Matt,
Well, yes you are advocating for illegal and unethical operation when you call them "...a very workable option." They are not. Not cool.
As a legitimate business I must attempt to compete, operating 100% legally, with the requisite knowledge and skills to do so, with everyone who you're telling that no knowledge and no care is necessary, and that operating at orders of magnitude more than legal limits, is "a very workable option." ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE. You're advocating 30 Watts when 11.8 microwatts is the legal limit. You must do the math to get the uW limit from a field strength of 250uV/m @ 3m, but that's the requisite knowledge that I mentioned. Speaking of requisite skills and knowledge, 4-5 blocks is absurd. A properly deployed 30W FM station on a hill can cover tens of miles of radius.
I'll let you know what that means in real hardship terms right now: I've spent a lifetime studying and working to become knowledgeable and valued in our industry. Since 100% legal FM TX equipment has been backordered for months, my business has been out of business since March 12, with functional transmitting equipment sitting on my shelves that clients aren't eligible to receive licenses or STAs for, while competition has been doing exactly what you advocate to turn a profit. For tens of thousands of clients and events. They will continue to maintain their clients after my legal equipment finally arrives, because their clients are happy with their performance and don't wish to be instructed or to be hassled by the ridiculously low legal limits and the performance issues caused by them. For example they don't want to know that their $149.00, 7 Watt eBay/Amazon imported transmitter, with a "legal" FCC ID number, is totally illegal in multiple specifications and that the ID number was obtained through fraudulent means and filings. And when I tell them that, they never call me again. But their station stays up and running.
This is the House of Worship forum, making your advice even more upsetting.
Not. Cool. At. All.
Indeed Jason situational morality with no idea who they will harm. If a Hospital has a VHF paging transmitter and one of these illegal units is splattering all over the band, imagine if a code team misses a page? The code teams share a common cap code so the page only goes out once. This is not some pie in the sky scenario.
The callousness of Matt's post is unreal. Somehow the fact that these are being used for protests and demonstrations doesn't in any way indemnify or even morally protect the users.
I think if we take this down to why rules exist in a civilized society we will end up too close to politics. Maybe Brian will let us do an opinion show on it.
