Re: WBZ soon to be pummeled by daytime-skywave interference

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

>Dan Strassberg wrote:
<snip>
> The regular daytime operating
>parameters will apply during critical-hours (CH). (The FCC defines CH as the
>two hours after local sunrise and before local sunset.
<snip>
> When that happens, expect
>to see complaints of interference from places like Worcester and northeastern
>Connecticut.

   Right. They should at least have lower CH power and/or go directional
then. Another issue is that one station's daytime skywave is nighttime up
here during parts of the year. December sunsets in Florida only get as
early as around 6 p.m., for example, while in June they're earlier than
ours. But  the path to the north is almost all in nighttime in the last few
minutes of their daytime. It's not just an east-west thing.

   At my outpost, 30 miles south of WTIC (AM), there are some portions of
some winter months when the Miami station on 1080, running 50 kW day,
non-DA, not only interferes significantly in the background of WTIC in the
early evening, but sometimes has brief moments when it comes in on top,
making the local signal unlistenable, in the last few minutes before Miami
switches to its nighttime facilities.

   Granted, WTIC has a mystreriously weak signal for 50 kW Class A, so the
comparison to WBZ isn't one to one. But this interference happens to WTIC
when it's still running non-DA because of its famous special deal where it
goes directional only at Dallas sunset -- always around two hours later
than here.

   Basically just another nibbling away of the Class A stations. After the
last major damage was done to them back, whenever, 20-25 years ago, the
rest of the effective abolition of them is being done in little pieces,
without a rulemaking. They cook the books to tilt the engineering numbers
in favor of the interloper stations. They do little to no enforcement
against daytimers staying on at night and others running daytime power on
the Class A channels, etc. I reference recent DX reports that
WCAT/700/Orange-Athol, has been blasting out late at night.

   You'd think that with the FCC all hell bent to pay for itself by
constituent fees, etc., they'd set up a program to fund the enforcement
division by seizing all the equipment from stations like that, bulldozing
the premises like a drug factory, and auctioning off the gear on their
website. Federal crime forfeiture. Licensee banned for life. Auction off
the use of the frequency to someone new. Hey, maybe they could get a
provision where they'd be able to seize the real estate, too. Let other
stations bid for that all-too-rare transmitter site, or sell it to some
developer to put up McMansions.

   Or, just do it once. All of a sudden -- all those daytimer shutdowns and
nighttime power changes would be happening at 59:59.

   Good question, though, why WBZ's engineers are not all over this. The CE
lurks here, surfacing sometimes, as we know, so maybe he will comment.

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 Have you patronized the skywave signal of an AM Class A station today?

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