Engineers from the FCC Boston district office, aided by the Commission's monitoring net, located and closed an unlicensed "broadcast" station having very unique programming. It intermittently retransmitted programs of local broadcast station but interspersed them with unexpurgated live conversations between a husband and wife team. A mobile unit did the final tracking to a home where a husband and wife were totally unaware that they had been featured on the air. They helped in finding a transmitter hidden in their basement, and a microphone concealed under the dining room table. Their teen-age son, interested in communication-electronics and dissatisfied with frequent parental arguments, had taken this means to "air" his problem. This resulted in a highly unorthodox family situation drama. The FCC engineer, after giving appropriate warning departed with a definite impression that another form of husband-wife teamwork was…… In any event, that particular family series is now lost to radio and any possibility for TV.
A rare case of competition in unlicensed broadcast operation was revealed when engineers of the FCC Buffalo office closed down an illegal operation on 1600 KHz which used the call letters "WINO". Little difficulty was encountered, and its 19-year old operator- a licensed amateur- was cooperative in answering guest ions. He seemed proud of his exceptionally well equipped studio and other facilities, which included an air-cooled final amplifier state, power input of 150 watts, and an expertly-guyed 35-foot antenna. He volunteered the information that the FCC action had come just in time to avert a "RF War" because another illegal station- using the dual call "WCNC/WKRA" and operated by an acquaintance-had selected the same frequency and refused to enter a "time-sharing arrangement." Accordingly, the FCC engineers visited and terminated operation of the rival station. Verbal waning were administered to the youthful competitors in the presence of their parents, and official letter of warning followed.
A member of the Maryland state legislature asked the FCC Baltimore district office to help identify the source of interference to his AM reception. He reported that the trouble was noticed only between 11 P.M. and 7 A.M. Two trips to his home failed to reveal the cause. However, the investigating engineer requested, and received, a tape recording of the interference. After listening to it the FCC investigator made another visit and quickly identified the culprit as an electric blanket which the complainant turned on each night after retiring. As the blanket warmed up, the noise on is also tuned-in radio increased. Though a bit chagrined, the legislator was profuse in his thanks.
A research professor reported inability to cope with interference to his Channel 5 TV reception. Upon investigation, an engineer from the FCC San Francisco office reported a unique case in these technical terms: "A neighborhood hi-fi buff was using, in place of the usual 'tweeters,' a RF oscillator designed to operate on 27 MHz. The oscillator was screen-grid modulated by the audio output of an FM stereo receiver. The modulated signal, when fed into a quartz cell, caused ionization of air within the cell. As ionization varied, pressure within the cell varied in direct proportion to oscillator output. The RF oscillator was radiating a third harmonic causing severe interference to channel 5 TV over a wide area." The operator of the equipment seemed to understand this explanation for he agreed to take his hi-fi out of service until the undesired radiation could be eliminated. But this did not save him form a formal letter of warning.
A petition with 56 signatures was received by the FCC Los Angeles district office complaining of disruptive interference to TV reception. An engineer roamed the area in a mobile investigative unit. Signal strength comparisons and visual observations narrowed the search to a short piece of wire draped over a power line, which contacted a crossbar brace. A power company crew brought quick remedy. The complainants and power company were equally pleased. The latter had spent about $500 in previous vain attempts to locate the trouble.
The FCC's Santa Anna monitoring station and San Francisco district office collaborated in resolving interference to an intercity TV relay link to a college ETV station. When FCC engineers arrived on the scene the trouble had ceased. However, at the other end of the microwave relay system they determined that the annoyance was not from an outside source as reported, but within the relay receiving equipment itself. The unit was disassembled and the receiving reflector shielded, but the condition continued. It was only when an FCC engineer remarked that the interference appeared to come from an electrical heater that the operator revealed an internal heating unit in the equipment. A defective heating element in the combined reflector and tuning head was discovered. The FCC engineers departed after receiving embarrassed thanks for their find.
Responding to complaint of interference from a continuous unidentified signal, the engineer in charge of the FCC Los Angeles district office, after making quick directional check with receiving antennas, started out to find the source. Taking bearings on the signal at various points en route, he trace it eventually to Johnstone Peak, a 4,000 foot elevation in a national forest. There he found, not one transmitter but four, each with a cluster of antennas, for operation in the industrial radio service. Since nothing was visible to identify the licensee, it was necessary to trip the circuit breakers in the power line outside the transmitter building one by one until the signal ceased. It required later inquiry to identify the license in order to serve violation notices for off-frequency operation and failure to deactivate the transmitter when not in use.
Naval air stations at Corpus Christi and Kingsville, Texas, complained of interference on a Navy frequency during a carrier landing drill of the Gulf coast. The FCC's Kingsville monitoring station confirmed that the source was local, since the signal was not heard by other monitoring stations. After taking bearings on navel stations participating in the landing exercise, Kingsville determined the unwelcomed sound came from the Corpus Christi naval air station. The Navy was advised, searched the airfield and found an aircraft with a transmitter left on.
When advised by the FCC Dallas district office that an amateur had reported hearing a marine distress signal, the FCC Ambrose monitoring station alerted the direction-finding net which heard transmissions implying that a steamship was afire in the Gulf of Mexico. However, direction-finder bearing proved that the signal was coming from the New Orleans area. This enabled the FCC New Orleans office to trace the calls to a suburban licensed amateur station. Its operator admitting the hoax calls that caused unnecessary alarm and expense.
While conducting general mobile monitoring operations in the San Francisco area, an FCC engineer received radiotelephone word from the San Francisco district office that Stanford University at Palo Alto was experiencing interference to its pulse radio operations from a radar type signal. Using a microwave receiving horn as a directional antenna, the engineer obtained bearings from some of the higher elevations in and about the city and found that the signal was originating across the Golden Gate Bridge in the vicinity of Fort Baker. Army authorities there cooperated by ordering on-and-off tests of some 10 radar units. This proved that one of them was producing the spurious emissions.
Interference to the Massachusetts police radio network was sufficiently strong to completely disrupt communication. An engineer from the FCC Boston district office traced its source to a private home where it was found to be coming from the family TV set. Tests showed that tuning in Channel 12 caused the strongest radiation. The owner agreed to ignore that channel's programs until corrective measures could be taken. It was later reported that installation of RF filters on the AC power line, a high-pass filter on the antenna input and a telescoping shield over the oscillator tube resolved the problem.