"N22X" wrote:

Since the FCC closed all their monitoring stations
seven years ago, the number of pirates and
unlicensed activity on HF has jumped by quantum
leaps. (snip)


If the FCC has closed all their fixed monitoring stations, it was probably
in favor of better and cheaper technology. In other words, I strongly
suspect monitoring capability is still there - it just needs an employee
interested enough to do something with it (or perhaps enough employees to do
something effective with it).

On the other hand, I haven't seen an increase in unlicensed activity. The
only two pirates I've heard in this area have recently closed down their
operations, though not as a result of FCC enforcement activities. Instead,
since fewer people today scan around through available frequencies for
something to listen to (scanning instead through the stations they've
previously programmed into memories), many pirates are simply finding it
more difficult to gain an audience today. Of those people still scanning
around through available frequencies, fewer seem interested in pirate
stations.

Those things, perhaps more than anything else, may eventually spell the
end of pirate broadcasting.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/