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FCC Proposes Limiting Class A

TheBigA said:
The FCC wants to cut back signal protection for Class A AMs in an effort to improve local AM signals:

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/...-am-interference-protection-changes-proposed/

Seems to me that unless they address the real interference issues, this will only hurt, not help.
Click to expand...

There is a philosophical difference between the FCC and the reality outside the Beltway.

Reducing the protection on the big A's will just allow more inferior facilities on AM and minor improvements to some stations with protection requirements.

What is needed is fewer stations and the ability of those remaining to make significant improvements in coverage. And regulation allowing stations with good translators to lock those allocations (making them protected as a class) to shut off the mostly-dreadful AMs they rebroadcast.

Just roughly guessing, I think that between 20% and 25% of all AMs would be shut off if translators could run on stand alone status.

The whole AM band is based on bits of the 1927/1928 Federal Radio Commission regulations and the further redesign of the band by the FCC in 1933. That was 85 years ago, and "enhancements" like daytimers, greater power on the old Class IV "graveyarders" and ultra-and-bizarrely-directional stations have only made things worse.
 
So it sounds like it will be a battle between the haves and the have-nots. If you own a Class A, you don't like this. If you are required to protect a Class A, you probably like it (if you don't have a translator.) If you're a DXer, it's one more thing that makes your hobby difficult.

But from my perspective, it's another nail in the coffin. Combine this with the proposal to either eliminate caps or ownership limits, and you have no reason to own a Class A AM. The only reason the big companies still own AMs is because they have Class As. If this damages them, they might as well sell them while they can.
 
DavidEduardo said:
… ultra-and-bizarrely-directional stations have only made things worse.
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Though it's not a Class A station, would you include WXYT among the "ultra-and-bizarrely" directional signals? How much was gained by the increase to 50 kW?
 
TheBigA said:
But from my perspective, it's another nail in the coffin. Combine this with the proposal to either eliminate caps or ownership limits, and you have no reason to own a Class A AM. The only reason the big companies still own AMs is because they have Class As. If this damages them, they might as well sell them while they can.
Click to expand...

I think it only hastens the ineluctable demise of AM.
 
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