Have any of you noticed this trend? The AMs are on the air, so few will notice. The FCC will probably not investigate, unless a real BROADCASTER complains, not some knowledgeable geeky DXer.
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AM Stations With FM Translators Running The AMs at Low Power Without STAs
- Thread starter Schroedingers Cat
- Start date
Who would complain? An AM (with translator) running at less than its assigned power is inconveniencing no one other than some nonagenarian shut-in who's using the same Atwater-Kent AM/shortwave radio his parents used to listen to Glen Miller's band on while he was a youngster and can't receive FM. It certainly isn't interfering with some distant station.
K
kenglish
Guest
The only reason they have an FM translator is because they are licensed to broadcast on the MW band (in AM). As such, they should try to keep the AM operating properly.
Otherwise, they should turn in both licenses, and apply for a LPFM, like everybody else.
Otherwise, they should turn in both licenses, and apply for a LPFM, like everybody else.
It IS a violation of FCC rules. Unless they apply for an STA, under what ever specious conditions cited as the reason, yet likely to be granted, they could be fined or even revoked. They really need to carve out a small FM X-Band to relocate them as stations, and abandon the AM band. It's already too messed up to squeeze in meaningful allotments on the existing FM band, like Canada started years ago.
That's a view you will regret when you get older. I guarantee it.
The FM translators DO INTERFERE with the de facto service areas of thousands of full power FMs. Many are encroaching on the the 45dBu contour complaint area, and are already generating a lot of rage with listeners to those full power stations. But the FCC will only intervene when the STATIONS complain. The station owners often live thousands of miles away, and unfortunately often don't care anymore.
Your hobby will be dead sooner rather than later if this continues.
LPFMs are not commercial. They are severely limited in coverage. There is no comparison with any AM with a translator coverage.
Worth considering: during the period of huge decline in advertising during the Coronavirus, could some AMs that have translators be running lower power on the AM to save money, knowing that practically nobody listens to the AM any more.
In the long run, the FCC should consider allowing the AM transmitter to be turned off and grant permanent status to the translator as a new class of station.
On the other hand, not many stations care about their coverage outside the local market... whether it be a big metro or a rural center. They generally don't make money on this extended coverage, and now have alternative ways via the Internet to reach fringe areas much better.
I'm 65. My 98-year-old father is sitting right here with me. A classical music buff, he gave up AM for FM -- except for sports -- in the late '60s. Now he has no reason to listen to AM.
Anyway, I was addressing the "offense" of AMs running low power on AM, not the impact of their FM translators on full-power FMs.
Since December 2019, 1510 WRNJ in Hackettstown, NJ (with three FM translators) has been using their low-power nighttime signal during the daytime because their phasor controller is stuck in the nighttime position. They did obtain an STA for it, and last week they filed for an extension, stating that although they have a repaired phasor controller ready to be installed, due to the Covid-19 pandemic their consultant hasn't been available to install it.
Wow, he must have gone through a LOT of AA5s.
I once got shocked when I touched the car radio antenna that had a tube-type receiver.
I wonder if he ever had a 42-50 MHz pre-war FM radio.
He's first-generation (born a few months after the ship carrying his parents arrived from Danzig -- now Gdansk) and was a Depression-era kid. There were more important things in his life than fiddling with radios, which he couldn't afford in the first place! His family had a phonograph and he'd play classical 78s on it. Later on, married and suburban, he got into hi-fi equipment, of which the radios were a minor part. Most of his listening was to his ever-expanding music collection, so his focus was on the turntable, amp and speakers.
I turned out to be the one with the radio fascination. I wish he had old communications gear and early broadcast receivers around. I would have been fascinated by that early FM radio.
My dad was an early FM listener because he loved classical music. I remember he would always have his FM tuner tuned to WFMT, or back in the day Chicago's WFMF. It didn't seem like there was anything else but classical music on Chicago's early FM dial..1950s.
But the two situations are intimately connected through strange regulations. They SHOULD have gone back to the pre 1962 FM rules (Contour Overlap and Interference Ratios, not distance separation requirements, and allowing interference agreements in certain circumstances) when Canada started doing it circa 1970 as I recall. This has been allowed on NCE-FM stations right along, but Channel 6 restrictions came along and caused rampant confusion, even to well established consulting engineers and technical consultants. They should also have thrown out First Local Service, which has been abused six ways to Sunday, and caused consultants to just try to go along with it to accomplish anything they could. These stations often preclude allotments closer to population centers, and are often economically unsustainable. Then there are preclusive "rimshots" which do not adequtely serve the center of population. The Canadian type rules would have largely fixed that. Also,it would allowed "right sized" stations in those areas further out anyway. Look at the 99.1 facility in Wallacebeurg, Ontario, to see n example in Canada.
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None of my local FM commercial stations are interfered with by translators. Not one. Now, perhaps some FM DXer can't pick up the odd fringe or non-local station from 150 miles away because of a translator, but that's a different story.
There were little strips of adhesive tape below the slide-rule dial on my dad's main receiver marking the frequencies of the four Boston classical stations he'd listen to: 89.7 WGBH, 90.9 WBUR, 96.9 WXHR and 102.5 WCRB. There was also classical music on 104.1 WBCN until its eventual flip to rock, but for some reason he never listened to that station.
The "right size" station in Wallaceburg, ON is CKXS 99.1 with 1 kW average, 3 kW maximum, from 85 meters HAAT. This type of "squeeze in" would be an ideal replacement for a 1 kW AM in most cases. But now there's all the other full powers, low powers, and translators which would cause serious administrative upheaval to replace or remove.
https://www.fccdata.org/?call=CKXS&...try=CA&cansvc=B&party=&party_type=CDN&lang=en
https://www.fccdata.org/?call=CKXS&...try=CA&cansvc=B&party=&party_type=CDN&lang=en
perfectly legal
Yeah and? thats completely accurate. I spoke to WRNJ's engineer tonight and the STA filing is accurate/true.
you seem to like to take any slam you can against your local radio stations operating in a way you find wrong
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I talked to Larry Tighe from WRNJ a few times when he was proposing expanded bands for Daytimers back before they got PSSAs and much later, translators. Seems like one proposal was in the 2 meter Amateur Radio Band, and another in the 6 meter Amateur Radio Band. Both proposed a few MHz, can't remember which frequencies now. Actually, with the right sized facilities and protections, you don't even need that, though it would be nice. Yes, they always mention the new radios required, though many radio models for international shipping can receive down to 76 MHz by changing a switch.
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