Re: WJTO sign off

["Dan Strassberg" <Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

I believe, but can't prove, that you've got the timeline wrong. When US
daytimers on Mexican clear channels were first authorized to operate full
time (and they were the _first_ US daytimers that were allowed to do so), it
was _before_ the Rio treaty took effect. The US stations were originally
limited to 500W at night. Restrictions were more severe on stations close to
Canada, based on interference to Canadian Class II's that were notified to
the US. But for probably the last four or five years, the FCC has been
granting, and owners have been building, higher power nighttime facilities
for a number of the stations that were originally limited to 500W or even
less at night. In the San Francisco area, for example, there is a station on
1050 that either holds a CP for (and may actually be operating with) or is
already licensed for either 10 kW or 50 kW at night using (I think) a
six-tower array. In the US, complex arrays of that sort are a fairly recent
development on 730, 800, 1050, and 1570. On 1220, on the other hand, WGAR et
al has used five towers for close to 60 years. However, I beg to differ
about 1220 sounding like a clear channel in the US. That certainly wasn't
true in the northern US. The Canadians stocked the channel with a plethora
of signals that, despite protections to Mexico, made 1220 pretty noisy at
night--at least in the northern part of the US.

I'm almost certain that WJTO's night power limitation (as well as WACE's and
those of other 730s in the northeast) are for the purpose of protecting
CKAC--not XEX (or whatever the current calls).

--

Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
Phone: 1-617-558-4205, eFax: 1-707-215-6367

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin J. Waters <mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu>
To: Dan Strassberg <Dan.Strassberg@worldnet.att.net>
Cc: boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org
<boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Date: Monday, May 15, 2000 8:05 PM
Subject: Re: WJTO sign off

<SNIP>

>        Frequent poster Ron Gitschier, of the U.S. Navy and the mighty 1570
>station in Ferdinanda Beach, Fla., has told me that more restrictions
>remained in place regarding the Mexican clear channels than the Canadian
>channels even after Rio, right up until now. But he said that is about to,
>or maybe now just has, finally changed, so the same general rule will be in
>effect--that the Class A stations need not be protected beyond the national
>border.
>        His station apparently is talking about getting significant
>full-time power, even though the Mexican station is the one in the city
>across the river from Del Rio, Texas, and so not all that far from Florida.
>So, I'm wondering whether WJTO's nighttime operations have been restricted
>because of Mexico, not Canada, but that that is changing now, as it is in
>Florida. Or perhaps the restrictions that remained until now were only for
>stations located closer to Mexico.