I've been sent on a few RFI missions in the last two years.
There are more of them than I would have thought. It sounds like south Florida might be a hot-bed!

Pirate broadcast interferes with airport tower; West Palm man sued - Sun Sentinel

It sounds like this person is going to learn an expensive lesson about operating a pirate radio station.

I remember riding around Orlando with a client a few years ago when he dialed in a pirate radio station. Must be a Florida thing?

BH,

It is interesting (and sad) that aviation communications have not left the 19th century (a little humor). The aviation communications VHF radio spectrum (118-135.975 Mhz) operates using Amplitude Modulation (AM) mode. Other than Citizen's Band (CB) (26-27 Mhz), and some Amateur Radio (ham) hobbyists, AM is a mode that is hardly ever used anymore for communication.

It works, but is "archaic". Businesses and Public Safety Agencies have all swithched to FM and Digital Spread Specktrum (trunking) which is much more secure.

AM is very succeptible to interference. New and better technology has been available for quite some time (20+ years). Why the aviation industry continues to "ancestor worship" is beyond me.

Good luck with that mission! It will keep you busy....

Blue skies and tailwinds!

Because in order to shift you would need an entirely new frequency band, at least temporarily during the transition. You can't use amp mod on the same freq at the same time as other encoding techniques. Of just cut everybody over at 0200 on a Sunday.

Also airlines, NBAA, and AOPA don't want to buy new radios (that would probably cost twice as much as a 152).

Interference hits the Boston area this time.

Federal officials seize equipment for reported pirate radio station in Brockton - Metro - The Boston Globe

"The Enforcement Bureau of the FCC shut down 96 pirate operations across the country in fiscal 2012..."

More than I would have imagined.

Because it would mean junking billions in equipment and having to buy new stuff?

How many times has QRM been shown to be a contributing factor in an accident? Not being snotty, just curious. And of those, how many can be attributed to illegal stations (vs getting ” stepped on” for example)?