RE: WILD Sign-offs??

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Fri, 13 Dec 2002 21:18:29 -0500, "elipolo@earthlink.net" <elipolo@earthlink.net> said:

> Nope, I live in Somerville, just a couple of miles from WILD's Medford TX, 
> and I can listen to the daytime 5000 watt AM stereo signal until 4:15, and 
> then the 1000 watt mono "PSSA" signal still loud and fairly clear until 
> it simply just cuts out in mid-program at 4:45.

Please trim irrelevant quotations.

WILD is authorized to operate with 5 kW for most of the day, but must
power down to 1 kW during critical hours -- that is, the two hours
after sunrise and before sunset.  WILD must have replaced its antenna
system at some point in the past, because it is authorized for 5 kW in
name only -- the license specifies an antenna input power of 4 kW.
(This means that 1 kW of RF must be wasted in a resistor.)  The
license says:

# The theoretical efficiency of the radiator is 312.21 mV/m/kw at one
# kilometer (critical hours) is restricted to 281.64 mV/m/kw at one
# kilometer (daytime).  The antenna input power must be adjusted
# accordingly.

The FCC doesn't seem to keep public records of what sort of
PSRAs/PSSAs have been granted, so the only way to find out if WILD has
one at all is to examine their public inspection file to see if there
is a piece of paper so authorizing.

-GAWollman