"Jamming" is the word used for deliberately interfering with another stations transmission by broadcasting loud buzzes or noises to crowd out that station's programming, so that listeners can't hear it properly.
Jamming has been done between countries for decades, and still goes on today.
Of course a Part 15 legally operated radio station could not jam licensed stations in their area, but when can "jamming" be legally done by a Part 15 station?
My first idea from a few years ago was to transmit a buzz saw jamming-type signal on an open frequency just for fun, not actually jamming anyone.
Lately we've been hearing a lot about pirate broadcasters actually using frequencies within listening distance of legal Part 15 stations, and there is no reason why a Part 15 station couldn't "jam" the pirate, of course only within the small area legally served by the Part 15 operator,
The subject of jamming came to mind because that's the topic of this week's "Media Network Plus" from PCJ Radio.
Interesting point Carl. I hope it doesn't come down to folks jamming Pirates and in retern the Pirates doing something wild in return. Sounds like two kids in High School who want to prove to the rest of the class they are the BMOC.
Intentionally blocking any LICENSED signal is very illegal regardless of the content of the jamming signal. That being said, no such protection exists for unlicensed stations.
The only time jamming is not illegal is if you are outside of a station's protected zone, or if the station is out of country. By jamming I'm thinking your station on top of another weak one.
For example: if your part 15 station is jamming a weak station from Canada and someone calls the FCC and says I was listening to that and someone is interfering with it...the FCC wouldn't care and visa versa....The FCC could put a local station right on top of that, as long as it wouldn't interfere with the Canadian protected area of the station.
BUT...if I lived in Canada right on the US border and my BETS-1 station was interfering with a local US station in the same area The FCC could do something about that even though I'm outside the US because there's a treaty that a station in one country can't interfere with a station in their protected area in the other country.
Mark
Driving south on I-71 in Ohio, I was monitoring CB channel 19. At some point an annoying warble noise appeared, weak at first and stronger as I drove.
As the strength approached full scale I passed an Ohio State Trooper car with several antennas on it, one looked like a CB antenna.
As I passed that Trooper, the signal gradually faded.
Wonder what the FCC would have to say about that.
Should complain about that trooper jamming CB because they don't have the right to do that. I know many folks hate CB, but really there is important communications that do happen from time to time between truckers.
This is yet another example of when Law enforcement thinks they are above the Law they enforce.
Probably radar interference and not at all intentional. The long whip you saw was most likely for VHF-Lo or regular VHF. If this was still the 80's I could believe it was a CB whip, but if any law enforcement monitors CB at all it is usually channel 9 and only at dispatch.
No long whip on the bumper. Just VHF and a base loaded 30 inch whip on the roof.
Definitely not radar speed detection. You wouldn't hear that from 5 miles out.
This happened around 1985.
"This happened around 1985."
AH! This certainly clears things up! Who knows what wacky things they were getting away with back then.
Thanks for clearing that one up. I've heard back in the CB days that some cops were caught jamming CB channel 19. Some people just liked to run their linears and act like a CB Rambo.
Now days CB is tame compared to what it use to be like. You can actually carry on a conversation if you wanted to and probably with a well tuned Radio could get out quite well and would not need a linear amp.
I've shot skip using just a good stock Radio into a good antenna like a Fire stick or star duster.
Back in the 90's on a trip from Cincinnati Ohio to my parents house outside of Cleveland,Ohio I was passed by a military convoy. I was close to Wright Patterson Air Force Base so it wasn't uncommon to see these convoys.
I had a CB Radio in the car, it was a Courier Spartan 40 Channel AM/SSB radio which i kept on channel 19 while traveling on the interstate to keep up with traffic reports and had made a few friends along the way. Anyway, as this convoy got closer my cb and the truckers around me had this odd sound that seemed to blank out our receive until the military convoy was out of site. There was one military vehicle in the convoy that had a tall whip antenna with i guess an antenna tuner at the base of the antenna.
Our guess was the military was trying out some type of jamming device and it was either on the RC channels where 25 watts is allowed for radio control or they were on some other band and we heard there harmonics or image on 11 meters. I still to this day , don't know for sure what that was all about but it happened a few other times too and only happened in the summer time.
Edit: Around that same time REACT was still active, many Ohio State Troopers had cb's tuned to ch.9 , i know this after running over an aluminum ladder at 60 mph which put my car on the median in 3 feet of water. I called for help on channel 9 and a trooper answered.