Comreg Picks Easy target and a 1 2 3 lets pretend to be a Regulator !

Sponge Bob

In the Irish Times Today

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has had to tell a number of churches to stop broadcasting masses because of possible interference with air-traffic control signals. The Irish Aviation Authority complained to ComReg that it was experiencing interference with the radio frequency used for air traffic control and suggested that Catholic church broadcasts could be causing the problem

Comreg did not 'discover' these infringements themselves and then act even though they have been aware of religous related radio piracy for years. They were allegedly told to get their finger out by the Aviation Regulator , possibly because the interference was near 108Mhz and because some of these transmitters are not small .

Its not just Masses either, I have heard Paisleyite propoganda droning on our airwaves too . Comreg have done nothing about the jesus freaks honking away on 549Khz for YEARS now and where did this lot get all their licences ???

The ODDEST thing here is that the IAA told Joe Duffy yesterday that THEY did not request Comreg to do anything. As the jesus freaks are being left alone and as Comreg are apparently threatening Catholics only .....I wonder if the Paisleyites have taken over Comreg and are using them to wreck the country.

The ODDEST thing of all is that such a conspiracy actually makes sense . Comreg are crap because Ian told them to be crap in order that their souls be saved .

watty

I have severed all connection with certain organisations several years ago because I was told a licence existed and it didn't. Fortunately I found out the reality of the situation before undertaking any work.

ALL spectrum licences apart from RTE's appear to be on Comreg's site if you look hard enough.

Much as I dislike Mr Ian's politics and not a follower or his "Baptist with Ian as Pope for Life" Theology which misleadingly has "Presbyterian" in its title (Marketing ploy I'd guess), I don't think you can hang this one on him.

UCB (A largely UK organisation) would seem to have sponsered or encouraged almost all the Irish Illegal "Evangelical" Transmitters. Most of them certinally carry their content (which is about as related to Ian's Theology) as Eastern Orthodox Church to Catholic Church.

I'm at a loss to explain why:
1) These people do it in the fist place. I've spoken with them and received no rational argument.

2) Why it has gone on for so many years (More than six ?) with largely nothing done.

Most of the Mass transmissions in Limerick area seem to use CB. The UK ofcom has proposed or agreed a CB channel for such activity offically (under heading of Communitiy Broadcasting). I'd think it likely the same will happen here. Tis amazing to see nearly every church with a full size 27Mhz base station 3-section whip on a 20ft pole.

But what has all this to do with Ireland Off Line or Broadband?

Sponge Bob

Comreg also proposed a church band around 27Mhz , never heard what happened to it.

I am angered at the selective enforcement of spectrum use against easy targets. Its easy to get someone to clock up mileage in the summer, double time on a saturday or sunday even.

Its even easier when you approach an old priest on his own and sound official. Plenty of users of the FM band would just laugh at Comreg.

Comreg does absolutely nothing when one of Them Lads saunters past their door in abbey st, no mileage allowances necessary there is there, nor will you find them in D4 where the ould itrips profuse .

Were one to have paid for spectrum and were Comreg informed that it was being misused they would be very reluctant to enforce your rights.

Give them an easy target, mileage on a sunny weekend and a spurious excuse that they received a request from the IAA that was never made ...... and then they can try to sound like they enforce spectrum usage and rights, as a finite national resource, in a clear levelheaded and equitable manner.

Do they ****

bminish

Sponge Bob wrote:

In the Irish Times Today



Comreg did not 'discover' these infringements themselves and then act even though they have been aware of religous related radio piracy for years. They were allegedly told to get their finger out by the Aviation Regulator , possibly because the interference was near 108Mhz and because some of these transmitters are not small .

Hmm, it's a wonder that they did not look more closely at some of the NIR site reports, some of them present significant 'problems' to the airband and Comreg have already paid handsomely for consultants to make measurements on these sites with expensive toys.

one RTE site close to me (and not too far as the crow flies from a regional Airport) caught my attention. Spurious emissions were high enough that the consultants actually calculated NIR compliance for some of the spurs in the Airband (108 - 136 Mhz ).

