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How to file an FCC complaint

B

BobOnTheJob

Never had to do this myself, but a friend who's a serious AM DXer has the misfortune of living 3 miles from an AM station that is occupying most of the AM band. He's lived there forever...a new owner took over and that's when the trouble began. He has communicated this to the station's contract engineer who has done little to correct it. Multiple radios on multiple sides of town have verified that the station in question is the source. He finally (after many months) filed an FCC complaint and the response was this :

> Conditions of non-reception, poor reception, and/or electrical interference to radio/TV sets do not indicate an FCC rule violation and the FCC will not investigate these conditions.
> If you believe a licensed broadcast station's signal is experiencing interference, you may consider contacting the affected station. If the station operator believes an interference condition exists, the operator may contact the FCC.
> The FCC will investigate interference complaints submitted by Broadcasters.
> Thank you for contacting the FCC.

How can a well informed listener file a complaint that will get any traction with the FCC?
 
Your friend needs to contact the FCC's Spectrum Enforcement division.
He should start by calling this number: 202 418 1160
 
Sounds like he should contact one of the stations he cant receive due to interference to have their engineer file a complaint with the FCC.
 
He needs to enlist the help of someone with the technical expertise to recognize what might be causing the interference.

Telling the FCC that Station B is interfering with by ability to hear Station A will go nowhere.

Reporting to the FCC that Station B is " emitting a harmonic spike at xxx frequency" and citing the rule that declares such a harmonic spike to be wrong is Step One. Step Two may be what was posted earlier: Having someone with the technical experience to know which FCC location is most likely to run-with-the-ball on that kind of complaint.
 
Unfortunately, the local AM station being interfered with the to the greatest degree has a 50KW FM in the same building that's been operating at a few hundred watts since at least the 90's so it's a safe bet they won't be calling the FCC in. Stations farther out that don't sell local spots in the market could probably care less. Thanks for the Spectrum Enforcement Division number...let's see where that one goes.
 
The keyword to use is "blanketing interference." Unless there have been some serious rule changes, stations are required to resolve complaints of blanketing interference within a certain contour (1 V/m AM, 562mV FM), and the FCC gets rather touchy when they hear that a station hasn't made such an effort. Of course, if this listener is outside that station's contour all bets are off. :)
 
ScottJ said:
The keyword to use is "blanketing interference." Unless there have been some serious rule changes, stations are required to resolve complaints of blanketing interference within a certain contour (1 V/m AM, 562mV FM), and the FCC gets rather touchy when they hear that a station hasn't made such an effort. Of course, if this listener is outside that station's contour all bets are off. :)
Click to expand...

...except that the required remediation of blanketing complaints doesn't generally include interference to consumer-grade devices:

"These requirements specifically do not include interference complaints resulting from malfunctioning or mistuned receivers, improperly installed antenna systems, or the use of high gain antennas or antenna booster amplifiers. Mobile receivers and non-RF devices such as tape recorders or hi-fi amplifiers (phonographs) are also excluded." Quoted from 47 CFR §73.318(b).

Rather than worry about whether consumer-grade equipment is skewing the apparent bandwidth of the station: If I were the complainant, I'd find a broadcast engineer or engineering consultant who has an FIM and make a set of occupied bandwidth measurements from a point well outside the blanketing contour. What will really get the FCC's attention are verifiable measurements taken by someone who knows what they're doing. Photos taken from a spectrum analyzer would be the icing on the cake. This is precisely what the FCC would do if they were investigating this themselves.
 
I totally agree with hair. Do the homework with a FIM for harmonics and use a spectrum analyzer to check. Be sure to note where you take measurements. Depending on the station's power, that's about 1/2 a mile or so down the road in a lot of cases. I'd take it from at least a few different locations. It might also be good to take a look at another broadcaster in the area so you can sort of prove to the FCC your equipment isn't doing silly things. If you can come up with a loop, you might want to use that. Note that when you aim the loop at the offending station, the noise level increases, etc. You really should also have notch filter to notch out the fundamental frequency. Do a before and after on that one... If you do all the homework for the FCC, chances are they'll get around someday of showing up to see what is really happening.
 
I always do better with things by learning by example. Norm has been doing measurements around Oklahoma for years. Here is an example of how to properly measure an AM for compliance: http://www.diproservices.com/!SampleNRSCReport.pdf
 
Nope...you're 100khz too low.
 
I think you have to also consider that the station may have been underperforming for years prior to the sale. I've seen extreme cases where 5kW stations languish at a few hundred Watts (unreported) for a decade running 50% peak modulation. These kinds of situations are more common than one might think. The new owner may have walked in and started improving the facility. They may have changed audio processing, fixed or replaced an ailing transmitter and any number of other improvements which could have resulted in degraded reception of adjacent stations. It may be that the engineer has done nothing to correct the problem because the problem doesn't exist.


The only way to tell for sure if the station is operating beyond its licensed parameters is to make measurements, starting with NRSC. You can also go into the station and ask to see their NRSC report and look over the public file. You might make an appointment to speak to the GM or owner about the situation. You should be able to find out pretty quickly if the station is in compliance or not.
 
Kmagrill said:
You can also go into the station and ask to see their NRSC report and look over the public file.
Click to expand...

Since the NRSC report does not have to live in the public file, the licensee is under no obligation to let anyone but an FCC inspector look at it.

The condition of the public file may give a generalized view of how well the station is in compliance (as many an FCC inspector will tell you; a public file which is messy, not up to date, missing required items and/or overstuffed with items that don't belong usually prompts them to dig deeper), but it isn't definitive as to whether or not the station complies with the engineering rules.
 
If the station is in compliance, they'll generally be happy to show you their NRSC report, just to prove it to you. Make sure the report is from after you first noticed the problem.

If they won't show it to you, then you should be suspicious even though they don't legally have to let you see it. When you call the nearest FCC field office and ask to speak to the engineer in charge to explain your problem, mentioning that they wouldn't show your their NRSC report will help show that you know what you are talking about and may further increase the curiosity of the engineer.
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
I always do better with things by learning by example. Norm has been doing measurements around Oklahoma for years. Here is an example of how to properly measure an AM for compliance: http://www.diproservices.com/!SampleNRSCReport.pdf
Click to expand...

That's a very well done report!
 
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