The FCC has issued RM-11384 to my petition to revise the Pre-SunRise and Post-SunSet Authorization rules for AM stations. The petition seeks relief for AM stations of all classes to operate with the maximum power that will not cause interference during the essential winter “drive time” hours.
The petition proposes that stations may maintain their present PSRA and PSSA operations, but if no interference is caused, to potentially operate with much higher power during the transition hours. Everyone knows that skywave signals don’t just suddenly reach out the great distances that they do in the middle of the night. This petition looks at the actuality, and seeks to optimize the use of the available spectrum. The main points of the petition are:
- PSRA and PSSA power need not be limited to 500 Watts if no interference would be caused.
- Secondary (skywave) service areas of class A stations expand and contract from east to west with the transit of the sun. There is no need to protect a service area that either does not exist yet on the western edge of the area, or has ceased to exist because the sun is rising on the eastern edge of the area.
- Stations should be able to use their day, night, auxiliary or one tower of the array – whatever works best for PSRA and PSSA.
- Class B, and D stations should be able to operate with any power, up to the maximum of day or night station power during PSRA and PSSA so long as no interference is caused.
All station owners who have stations with anemic night signals should comment on this petition, as it could significantly increase your coverage during the critical hours when folks are getting out to work and coming home.
To make a comment is pretty easy – Read over the petition posted here. Note the proceeding number RM-11384 and go to the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System and make your thoughts known. Simply enter RM-11384 in the Proceeding box, then fill out your name, affiliation, address, etc. You can either type in your comments directly, or you can upload an MS Word, Wordperfect, or Adobe PDF file that is prepared offline. Comments are due by August 20th. (The FCC informs me that the ECFS system has a problem right now. If you want to read other folks’ comments, for the time being, you need to download the file and rename it so that it has a .pdf extension and you should be able to read it. Otherwise it should work fine 8/03/07)
If you think that this petition would benefit your stations, isn’t too complicated and protects the night coverage of other stations adequately, then you should make your thoughts known.
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I learned of this petition via the August issue of Radio Guide which came today, too late for the comment period. A search of the FCC site reveals no information on the petition. Without having seen the specifics of the petition, the suggestions seem reasonable. On a related matter, the FCC should change the now unnecessary protections for the clear channel powerhouses; regional stations are no longer necessary. Let them keep their current power while allowing the rest of us on the frequencies to infringe a bit more, at least enough to serve our listeners fulltime.