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Definitely not. it is legal to do up to 100 milliwatts on am with an antenna plus groundwire no longer than 3 meters, or on fm you can not make a signal strength in the fm band that is more than 150 microvolts per meter. Here's the rule: that translates out to be about 1/25th of a watt of power for your amplifier, into a standard dipole antenna. See our article, "appropriate channels" for more about the viability of operating a radio station under such constraints. http://www.prometheusradio.org/alternatives.shtml So, that is what is legal. We have never heard of anyone being busted for an operation that was smaller than a few watts- mostly people get busted have 20 watt amplifiers at least. In fact, we heard of someone who was visited by a field agent who said he wouldn't bust them if they didn't go over three watts. This is the equivalent of a state trooper not giving you a ticket for going 71 MPH in a 65 MPH zone- they could give you the ticket, but they usually don't.We know of stations that have been on the air for seven and eight years without ever having a visit from the FCC, too. No one complained, so the FCC never came or even knew about it, probably. Truthfully, a lot of computer monitors , garage door openers, WiFi devices and other things often malfunction and put out a bit more than the stated legal limit, and you don't see SWAT teams coming in and busting down the doors. So you can make your own judgment about what level of risk you feel comfortable with. Now you know what the law actually is, and what level of activity can be described as legal. Prometheus in no way advocates that anyone break any broadcast laws, nor do we support them in that activity. Any one who tells you that they have some device that they can sell you, that can reach more than a half mile to a mile of SOLID coverage, that you do not need a license for to operate legally- they are almost certainly a liar or severely misinformed.
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