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Comment by Stratoscope | Hacker News Reader

> The FCC also notified WJLX on Thursday morning that the station would have to go off the air because of the theft. While WJLX still has its FM transmitter and tower, it is not allowed to operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air.

W.T.F.?

I've been following this story, and as a ham operator I am usually a big fan of the FCC. But I don't understand why the loss of the station's AM tower should require their FM transmissions to also be taken down.

I must be missing something here. Can anyone help me understand this?

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Their FM station is a "translator" which listens to their AM station and rebroadcasts it. Translators are a secondary service that must only rebroadcast their primary service.

To add to this with sources:

"Loss of primary station's signal. The translator must be set up to go off the air if the main station's signal is lost." [1] and cites regulations [2][3]

[1] https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-translators-and-boosters

[2] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C...

[3] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C...

Shame they can't set up 1 1-Watt transmitter on a poll to meet the regulations and then sent a direct feed to to the FM transmitter

Shame they can't just retransmit an internet radio station they receive over satellite.

The main purpose of translators is to give AM radio stations an avenue (at lower cost than an FM only license) to reach listeners on the FM band and have a more consistent signal throughout the day — but they only keep that privilege if they continue maintaining the AM broadcast facilities as the primary signal.

There are issues with FCC public licensing to be certain, but the way a lot of stations deal with translators isn't quite above the board considering many stations attempt to follow the regulations (IMO).

How would that provide any sort of unique service to the local community? Anyone who wants to hear that dreck can presumably do so.

Why would someone design a radio system this way (instead of independent signal to the FM) and what is the risk of running an FM station without rebroadcasting that lead to these rules?

And isn't AM sound quality worse?

Stereo AM signals are (was?) a thing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_stereo

AM sound quality can be much better than FM. There are AM pirates that show up once in a while that have absolutely beautiful signals.

I suppose for safety reasons, as AM receivers can be easily improvised. (in some kind of critical situation)

> Translators are a secondary service that must only rebroadcast their primary service.

I must be missing something, because this seems an arbitrary rule that has no purpose except to increase the FCC’s licensing revenues by allowing them to charge more for “real” spectrum allocation that for a “translator” allocation.

The US Code of federal regulations, Congressional records, and media reports from around the time of enactment are on the public record, why not take a look yourself to check if you are ‘missing something’?

I wonder how much "economic" activity goes towards satisfying arbitrary requirements such as these.

Lots of economic activity goes into supporting Chesterfield fences.

"arbitrary" <citation needed>

Eh, there isn't really a modern reason to operate like this. If you ever deal with the FCC you'll find a lot of their rules are fairly dated and weird.

All that said, in terms of economic waste and lost opportunity, this isn't the hill I'd die on.

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