WDRC-FM oddity

[Scott Fybush]

Laurence Glavin wrote:

> A recent entry among the FCC applications on the Daily Digest was for a translator 
> on 96.7 megahertz, W244CF COL Plymouth, MA.  That's one dial position down from
> WTKK-FM, Boston.  It will operate with 10 watts with a directional antenna just east 
> of route 3 on the Plymouth/Sagamore line.  Now the FCC directional data indicates 
> that only one radial, zero degrees, which is due north, will get the full output,
> 1.000, every other point is a fraction of that.  But the contour map shows the major
> lobe pointed toward the northeast.  In any event, many people headed to the Cape tuned 
> to WTKK may find themselves listening to a bible-thumping preacher for hire!

The key here is in the "notes" field of the W244CF record:

"Pattern and Field Values Include a 60.0° Clockwise Rotation"

With that figured in, there's a deep null (0.138 of the 10-watt ERP) at 
310 degrees, right up toward WTKK.

Here's the catch with tight drop-in translators like this: they may work 
on paper, but they're bound by that pesky clause in the translator rules 
that says a translator can't cause interference to "actual reception" of 
a full-power station, without regard to that station's protected contour.

Greater Media knows exactly how that rule works...they managed to get a 
97.5 translator in Hazleton PA shut down a few months back because it 
was interfering with fringe reception of their own WJJZ 97.5 Burlington 
NJ, about 80 miles away. All they need is one regular WTTK listener in 
Plymouth to register a complaint about W244CF, when and if it begins 
operation, and they can go to work.

s