Daytimer Alert

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Tom Taggart
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Daytimer Alert

Post by Tom Taggart »

Mass chaos soon to ensue. Because daylight savings time now changes a week from today (Sunday, 11th), FCC decided to recalculate everyone's post-sunset and pre-sunrise power levels.

The link to find out the new levels is below:

http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.e ... y_id=55182

This particular link will get you WLTP, which now is supposed to come on at 6 AM with a whopping 2 watts, (their overnight licensed power is 40 watts). To find your station, substitute your facility number at the last argument, that is, facility_id= (your station's facility number)

Not having an AM haven't paid attention to all the arguments, but claim is made that if you have a higher licensed power, as in LTP's case with 40 watts, you could run at that power instead of the lower pre-sunrise /post-sunset powers.

There are also reports that the FCC geeks screwed up the calculations, and will re-do them by next week. Maybe.

I think this may be maneuvering to justify the grant of the petition for FM translators for AM stations. I.E. "look at all these stations with flea powers, we need to take this step to provide nighttime coverage to these communities."
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Post by Cameron »

Why was there a letter generated for WVHU? (FACID505)

It says they are 60-79 watts PSSA/PSRA.
The license says 186 nighttime.

Thomas?

It's intriguing that the notice states:
"This notice and its parameters supersede any previous Pre-Sunrise authority. If these parameters are lower that those previously authorized, the power must be reduced within thirty days of the receipt of this letter or PSRA must be terminated. PSRA operation may be resumed on completion of the reduction."

Did the Commish' just screw 800 out of 107 watts/nighttime?
Computers at the Commish runnin' Vista?
Are the Canadians to blame? Can't we blame them anyway?
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Post by Tom Taggart »

FCC admitted that they screwed up when they re-calculated PSS/PRS authority for many stations. As I understand it, here is the situation:

1. They will try calculating things again before the 9th.

2. The nighttime powers for many daytimers are licensed powers, rather than special authorizations. Supposedly the licensed nighttime power, if greater, would supercede a lower PSSA/PSRA power, but I can't find this in the rules.

The rule is at Section 73.99, if you feel like wading through it.

What I can't understand is why the Commission went through this exercise. Most of these stations have been operating with these PSSA/PSRA powers for a decade or more. Without a peep of complaint from anyone. All the Congress did is change the dates that we go to and from advanced time. They didn't change the laws of physics.

All the Commission needed to do is re-print the authorizations and change the times for post-sunset authorizations. E.G.--if station "X" is to reduce power to 35 watts at 7:30 standard time in March, then after the 11th it would reduce power to 35 watts at 8:30 daylight time. The pre-sunrise authorizations begin at 6:00 AM year-round, unless local sunrise occurs before 6:00 AM. So PSRA times would not change--six o'clock daylight is the same as six o'clock advanced, so long as six o'clock is before sunrise.

But what can you expect from an agency filled with lawyers and bureaucrats who can't tell time unless they use a digital clock.
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Post by genlock »

Perhaps the FCC has discovered that signals travel well along the "Grayline".
That is the area covered by twilight at dusk and dawn. Perhaps this is their way of limiting interference at these critical times. Just a guess.
Amplitude Modulation. See, I remembered.
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Post by engineer »

If they have a night license for 186 then they can operate that until sunrise when they can return to daytime power. If they have a PSRA they can use that value if it higher than 186 for the time allotted. The same goes for PSSA. One of my stations has 7 different power levels listed for PSSA. They are licensed for 44 watts night. The new recalculated PSSA has 50, 44 39, 25, 19, 17, and 13. We will just continue at 44 after sunset.
Cameron wrote:Why was there a letter generated for WVHU? (FACID505)

It says they are 60-79 watts PSSA/PSRA.
The license says 186 nighttime.

Thomas?

It's intriguing that the notice states:
"This notice and its parameters supersede any previous Pre-Sunrise authority. If these parameters are lower that those previously authorized, the power must be reduced within thirty days of the receipt of this letter or PSRA must be terminated. PSRA operation may be resumed on completion of the reduction."

Did the Commish' just screw 800 out of 107 watts/nighttime?
Computers at the Commish runnin' Vista?
Are the Canadians to blame? Can't we blame them anyway?
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Post by Cameron »

C'mon.
I want to blame the Canadians.

Can't I blame the Canadians?


Really it's more fun that way.

Try it.
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Hoosier Daddy
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Post by Hoosier Daddy »

The solution is simple: Photoshop

Just add a few zeros to the FCC license, fire up the foot-warmer, and voila' ...

"The ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND WATT

CLEAR CHANNEL VOICE

OF ASHLAND'S RADIO TRADITION ...

1340, WCMI ... ASHLAND!"


CQ DX?

:wink:
Translators are a Pox on the FM radio dial.
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Post by Cameron »

Hoosier Daddy wrote:The solution is simple: Photoshop
Just add a few zeros to the FCC license, fire up the foot-warmer, and voila' ...

"The ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND WATT
CLEAR CHANNEL VOICE
OF ASHLAND'S RADIO TRADITION ...
1340, WCMI ... ASHLAND!"

CQ DX?
:wink:

Really. Those phase rotators are a little noisy.
Also, could we call it a domestic class I-A? The thing's been on the air since the 30s - it doesn't need associated with junk-stock.
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Last edited by Cameron on Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Tom Taggart
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FCC throws in the towel

Post by Tom Taggart »

Found this at another message board:

From: Charles Miller [mailto:Charles.Miller@fcc.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:01 PM
Subject: RE: PRE AND POST HOURS

....., we're pulling the plug on this project for now. It turned
into a complete disaster when an undiscovered bug in the program was
brought to light by the mass recalculation. Please advise all
clients to disregard the new PSRA/PSSAs, and to use April numbers
for March advanced time. We plan to get the bug fixed and new round
of authorizations released before November...


Charles N. "Norm" Miller, Engineer
Audio Division, Media Bureau
Federal Communications Commission
Telephone: 202-418-2767
FAX: 202-418-1411
charles.miller@fcc.gov
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Post by genlock »

Pussies, they are all pussies.
If this were the Army, we would go full speed ahead.
Damn the torpedoes!
Sounds like Navy but we said that in the Army too.
For some reason.
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Post by Cameron »

The FCC Implements Vista Prematurely:
From: Charles Miller
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:01 PM
Subject: RE: PRE AND POST HOURS

....., we're pulling the plug on this project for now. It turned into a complete disaster when an undiscovered bug in the program was brought to light by the mass recalculation. Please advise all clients to disregard the new PSRA/PSSAs, and to use April numbers for March advanced time. We plan to get the bug fixed and new round of authorizations released before November...

Charles N. "Norm" Miller, Engineer
Audio Division, Media Bureau
Federal Communications Commission
I'm with Genlock. Go with the new numbers. This is a great opportunity to clean up the AM band. There's only about 17 of these stations actually following the power-changes properly anyhoo.
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Post by David Paleg »

It's that time of the year again. Daylight Saving Time begins this Sunday, March 9. Some of you lose an hour of sleep, others lose an hour of work.
"Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work."
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