Re: WHEB

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 12:43 PM 5/29/97 +0000, you wrote:
><<On Thu, 29 May 1997 00:47:07 -0400 (EDT), Jibguy@aol.com said:
>
>> Does anyone know the REAL story of why WHEB-750 ended its life several years
>> ago?
>
>The story I had heard was that they are exactly 746 miles from
>Atlanta, and therefore had severe restrictions on the available night
>power, and that the FCC refused to allow them to move the station to
>Kittery where they could have built a reasonable full-time facility.
>
I heard the same story, Garrett, but I pulled out a map and it ain't so! It
ain't even _close_ to being so. I'd say that the distance from Atlanta to
Portsmouth is about 100 miles greater than the distance from Chicago to
Ashland. However, at some point (I think it was when the FCC eliminated the
distinction between the old IA and IB clear channels and made all the former
Class Is Class A), the FCC changed the rule on the location of secondary
stations on the former IA channels. Instead of setting an arbitrary 750-mile
spacing requirement (which would have royally screwed WBZ and WWL--the two
directional IAs), they applied the same criterion that had always existed
for Class II fulltime stations on IB channels. The Class II was not
permitted to deliver more than 25 microvolts/m 10% skywave to the Class I's
0.5 mv/m 50% skywave contour. This change made possible higher power
nighttime operation by many of the (now) Class Bs on the (now) Class A
channels. Originally, fulltime Class IIs on IA channels were limited to 1 kW
at night (with a few exceptions; mostly west-coast stations protecting IAs
in the east). Note, for example, that WBPS uses 3.4 kW at night. WBPS's CP
for Ashland was approved after the current rules went into effect (although
I think the overlap with WMVU during the day must have been grandfathered
from the original CP). OTOH, WADN, which was granted before the current
rules went into effect, uses only 1 kW at night (and hence is lucky to be
heard beyond the limits of its ground system on good nights). 

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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