FM Broadcast Monitoring (looking for pirate/unlicensed stations in Tampa bay) 87.9

[radioman2008]

I've been recording FM and AM Broadcast stations for many years, some going back to the early 90s in Michigan and Tampa Bay. ive got a pretty good set of recordings for Tampa Bay FM including HD radio covering at least the last 10 years. assembling quite a database.
my setup includes an AM/FM/HD car stereo and a Sony XDR-F1HD. the Sony has a better receiver than the car stereo

I was at countryside mall a few days ago and was searching around with the Sony and got a weak station on 87.9 playing Spanish music. I got a 15-minute recording. I can tell its Spanish, but there's no callsign heard, and nothing comes up on radio-locator, or a general google search.

87.9 is not a common licensed frequency.

does anyone know of any unlicensed/Pirate FM broadcast stations in the Tampa Bay area? if you know of one in Florida general, please share it. I may take a drive to record it for history

 

[baayers]

I can’t remember if it’s 87.7 or 87.9 but I do periodically hear a station in the Pinellas Park area. What I hear on there is random and I’ve heard Spanish techno and even country on there. They broadcast at very random intervals so I can’t give you an exact time of when you might find them.

On a sidenote, have you considered the Qodosen DX286? It’s a handheld receiver, but it has a DSP chip designed for a car instead of the normal one that comes with most radios. Even in noisy RF environments this radio pull signals that just don’t exist on any of my other ones. For example, during the daytime I live in Largo and this radio can tune in WVVF. 100.1 where my other radios cannot. You can normally find it on Amazon for about $90.

 

[zlandmedia]

I've been recording FM and AM Broadcast stations for many years, some going back to the early 90s in Michigan and Tampa Bay. ive got a pretty good set of recordings for Tampa Bay FM including HD radio covering at least the last 10 years. assembling quite a database.
my setup includes an AM/FM/HD car stereo and a Sony XDR-F1HD. the Sony has a better receiver than the car stereo

I was at countryside mall a few days ago and was searching around with the Sony and got a weak station on 87.9 playing Spanish music. I got a 15-minute recording. I can tell its Spanish, but there's no callsign heard, and nothing comes up on radio-locator, or a general google search.

87.9 is not a common licensed frequency.

does anyone know of any unlicensed/Pirate FM broadcast stations in the Tampa Bay area? if you know of one in Florida general, please share it. I may take a drive to record it for history

Part of me wonders if you were capturing someone's adapter for playing auxiliary audio (from a phone and/or mp3 player), either in a vehicle or maybe at a store/home? How far out did the signal last, if you tested that while driving arounde?

 

[kf8yk]

I was at countryside mall a few days ago and was searching around with the Sony and got a weak station on 87.9 playing Spanish music. I got a 15-minute recording. I can tell its Spanish, but there's no callsign heard, and nothing comes up on radio-locator, or a general google search.

87.9 is not a common licensed frequency.

does anyone know of any unlicensed/Pirate FM broadcast stations in the Tampa Bay area? if you know of one in Florida general, please share it. I may take a drive to record it for history

Probably this: Cadena Adoracion Broadcasting Network. Tampa Florida USA – En Vivo

PastorDickson Burgos

La Cadena Adoración Broadcasting Network. Tampa Florida USA. https://www.cadena-adoracion.com/v2/ YA COMENZO...24 HORAS DE MUSICA SIN INTERRUPCIONES. ''ADORACION SABATINO'' KZSC Adoracion 87.9 FM...

www.facebook.com

"KZSC Adoracion 87.9 FM TAMPA.
WPRF Adoracion 87. 9 FM Port Richey, New Port Richey y Hudson FL."

 

[MiCon]

I debated with myself whether or not to muddy the waters here.

During HS in the late 1960's a local friend would play R&R music on a very low watt AM transmitter. It's not outside the realm of possibility that you're hearing a low-power, random, non-commercial pirate station, someone just doing this for fun.

However, after re-reading your post, my guess would be it's one of the stores in the mall using a low-power transmitter to feed the music to their store P/A system. A church I formerly attended used one of these low-power FM broadcast band transmitters to send a signal to the parking lot so people could listen on their FM radios during covid.

 

[radioman2008]

I can’t remember if it’s 87.7 or 87.9 but I do periodically hear a station in the Pinellas Park area. What I hear on there is random and I’ve heard Spanish techno and even country on there. They broadcast at very random intervals so I can’t give you an exact time of when you might find them.

