Re: WILD Sign-offs??

[Dan.Strassberg@att.net]

I can't answer the question about the need for an engineer on duty to handle 
the pattern change, but I can say for certain that WARE was not unique. Quite a 
few Class B stations licensed for night powers higher than 500W use PSRAs at 
500W or less. I haven't listened to WXKS (AM) enough this year to know what 
they are doing--or whether whatever it is even SOUNDS like its legal, but in 
quite a few years in the past, they have used thir 500W-ND PSRA even though 
their license allows 1 kW-N DA-N. With a transmitter located east of most of 
the market and a night pattern that's nulled to the west to protect WNSW and 
WENE, the 500W ND PSRA covers much more of the market (for example Somerville 
and Cambridge) than the nighttime directional operation, which doesn't even 
cover enough of Medford (the community in which the TX is located) for the 
station to claim Medford as its COL.

I sure wish I could figure out whether WBIX is directional during the 15 
minutes between Natick sunset and Philadelphia sunset. Also, I'd like to know 
what power they use during those 15 minutes. They do stay on for the full two 
hours after local sunset and I'm pretty sure that they run more power for the 
45 minutes from Philadelphia sunset to 1 hour past local sunset than they run 
during the second hour. For the first 15 minutes, I can pick them up in 
Arlington Heights, although the reception is a bit fuzzy. For the remainder of 
the first hour, you can pick them up on 128 if you have a good car radio. For 
the second hour, I think the coverage is limited to the Framingham dump across 
the street from the TX and maybe the bowling alley next door to the Tx. All 
they do adter the first 15 minutes is duplicate WBBR 1130 in New York.

I think that some stations that are licensed for higher power at night than 
during the day even use PSRAs at powers lower than the licensed day power 
because the day pattern is so much more favorable than the night pattern.

--
dan.strassberg@att.net
617-558-4205
eFax 707-215-6367

> --- dan.strassberg@att.net wrote:
> > I don't believe that PSSA (or PSRA) powers can be
> > higher than 500W. Moreover, 
> > PSRA powers are generally higher than PSSA powers.
> > The reasons for this are 
> > historic. PSRAs came along before PSSAs, at a time
> > when the FCC was more 
> > lenient.
> <snip>
> 
>     In the early 1970s, WARE in Ware operated with a
> PSRA power when sunrise was later than 6 a.m., its
> usual sign-on time. It was licensed for 1 kW, DA
> night, and signed off at 12 or 1 a.m.
> 
>    The night pattern was really bad for the area it
> wanted to cover. Knowing what I now now, I guess they
> kept using the PSRA of a few hundred watts,
> non-directional, that they must have had back when it
> was a daytime only station. They must have figured the
> PSRA worked better for them.
> 
>    I'm also trying to remember whether under the rules
> at that time they avoided needing to have the engineer
> come on duty in the morning because they weren't
> changing pattern, only power, at sunrise. Did an

> engineer still need to handle all pattern changes
> circa 1972-74?