Re: RE: Tower Websites & National Security

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Wed, 10 Oct 2001 06:45:37 -0400, hopfgapr@sprynet.com said:

> Isn't 104.7 licensed to Belfast ME? Isn't that about 30-40 miles
> from the location you're taking about? How did that signal get to
> COL?

Belfast is a full class-B.  The zone boundary slices off coastal Maine
from the rest of the state; some of the Bangor-market stations, like
WBZN, are C-family.

Here's a run-down:

WLKE 99.1 - B
WWMJ 95.7 - B
WNSX 97.7 - B
WERU 89.7 - B
WBQI 107.7 - B1
WHCF 88.5 - C
WMEH 90.9 - B
WEZQ 92.9 - B
WWBX 97.1 - B
WKIT 100.3 - B
WQCB 106.5 - C
WVOM 103.9 - C
WBZN 107.3 - C2

The class of the station is determined by its allotment in the table
of FM allocations.  A station is limited to a certain power and height
specified for its class:

A: 6 kW @ 100 m AAT
B1 or C3: 25 kW @ 100 m
B or C2: 50 kW @ 150 m
C1: 100 kW @ 299 m
C0: 100 kW @ 450 m
C: 100 kW @ 600 m

According to the FCC, the reference parameters for a class-B station
result in a principal community contour with radius 32.6 km from the
transmitter site.  A class-C station can serve a community as far as
67.7 km from its transmitter.

WHOM, by the way, is a grandfathered class-C; the maximum power
authorized under today's rules would be 24 kW and not WHOM's 40 kW.
In Bangor, WHCF, WQCB, WVOM, and WBZN operate with less than the
reference facilities for their class.  In many cases this may be
necessary to provide adequate protection to other stations, but there
are also very few transmitter sites in the northeast which could even
meet the 600-m reference HAAT for a full class-C.  (Of course, most of
the region, except for northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and
Maine is outside of the class-C zone.)

-GAWollman