Rich Powers asked in a PM and thought to answer here.
"Wait.. I just caught that.. I thought the Procaster had BETS certification... I'm confused now, I thought the Procasters were the ONLY Canadian certified transmitters.. Isn't that what you've emphasized numerous times? What do you mean?"
Answer: Yes the Procaster is the only certified AM we can use here but it is not certified BETS, it is certified RSS-210. RSS-210 is not considered Broadcast equipment. The person in Winnipeg Canada that got a visit and told to cease and desist with a Procaster was a company and was locating them in different places and feeding each one via barix box with internet. In other words was broadcasting without a BETS approved transmitter.
Couldn't really say that this was for personal use. He was told to get a BETS transmitter to continue. Had he been just doing it on his own property from his home, wasn't a company(Radio APNA LTD) it may have been different.
In the USA with part 15 this is not the same as there is part 15 and that's it. As long as you are following the technical rules the use or intent of the broadcast doesn't matter.
.... The person in Winnipeg Canada that got a visit and told to cease and desist with a Procaster was a company and was locating them in different places and feeding each one via barix box with internet. In other words was broadcasting without a BETS approved transmitter.
Couldn't really say that this was for personal use. He was told to get a BETS transmitter to continue. ..
Yeah after I had questioned about that I remembered about there also being RSS-210 - and it's that for which the Procaster is certified. It's just that it threw me off for a few momenta when you mentioned it would be nice if Gerry could get the Procaster BETS certified.
What about the guy in Winnipeg? Do you have a link to more info anywhere online about what had happened with it? Official documentations or otherwise?
@richpowers I'll post the letter here he got from ISED for all to see..
The issue was broadcasting without a BETS approved transmitter.
Enlarge to see.
@mark Wow Mark, that's incredible! Have you ever posted this before? If you had it I must not have been paying attention and didn't realize. This must be the first Canadian "NOUO" I've ever seen. I'm kind of excited about it.
You know, it isn't right. Seems quite unjust for the government to shut down a genuine community station like this, especially when its such a focused area of coverage.
Since 1997... That's 23 years he was on the air? And then what? One day someone complained?
@richpowers That must have been it. Well it could have also been discovered by ISED local office in Winnipeg, not necessary a complaint. Although for 23 years being there it makes you think why all of a sudden did he get a visit after all that time.
No I have not posted this before. I mentioned it before.
One thing to note, with a certification of BETS-1(there are other BETS categories) the certification eliminates the need for a broadcast certificate and no license is needed from the CRTC.
The only thing besides not having a BETS-1 certified transmitter that could have also been a violation was the 2 transmitters operating from the one feed simulcasting the same thing on both transmitters but that wasn't mentioned in the NOUO, just not using BETS equipment.
@mark But the big catch 22 is there currently no AM BETS certified transmitters.. is that correct?
Anyway, I found it by searching: Jagtar Singh, Radio APNA, Winnipeg. Wasn't too hard. After that I scrolled back in time on their Facebook but never saw any mention of their AM broadcast at all.
But I got to thinking, though he had been broadcasting for 23 years, it was probably only online. It's quite likely he had just installed those three Procasters a month or two before the ISED came to investigate, maybe Gerry could tell us when they were purchased, I'd almost bet he bought them around August or September of 2022, so it was not an already established AM broadcast, in which case it no longer seems so atrocious that station got shut down.
I meant to mention that it's interesting NOUOs in the US never mention the actual transmitter used, whereas in the one you posted it specified it was a CHEZRADIO used... Wait a sec... Did he manufacturer an AM model before the Procaster?.. seems he did.. not sure.. but only the company name is mentioned in the citation, not Procaster. I don't know, just jumping from hunch to hunch. I'm betting he had only had the AM broadcast for a brief time.
Here's a couple old Facebook screen grabs from the time period relating to his passing and the station
@richpowers Sad he passed. He doesn't look that old.
Yes he could have purchased the Procasters around that time as you thought. In that case it could have been another radio station that complained. I don't see why a "regular" person would as who would it affect. But it could also have been discovered by ISED themselves.
The Talking Sign came before the Procaster. And no there aren't any BETS AM transmitters.
But Artisan once mentioned a Procaster user that he knew of that got a visit and that was their defence, no BETS AM transmitters and they let him/her continue.
In the USA they used to at least publish the field strength measured with the FM NOUO's and they stopped doing that. In Canada this is not published by ISED like FCC in the USA. They don't make it public. I only knew about this through Gerry at Procaster. I'll ask at sometime when he purchased the transmitters. But with that studio and all the broadcast equipment and setting the transmitters up in different locations he couldn't argue that this was for personal use. Most people that buy a Procaster think legal, no license needed, I can use it, myself included. Who even thinks about whether you are broadcasting or not. Jagtar Singh most likely wasn't even aware of this, nor was Gerry as he told me. In the USA you don't have this nonsense.
But since there are FM BETS transmitters he could have done it on FM but I am not sure about the multiple locations and the same feed to more than one transmitter.