Re: WMEX starts Monday

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Dan Strassberg wrote:
<snip>
>It's possible that, thanks to its new directional
>antenna, the station, after it receives a license to
>cover its CP, will be granted a PSSA and a PSRA using
>higher power. I've tried to calculate what pre-sunrise
>and post-sunset power might be allowed, and my most
>optimistic calculation is around 5 kW. That should be
>enough to satisfy Bell and to forestall any application
>for full-time. Being able to operate with 5 kW or
>something close from 6:00 AM to sunrise and for two
>hours after sunset would be worth a lot more than a
>license to operate all night with 150W or so.
<snip>

        I believe that the FCC rule (73.99) says that PSRA and PSSA power
shall not exceed either 500 watts, or the CH power, or the regular daytime
power, whichever is lower. So, WMEX/1060 would only be able to get a max of
500 w no matter what it's new antenna system might allow on an engineering
basis. That is, unless 73.99 is somehow modified or qualified by another
section of the rules.
        If I have it right, would that make 150 w nighttime power, or
something like that, more attractive than the PSRA/PSSA option?

        Meanwhile, way down yonder here in Connecticut, I'm looking forward
to Gene Burns and Jerry Williams, although it remains to be heard how well
I'll get the station. I heard a test one day in Hartford in December that
was pretty good, and if they still have some more cranking up to do from
whatever power they were using that day, it could be OK. Closer to NYC,
where I live, there's the splash from WHN to deal with. The test was pretty
weak down here in the New Haven area. But luckily it takes bad splash from
*BOTH* sides to get me to give up completely on trying to listen to a
station <g>.