Of course the site could also be 'clean' and the test equipment was overloaded in which case the entire NIR report is baseless and the consultants should have been sent back and asked to 'try harder'.
Either way it's clear that Comreg pay no attention to the expensive information that they are collecting.

.brendan

Sponge Bob

bminish wrote:

Hmm, it's a wonder that they did not look more closely at some of the NIR site reports, some of them present significant 'problems' to the airband and Comreg have already paid handsomely for consultants to make measurements on these sites with expensive toys.

This is ridiculous , especially as Comreg have hard information in those reports that they paid a lot of money for indicating an aviation safety hazard near an airport ....Knock for example.

As well as that they are surveying sites owned by their own licencees and can surely remind the licencees of their own licence conditions .

But there is no fat mileage allowance and double time overtime out of sending an email to Voda or RTÉ is there ?????

bminish

Sponge Bob wrote:

This is ridiculous , especially as Comreg have hard information in those reports that they paid a lot of money for indicating an aviation safety hazard near an airport ....Knock for example.

The data either indicates that

1/ there are some serious breeches of spurious emissions limits on quite a number of sites
or
2/ the Consultants Misused the measuring equipment (overload ) and the data is invalid
or
3/ Both the above.

in any case It's clear that these reports were not looked over in detail by anyone in Comreg with much RF experience

The 2006 reports published to date show less informative measurement techniques but still seem to be producing some suspicious results in the frequency range 0.1 to 20 Mhz

.brendan

dizzywizzard

Sponge Bob wrote:

In the Irish Times Today



Its not just Masses either, I have heard Paisleyite propoganda droning on our airwaves too . Comreg have done nothing about the jesus freaks honking away on 549Khz for YEARS now and where did this lot get all their licences ???

IMHO these people are left alone for 2 Reasons

(a) No one listens to them and therefore the overwhelming majority of the public don't know they exist therefore there is no kudos in shutting them down. And believe me it would be a lot easier to find a transmitter 'honking' away on 549Khz than any FM transmitter that has been shut down over the past while in dublin pirate radio land.

(b) eh - refer to (a)

DW

Red Alert

The churches use the CB band (well holy cross dundrum does anyway) - i know down the country some use FM-radioband transmitters.

Assuming they have a CB licence if you need one why are comreg interested in them at all?

watty

Nobody said Comreg was chasing ones on CB band. It's the ones on Band II they are chasing.

Though a CB does not entitle you to broadcast church services. AFASIK if you have a CE mark CB you don't need to apply for a licence here. Like WiFi etc it is kind of "pre licenced".

Antenna

On what specific frequencies did the pilots note the reported interfertence?

Is it the churches (like Clonmel) that were on 108.0 (edge of civil airband) that were the cause of bother? or ones on lower Fm band channels that might have been badly overmodulating or even had spurs???

Or might it have been to 4th or 5th harmonics from 27MHz ones which would have fallen in the civil air band?? (such harmonics could have radiated far due to the use of unclean dodgy "linear" amplifiers by the 27MHz churches or even high power into corroded aerial connections)

Capt'n Midnight

[edit]
wasn't there something in the paper about [strike]Today FM[/strike] Newstalk wanting to go national
and wanting 106-107Mhz ?

bminish

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

wasn't there something in the paper about Today FM wanting to go national and wanting 106-107Mhz ?

Today FM IS national (Always has been) and around 100 to 102 FM
Tends to site share with RTE and fits in with their existing 2.2 Mhz spacing plan as is currently used on most RTE FM transmitter sites.

.brendan

damien

Newstalk, no?

jd

damien.m wrote:

Newstalk, no?

yip- they are on 106 in dublin-looking for the national talk radio licence

Sponge Bob

They can feck off, my iTrip is locked and loaded at 107.5Mhz and there it will remain . I'm sure I speak for many of my peers here

Comreg are also well aware of a nascent standardisation initiative across the EU , the scope of which is by no means finalised and which will allocate a smidge of the 88-108 band for short range use, see here.

Until there is some clarity on short range use with at least a 2mhz chunk of spectrum allocated , they cannot plan anything going forward and thats that.

watty

Update on Comreg vs Churches etc.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054950455