On a sidenote, have you considered the Qodosen DX286? It’s a handheld receiver, but it has a DSP chip designed for a car instead of the normal one that comes with most radios. Even in noisy RF environments this radio pull signals that just don’t exist on any of my other ones. For example, during the daytime I live in Largo and this radio can tune in WVVF. 100.1 where my other radios cannot. You can normally find it on Amazon for about $90.

ill check out some review vids on the 286.

also, surprised you can hear 100.1 town and country when there is 100.1 WGPY "Radio Free Gulfport" near you. I was down in St Pete beach several weeks ago and recorded several hours of WGPY

 

[radioman2008]

I debated with myself whether or not to muddy the waters here.

During HS in the late 1960's a local friend would play R&R music on a very low watt AM transmitter. It's not outside the realm of possibility that you're hearing a low-power, random, non-commercial pirate station, someone just doing this for fun.

However, after re-reading your post, my guess would be it's one of the stores in the mall using a low-power transmitter to feed the music to their store P/A system. A church I formerly attended used one of these low-power FM broadcast band transmitters to send a signal to the parking lot so people could listen on their FM radios during covid.

that's an interesting idea, if i get a chance, i may head back over to the mall and drive around the entire mall seeing if it gets strong at some point.

 

[radioman2008]

Probably this: Cadena Adoracion Broadcasting Network. Tampa Florida USA – En Vivo

PastorDickson Burgos

La Cadena Adoración Broadcasting Network. Tampa Florida USA. https://www.cadena-adoracion.com/v2/ YA COMENZO...24 HORAS DE MUSICA SIN INTERRUPCIONES. ''ADORACION SABATINO'' KZSC Adoracion 87.9 FM...

www.facebook.com

"KZSC Adoracion 87.9 FM TAMPA.
WPRF Adoracion 87. 9 FM Port Richey, New Port Richey y Hudson FL."

I was on top of Tampa airport this weekend, scanning with my Sony and I don't think I got a hit on 87.9 but ill revisit it next time I go there.

also, I travel to Port richey sometimes, ill check it there. speaking of Port Richey/NPR there is a NEW radio station on 107.9 WNRH-LP "RICHEYfm" as it says on my Sony display. they came online a day or so before Christmas. got some recording examples of air checks. they talk about being a community station

 

[baayers]

ill check out some review vids on the 286.

also, surprised you can hear 100.1 town and country when there is 100.1 WGPY "Radio Free Gulfport" near you. I was down in St Pete beach several weeks ago and recorded several hours of WGPY

I can also pick up WGPY sometimes during the day, but unfortunately, a lot of the time if I point my antenna in their direction, they are drowned out by 100.1 Port Charlotte.

On a sidenote, I don’t know how much FMDX you do, but this is looking to be a good week for it. This evening I’ve been able to grab WJIZ 96.3 Albany Georgia and an FM translator on 104.5 out of Tallahassee.

 

[kf8yk]

I was on top of Tampa airport this weekend, scanning with my Sony and I don't think I got a hit on 87.9 but ill revisit it next time I go there.

Try driving by 3812 N Florida Ave, Tampa, FL 33603. Sign out front has the frequency, Google street view has a 30' mast with a vertical/ground plane type antenna.

 

[pauldenisowski]

Many years ago I tracked down a "pirate" FM radio station in a major U.S. city. The station was transmitting in Spanish, no callsign or ID, and nothing in the FCC database. They were also putting out massive harmonics into licensed spectrum, which is why I was involved .

It turns out that they had "repurposed" an old analog TV station transmitter that used to be on channel 6. The audio subcarrier for this channel is at 87.75 MHz, and despite this technically being outside of the FM broadcast band, many receivers could still be tuned (close to) this frequency.

Maybe not the same thing, but sounds a lot like it

 

[dlwtrunked]

Many years ago I tracked down a "pirate" FM radio station in a major U.S. city. The station was transmitting in Spanish, no callsign or ID, and nothing in the FCC database. They were also putting out massive harmonics into licensed spectrum, which is why I was involved .

It turns out that they had "repurposed" an old analog TV station transmitter that used to be on channel 6. The audio subcarrier for this channel is at 87.75 MHz, and despite this technically being outside of the FM broadcast band, many receivers could still be tuned (close to) this frequency.

Maybe not the same thing, but sounds a lot like it

Some operations like that were actually legal with the FCC at a limited number of locations (like outside DC). These were called "Franken FM". See Channel 6 radio stations in the United States - Wikipedia

 

[pauldenisowski]

Some operations like that were actually legal with the FCC at a limited number of locations (like outside DC). These were called "Franken FM". See Channel 6 radio stations in the United States - Wikipedia

Yes, but not at the power levels these guys were operating at ("low power" - ), They were the strongest FM broadcast signal (measured field strength) - by far - across the entire metro area. I think their second harmonic was higher amplitude than the fundamental of several licensed stations. And no license, station ID, contact info, etc. was also kind of a red flag for us.

This did of course make it pretty easy to DF them, especially with the interferometry-based system we were using. In the attached picture, I'm the guy on the right "supervising" the installation of the antenna.