Mike McKenna wrote: > > As a Hobbist or Ham radio operator -- thinking on your feet -- and > being able to change elements or parts -- is ok. However -- any > change to a Commercial radio station, without FCC approval, is NOT > allowed. If an AM CP or license calls for 120 radials -- 90 degrees > long --- by adding extra radials or any other metal to the system -- > makes that station illegal.
This is quite true. However, in a situation where the licensed ground system has significantly deteriorated (as seems to be the case with KOHI, just to keep the topic going), it would be a very simple matter to get the FCC to issue Special Temporary Authority (possibly even a verbal STA) to effect "emergency" repairs to the ground system. I know nothing of KOHI's specific situation beyond what's been discussed on the list, but it's a very safe generalization that the overall state of maintenance of AM antenna systems around the US (and what few are left in Canada) has gone downhill in the last 20 years or so. I can think of numerous examples of smaller stations whose signals are now pale shadows of what they once were, simply because no money or effort has been expended to keep the ground system working, the ATUs tuned up properly, the transmitter site free of weeds and obstructions, and so on. I had one local station, no longer at the site in question, whose site had been chopped up for development without ever properly repairing the ground system. Its signal, at the end, was atrocious, and even though its new site won't perform nearly as well as the old one on paper, it should sound better in reality simply because it will have a working ground system and all new components. Not to sound pro-AM IBOC, because I'm not, but the lone bright spot in the thing is that it requires stations using it to clean up their antenna systems, and that will keep paying off long after AM IBOC is (one hopes) a thing of the past. s _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
