DavidEduardo said:
A real issue here is that the Comefer / SCT documents I have read (as part of a separate review related to due diligence) do not recognize Class C's in the US, apparently and by inference because they show A's and B's (and their subsets for the area actoss the border from Mexicali to Tijuana. While the US notified the grandfathered stations as C's for the most part, Mexico seems to consider them as B's. And since the Mixed Commission is purely "transactional" in the sense that things are negotiated (yeah, I know, you can't negotiate the Laws of Physics) and trade-offs are made, it's very possible if not probable that the US will not press on this relatively minor point when much bigger things are in play. And, since this is not a treaty (which would be negotiated by the Department of State, not an office at the FCC) there is not much that can be done in the way of appealing a decision or omission.
Ah, you've seen something I haven't!
I would argue that we've been "negotiating the laws of physics" for quite some time on both sides of the border(grin) -- just as one example, the definition of 60dBu as the "service contour" of a station is really just as much a political decision as a technical one. Some receivers deliver a perfectly good signal within the 40dbu (especially if connected to a decent antenna), while I've got one or two around here that seem to need 80dBu. Pick a higher number, and you can make more would-be licensees happy; pick a lower number, and you can make more existing licensees happy. The FCC had to pick a number, and (for most stations) 60 it was.
(IMHO 60 is a very reasonable comprimise)
You could argue that the adjacent (and especially, 2nd and 3rd-adjacent) separation rules are also technical rules defined for political purposes.
Of course, Canada has thinned the herd on the AM band, yet stations on frequencies now vacated there can't file for improved facilities because we still protect extinct stations and allocations (most coming from Pre-W.W. II NARBA) when the face of radio has changed.
That's obviously been perplexing to many folks on this board and on the various DX lists.
They're not alone at that. For one, I note all three of the 1240 sharetimers in Chicago are still notified, even though two of the three were bought out years ago & the sharing situation dissolved. (For some bizarre reason, I'm having difficulty remembering the calls of any other U.S. AM stations that have been permanently deleted!) (Oh, I do note the Class A facilities of WOWO-1190 are still notified.)
Totally removed, but related to "international agreements" I once got a letter from the US of A's FCC at my station HCFV1 in Quito, Ecuador, stating that the station was operating on a frequency that was not allowed or permitted (I forget the exact term) by international agreements. So what? The station was licensed by Ecuador and was legally operating per the rules, laws and regulations of that nation. I still wonder who at the FCC thought that writing to the owner of a station in a foreign country was going to compel that person to change their licensed operation... several friends who owned stations got similar letters. Oh, yeah, HCFV1 was on 805 kcs.
I'll bet someone unfamiliar with the way things work (either at an 810 station, or a Congressmember representing a district containing an 810 station) called the FCC and demanded something be done about the interference -- and the FCC staffer wrote the letters just so he could tell his superiors he'd taken action...
