Here's a unique Part15AM story that made frontpage news in
Enterprise-Record (Chico, California) · Thu, Mar 16, 1944 (and others).
This war-time period coincides with when the FBI was working with the FCC to enact a requirement that all radio operators in the US have figerprints on file in Washington - and that also specifically included the part 15 AM phono-occilators! So that helps put this story in a better perspective.
Anyway, they nailed a few "Japs" for broadcasting japanese music here in America, with non-compliant part15 transmitters...
"...The two sets were discovered by use of a federal communications commission monitor after residents of nearby Klamath Falls, Ore., complained of hearing Japanese language broadcasts,.. ... Seawell described the sets as of a type for relay of recorded music from room to room in a house, but one was several hundred times more powerful than permitted under FCC rules and the other eight times more powerful...
..Federal Judge Martin I. Welsh issued bench warrants for their arrest, setting bail at $2,500 each.."
Didn't ham operations during WW2 cease because of espionage concerns? All of that was heavy handed, and enforcement meant it. Not just a terse letter from the FCC.
Goodness, where are you digging this stuff up?
Didn't ham operations during WW2 cease because of espionage concerns? All of that was heavy handed, and enforcement meant it. Not just a terse letter from the FCC.
Goodness, where are you digging this stuff up?
Yes thats correct, however they were allowed to use part 15. I think I had posted thev1940s FCC announcement about this here before.. i have to fond it, but whats interesting is that it concluded by saying that transmission of any signal farther than "beyond eye of sight" was being banned.
There are articles from the time that report hams staying active by using various part 15 frequencies for local communications.
I misquoted, it actually said "...Under suspended rules and regulations, this type of operation is now restricted indefinitely to the frequencies which, generally speaking, do not carry farther than the line of sight."
"except those stations using short-range frequencies above 56,000 kilocyles"
So I guess it was OK to use the 6M, 2M, and higher bands, as long as you weren't taking advantage of trans equatorial propagation, meteor scatter, or sporadic E 🙂
Actually, I don't think they started using TE until later in the 40's, and meteor scatter until the 50's, although I believe sporadic E was already a thing. EME (aka moonbounce) wasn't used by hams until the 50's. Basically, on those bands, it was, "no talking to people from other countries".
@rugster im lost in your ham TE and so forth, but I do know the hams resorted to other means of legal transmissions when the amateur radio use got banned. They began doing powerline transmission (cc) and other things. The newspapers and magazines featured such sctivities for hams during the ban.
Also, particularly during the 40s and even the 50s, children and young teens who had their own part 15 AM stations would often be referred to as "young hams".