Re: Re:WGBH

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 06:10 AM 6/11/2002, Dan Strassberg wrote:
>My recollection is that 'GBH-FM is moving from 98 kW @ 198m to 21 kW @ 323m.
>Using my relationship, the height increase should necessitate a reduction to
>37 kW, but the CP is for 21 kW. Thus, to make the move, the FCC required
>'GBH-FM to, in effect, cut its power to 57% of its current value. The power
>cut could be the result of moving to a location 10 or so miles northwest of
>the current one and thus 10 or so miles closer to some existing station or
>stations (or maybe because the new site is just a bit less than 10 or so
>miles closer to the Canadian border). However, I think the change in
>height-adjusted ERP is to correct a grandfathered condition that could be
>maintained only if the station made no change in its operation.

The Canadian border theory is a good one...I would add to the mix that 
non-comm allocations are not determined solely by contours, there's the 
wonderful world of negotiated interference in there, too.  Quite possibly 
they're protecting someone to the north (one of NHPR's stations I'd guess) 
by dropping power...or protecting WZBC on 90.3 (which is only 6-7 miles 
from FM-128)


>The curious thing is that, according to the FCC's public FM database, WGBH
>is now and will continue to be a Class B (not B1 and not C of _any_
>subclass), yet the old power, which is equivalent to roughly 200 kW at 150m
>(the nominal Class-maximum HAAT for Class Bs--that is, the HAAT above which
>an ERP reduction is required) is about four times the maximum for a Class B.
>The new power, though lower on a height-adjusted basis, is still equivalent
>to more than twice that for a Class B.

Not all that curious, it's a quirk of the rules that Class C licenses were 
never allowed in New England or southern CA (spectrum too crowded) but WGBH 
was always grandfathered as a "super" Class B so it wouldn't look like the 
FCC was saying "No Class C's, except for this one"


____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels.com Technical Consulting
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron