you learn something new every day...just as you don't BS the BSer, you don't license the licensor. Not that a 100 watt (?) campus FM station of a federal armed service academy is BS.

TV Marti, well, it was an interesting experiment...
 
DavidEduardo said:



And if you are somewhat differently attached to the federal government, you can put a 100,000 watt AM station on a (former) 1-A clear channel with no call letters at all!

Or, more nefariously, you buy a steamship company that has no ships and build a 50,000 watt station on a US/Honduras owned island in the Caribbean, also with no call letters.
Click to expand...

Ah....the notorious "Radio Swan"!!! 1165 KHz, IIRC.....Anti-Castro "format"!!!;) I've got pics of the xmtr site somewhere (NO, I didn't take them myself!!) Caused some nighttime reception problems for WJJD, Chicago (1160) and WWVA, Wheeling, WV (1170)....Rumor has it they actually SENT QSL cards to listeners who submitted a reception report!!!
 
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Oldie919 said:
Ah....the notorious "Radio Swan"!!! 1165 KHz, IIRC.....Anti-Castro "format"!!!;) I've got pics of the xmtr site somewhere (NO, I didn't take them myself!!) Caused some nighttime reception problems for WJJD, Chicago (1160) and WWVA, Wheeling, WV (1170)....Rumor has it they actually SENT QSL cards to listeners who submitted a reception report!!!
Click to expand...

I got cards both for Radio Swan, signed by the inimitable Horton H. Heath of the Gibraltar Steamship Company. And then one from Radio Americas 1160, from the offices off Flagler in downtown Miami in the same office as the Interamerican Association of Broadcasters run by Cuban exile broadcaster Ramón Goicochea. .

On a visit to Miami to visit WFAB when I was a young teen I got invited on a supply run to Swan out of Opa Locka. Got to see the station, but at that time I did not know enough about transmitters and directionals to be able to observe much.
 
DavidEduardo said:


I got cards both for Radio Swan, signed by the inimitable Horton H. Heath of the Gibraltar Steamship Company. And then one from Radio Americas 1160, from the offices off Flagler in downtown Miami in the same office as the Interamerican Association of Broadcasters run by Cuban exile broadcaster Ramón Goicochea. .

Click to expand...


Do you know that Moises Lopez who did some work for Radio Swan is still going strong at Marti, must be in his mid 80's. That guy has an incredible voice and I always wondered what Radio work he did in Cuba or Miami. He didn't speak much English and what he did say would crack me up. Probably the signature News presenter at Radio Marti!
 
Oldie919 said:
Ah....the notorious "Radio Swan"!!! 1165 KHz, IIRC.....Anti-Castro "format"!!!;) I've got pics of the xmtr site somewhere (NO, I didn't take them myself!!) Caused some nighttime reception problems for WJJD, Chicago (1160) and WWVA, Wheeling, WV (1170)....Rumor has it they actually SENT QSL cards to listeners who submitted a reception report!!!
Click to expand...

In Google type the following
site:americanradiohistory.com "radio swan"
and have fun....
 
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