I gave some thought to setting up a low-power FM station, but to remain legal I'd have only a 2 block radius of effective coverage, That wasn't worth the cost and I wasn't about to risk a bust for operating illegally. Not worth the risk…now.

At typical transmit power the FCC can find you almost instantly.

Historically, guns and radios are the first things seized. If you plan to even listen, you need to be on the move and without a predictable trajectory. Kind of like a ham radio version of the sniper's "shoot and scoot."

I can only imagine how sensitive the fed's technology is. Silence is golden.

"Encyrpted, unlicensed ham" is a good way to end up in big trouble with the federales.  They can find your transmitter via triangulation, assuming they want to devote the resources.  You can't just go on the ham bands and start operating.  Licensing exists for a reason.

There is a pirate FM radio station near me operating on 87.7 mHz (that funky lower end of the FM band on which you used to be able to pick up audio on TV channel 6 before TV went all-digital), but I dare not speak of it on secular forums where my location is known, because you never know what boards the FCC monitors to find where the pirates are.  I don't want to rat them out.  And besides, there are no licensed FM radio stations on 87.7 mHz in the United States, it's not as though they're interfering with anything (though there could always be the claim that it interferes with air traffic control or public safety, a spurious charge at best).  The FCC is probably already aware, but chooses not to enforce at this time.  But it's always their prerogative.  I don't want to be the reason the station gets shut down.  It's an interesting alternative-media source.

At this point in the game the FCC simply isn't listening in rural America, let alone spending computing power to brute force idiots talking to each other. In cities though, yes, they will knock on your door and confiscate your equipment. I don't doubt they are logging everything though, even in rural areas. The distinction between them actively listening and them being able to listen to stuff in the past most people ignore I think. My area's VHF activity is far more than 50% pirate. People do simply "just operate" (and yes, they do stick out like a sore thumb too for the most part).

I gave some thought to setting up a low-power FM station, but to remain legal I'd have only a 2 block radius of effective coverage, That wasn't worth the cost and I wasn't about to risk a bust for operating illegally. Not worth the risk…now.

At typical transmit power the FCC can find you almost instantly.

Historically, guns and radios are the first things seized. If you plan to even listen, you need to be on the move and without a predictable trajectory. Kind of like a ham radio version of the sniper's "shoot and scoot."

100W is the typical transmit power.

The LO (local oscillator) isn't putting out a signal that can be heard off your property. BIG difference. Several orders of magnitude.

I happen to own an RF meter that detects all kinds of magnetic and RF fields. Let's just say my antennas aren't giving off ANYTHING while I'm just in receive. So nobody can find me when I'm in that mode (receive only). When I key up, even 5W, then it's a totally different story. RF leaving the property like light on a hill. Very noticeable to someone wanting to find it.

QRP (transmitting with less than 6W of power) is very do-able. In fact, I'm very interested in QRP personally. You can make some good long-distance contacts with that amount of power and a good antenna.

HOWEVER, when you transmit into a dummy load, etc. you're only going to pick up those radio frequency signals IN THE SAME ROOM, and that's it.

I've built an oscillator circuit in the ham bands -- a number of milliwatts. No power amplifier at all. No antenna hooked up to it. I could hear the signal on my radio. But I bet my neighbors couldn't hear it.

Remember, all the RF interference from your neighborhood works both ways. All that noise is a hassle when you're trying to make contacts, but it's a cloak of sorts too. If you can't make multiple great DX contacts any day of the week with 1/2 a watt, then NEITHER CAN THEY.

I just get tired of the (almost propaganda level of) THEY ARE SO POWERFUL. IT'S HOPELESS. GIVE UP.

There are multiple levels of "possible". Copying off everything that flows on the Net? Yes, that's easy. Reading through, processing, and understanding it? That relies on AI and software which is, as I've said many times, rock-stupid. Just talk about the "una c*m" debate and they'll think you're talking dirty. They'll put you in the wrong bucket, thinking they "have you" by making you into a slave of your passions, thinking/talking about s*x all the time. And here you were actually an awake and aware Trad discussing the Crisis in the Church! They got you totally wrong, because a computer doesn't know when you're talking Latin or Theology. Serves em right!

For all our advancement in computers, they are still as stupid as they were 40 years ago. They still execute instructions one at a time, make basic, simplistic comparisons, and execute branches of code based on conditionals. 

// Search for certain phrases in a sentence...
if (stripos($sentence, "c*m") !== -1) {
 // Found instance of "c*m".
 // He's talking dirty
}

That is also why I'm not interested in self-driving cars. If I could get a self-driving car for $1 more, I'd pass. I couldn't trust my life to a rock-stupid computer.

P.S. I had to censor the term here, lest you-know-who have a problem with THIS thread as well.

I simply explained how receiving can be detected.

Nowhere did I suggest giving up or advise hopelessness. Quite the contrary, on this very forum I have repeatedly advised people to prepare—radios, guns, and other preps.

In the years you have "known" me, what have I ever said that prompts you to rage against hopelessness? Prudence, caution, and bland facts (receiving can be detected) are not hopelessness or despair.

The mere fact that I am alive should be pretty good evidence that I don't give up easily.

You and I will pick our own levels of risk, our own times and places and circuмstances of resistance.

That is all.