[Coco] Fest Plans in Doubt

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 10 April 2008, RJRTTY at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 4/10/2008 12:42:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>
>gene.heskett at verizon.net writes:
>>Now THAT sucks.  I may be facing a quick trip to upstate MI over  the
>
>weekend,
>
>>but I'll drive rather than fight with the TSA over the  tools a broadcast
>>engineer needs to take along, and that might put me in  a position to stop
>
>for
>
>>a few hours in Elgin.  We'll see how it  plays out before I make any more
>>positive pronouncements though.  I  might be able to remote control some
>
>hands
>
>>and eyes & fix it from  here.
>
>Now a visit from you would make a great fest!   If you can make  it, let it
>be known that I am bringing my completed Mark8 replica to show.
>
>As for fixing things by remote control, I have found there is no
>substitute for the laying on of one's own hands to a problem.    Even
>a small one.
>
We'll find out in an hour or 2 I expect.  I have two numbers to bang on today, 
the other being Harris & possibly Jampro.  I have absolutely got to find 
someone interested in building us a channel 5 digital mask filter, good for 
15KW peak power.  We are, in the middle of all this, in a very small, unique 
group of stations that due to our proximity to Green Bank and the NRAO 
installation, probably the only stations in the whole country that are not 
moving to the UHF band.  The commissions channel assignment program failed to 
take that into consideration when they were originally passing out the new 
channel numbers and gave us channel 58, and the local NBC station channel 56.  
And there were only 2 possible channels left, one in low VHF, #6, and one in 
mid-band, #10.  We have now secured both of those as we also now own the fox 
affiliate which is currently not very high powered on channel 46.

The problem is that when you get up into the UHF band, Green Banks gear is 
very sensitive, and on channel 58, we could only make 4.78 watts worth of 
noise up here or they would deny the license.  They have that power over us.
The current occupant of channel 12, although a few miles outside the NRAO line 
on the maps, is I believe only licensed for half the maximum for this same 
reason.

So we are forced to find a low band VHF place if we want anywhere near full 
power.  I don't think the commish likes it, but they are also between a rock 
and a hard place.  I fault the FCC for not taking that into consideration in 
the first place.  On those rare occasions when the MUF gets up to channel 5, 
we'll be interference to all those new police radios they are going to put in 
the VHF bands hundreds, or even thousands of miles away.   So once this is 
all done, we will be back on the same channel 5 as always, the channel 6 for 
the digital is temporary.

But, because there aren't exactly a whole crowd of us in this particular 
lifeboat, hardly enough to man the oars even, finding makers for this FCC 
mandated filter is obviously going to be a problem, and one that is going to 
need a couple of little red wagonloads of legal tender.

Throw in the minor detail that Nextel and their usurpation of about half of 
our 6800-7200 STL microwave band, and their agreement to move us all to new 
assignments 200 mhz higher with new, narrower band digital gear is not now 
scheduled to begin until late in 2009, thereby making us buy that gear also 
at an estimated $100k per channel, we are not going to be happy campers over 
that.  It was their idea, and AFAIAC, they can quit dragging their feet.  
There are enough of us (all of us in fact) in that boat to bankrupt Nextel, 
without a doubt.

Ahh well, so many problems, so little time.  I'm reminded of a Charles 
Schultz-ism, where Charley Brown asks while doing his nightly prayers, "Where 
did I go wrong?" and a voice comes down and says, "this is going to take more 
than one night"

:-)

>Roy

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Goals... Plans... they're fantasies, they're part of a dream world...
		-- Wally Shawn