Random Noise: August 2018

August 27, 2018
By
DENNIS THOMPSON

DENNIS THOMPSON

A new definition of pie in the sky. Rumor has it that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai donned the necessary safety gear and climbed a 131 foot cell tower. There’s photographic proof on his twitter account of his effort to make a point about worker safety and the necessities of wireless infrastructure. Pai-in-the-sky, indeed!

Satellite provider SES has offered to reimburse qualifying stations for the $435 fee to register satellite receive dishes. The idea is that the currently registered number of dishes is so low, the FCC will find it easy to carve up the C-Band services in favor of G5. See the article in this Newsletter for more information.

Anyone remember “Clear Channel” radio stations? No, not the iHeartMedia, Inc. versions. I’m talking about the real thing, those class 1-A (now class A) megawatt beacons of the night time medium wave radio spectrum. Well, thanks to a few FCC rulings over the years, they’re not as ‘clear’ as they use to be, but can still be heard. If you know where to listen. Here’s a cool    L I N K   to the night time  patterns of US AM stations. Tonight, grab your nearest SWL device and see how many of the clear channel stations (or any station) you can wring out of your long wire antenna. A list of all the Class A , Clear-Channel (formerly 1-A/1-B) stations is found in this Newsletter. Bring your signal reports, and QSL cards to the August meeting this Thursday at noon at the Mitsui Buffet in Clovis.

 

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