[BC] KFI Tower replacement ?

[Dan Strassberg]

I'd be willing to bet that, notwithsanding that KBRTs radiators (65.5
degrees at 640) don't come close in height to conforming to Class A
requirements, KFI could use one of them for a 50-kW ND operation and would
lose no coverage day or night relative to its licensed 50 kW operation. The
easy way to find out would be to obtain a license for a 50-kW ND-U KFI
auxiliary site at the KBRT site on Catalina Island. Then use the new aux
site to obtain coverage data. KBRT's 10 kW directional signal (equivalent to
about 30 kW ND at best at the radiation maximum) covers like 50
kW--just as the late John Poole said it would in the ads he ran in
Broadcasting Magazine while he was building the station (then KBIG) in the
early '50s and before it officially signed on. I'd go so far as to say that
if KFI were permitted to build a conforming radiator on Catalina (fat
chance), the FCC would have to grant an exception to to the station to run
at reduced power--certainly at night and perhaps by day--to protect the
other 640s in North America. At 50 kW with a conforming radiator on
Catalina, KFI's coverage would expand well byond the station's existing
protected contours. It's the salt water, stupid.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg at att.net
eFax 707-215-6367