Re: [IRCA] Day Power vs Night Power

[Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Patrick Martin wrote:
> Paul,
>
> Inotherwords what you are saying is, the chances of a station using day
> power at night being caught, is about the same chances of a person
> winning the lottery. 

I can't speak for Paul and his field office friends, but the odds are 
much better of being caught than of winning the lottery.

In recent years, the FCC has issued as many as 30 or 40 Notices of 
Apparent Liability for day power/pattern at night - and that's not 
counting the informal warnings that a field agent might issue to a 
station that's otherwise in compliance.

Figure that there are, what, 5000 AM stations in the country - but 
several thousand of those are class C graveyarders that use the same 
facility day and night, while a hundred or so more are ND-U or DA-1 
class A or B signals with the same day and night power.

That leaves maybe 2000-2500 class B and D signals that could potentially 
cheat and be caught...and if even 20 or 30 or those get nailed with a 
fine each year ($1500 at minimum, usually more), those are actually 
decent odds.

Remember, too, that a lot of these cases are handled internally before 
they ever get to the FCC. A certain DA-N AM signal that's near and dear 
to me is plagued by a co-channel class D in a neighboring state with a 
bad habit of leaving its full day power running all night. When the 
problems recur, a phone call to the offending station usually takes care 
of things.

One more note: the FCC field offices handle many matters other than 
catching AM cheaters. Most of their work is outside the broadcast arena, 
handling interference to government and business radio services and 
other such matters.

s
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