I know of a Nevada station that runs HD at 1 watt simply to be in compliance to feed their translator. Even at 1 watt it will decode 10+ miles away, being on a mountain peak.
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Nielsen figured out one of the fake translators: KFNC-F2
- Thread starter davideduardo
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What station?
I’m pretty sure non commercial stations can have translators be anywhere. KHCB has some well outside of Houston. I know WAFR, WPCS, and a K-LOVE station has translators in a bunch of different states.
KHCB is a non-comm, and as such can feed translators outside its coverage area by satellite, internet, fiber or other non-OTA means. That’s how EMF is on a zillion translators to supplement their full-power stations. Different rules for commercial stations.
Elaborating a little: Translators in the non-commercial part of the FM band may be fed by multiple means and not just over-the-air. Translators in the commercial portion of the band must be fed over the air unless they're in an exempted area due to lack of available full-power services. Not sure if any of those areas exist anymore. I seem to remember the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona had a handful of Albuquerque and Phoenix stations fed by alternate means into the 90's. I seem to remember KSFI 100.3 in Salt Lake City also fed translators in the Utah desert by alternate means under that rule. Alaska also had areas that qualified.
Non-commercial operators may own translators outside the citygrade signal contour of the originating stations, which is prohibited for commercial operations, but they are not exempted from the over-the-air requirement unless those translators are between 88.1 and 91.9.
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011nerve
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Oh yeah? I know of some stations in Houston that just don't care.
just because you cant hear it doesnt mean it cant be heard.
Some translators have elaborate reception set ups... ive known of several who have multi yagis or log periodics high up on a tower that are very directional
I know nothing about this situaiton, but just because you say it cant be done, doesnt mean it cant.
Iy would seem like KHCB would be above board even with a translator rather then fuq around, find out and jeopardize other licenses... because once you mess aorund in one place, the fcc can take deeper looks at your other stuff
I'm not sure thats true, in KHCB case.... brecause KHCb, while a non comm.. is in the commercial bad.. and it's my understanding that even if a station is a non comm, if its in the commercial band and its the originating station for a translator for 5.. it needs to be fed over the air if its outside the 60 dbu and not a fill in.
I could be wrong.
I've recently learned of a cable company that used a 25-bay VHF antenna to receive a TV station 285 miles away in the 1960's. The bays were lined up next to each other about a wavelength above ground level.
and on the Reverse, a long standing pirate station in ireland transmitted from where it was "quasi legal" ish on a hill.. alien mountain... into northern ireland where it wasnt legal.. they had like.. a dozen yagis and a 5kw transmtiter to get a beam into the desired area many miles away
KHCB has an extensive network of stations, many of them translators. English language programming list: Station Listing
Spanish language service: https://www.radioamistad.net/web/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Lista-de-Emisoras-2021.pdf
Those translators are not being fed OTA. I have never heard of a non-comm operating in the commercial band having different rules than those broadcasting from 88.1 to 91.9.
The rule applies to the band in which the translator itself operates, not the noncommercial originating station.
74.1231(b):
An FM booster station or a noncommercial educational FM translator station that is operating on a reserved channel (Channels 201–220) and is owned and operated by the licensee of the primary noncommercial educational station it rebroadcasts may use alternative signal delivery means, including, but not limited to, satellite and terrestrial microwave facilities.
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011nerve
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CSN Radio has some translators in San Antonio (88.7 which receives a signal I think with a satellite) and (106.3 which picks up 88.7 off-air I'm sure). Sometimes, when 88.7 is having problems, I can hear 106.3 unknowingly come on transmitting the wrong station (KKER in Kerrville).
The KHCB translators are fed OTA by 105.7...use of yagis at 200ft pointed to Houston make the difference...when tropo is in, the translators on 104.9 and 106.7 sometimes have other stations on them ..
Thats why my tropo reception up in NW PA was so gangbusters.. i had a yagi up on the biggest hill for 150+ miles.. towering above Erie, London, Buffalo, etc.. towering over all those locations by a minimum of a few hundred feet, but most more then 500 feet, and some by double.
Air1 KHJK has a 95.3 translator in Conroe. Sometimes when tropos is strong I hear an echo with the slightly off sync Air1 KXAI in Corpus. If it’s really strong it’ll actually show the RDS for KXAI. One morning when KHJK was actually off the air the translator was still going for hours because of KXAI
That's always fun when a translator provides inadvertent DX! Back in the analog TV era, there was an LPTV on 52 in Auburn NY, about 50 miles east of here, that picked up another LPTV on 22 from Syracuse, another 25 miles east. Except, of course, when it didn't - sometimes there'd be a big tropo duct that would pipe Burlington VT signals down from another 180 miles to the northeast, and WVNY 22 from Burlington would be clearly seen on channel 52 in Auburn!
I just picked up K223CW 92.5 in Jennings, LA over 150 miles from the Wells Fargo tower, right over KCOL. I had other Houston stations in HD at the same time. I’d say it’s very impressive if I didn’t know that this translator was running 2000 watts. If it was running 28 watts, it would be the lowest power station I’ve ever DXed.
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Astros2023
Banned
How is that even possible? I drive to L'Auberge Casino in Lake Charles every weekend & can't pick up KLOL,KAMA or KLTN crossing Calcasieu River Bridge. But your picking up K223CW? Something isn't adding up. K223CW must be running 100KW.
At this time of year, it could easily be an inversion layer.
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