Re: [IRCA] Day Power vs Night Power
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Re: [IRCA] Day Power vs Night Power



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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