REC has filed comments in RM-11786, the Petition for Rulemaking from Aztec Capital Partners, licensee of Class C AM station WHAT, Philadelphia, PA and permittee of fill-in FM translator W260CZ.  The W260CZ application has been facing objection from WVLT, Vineland, NJ which claims they have listeners in the Philadelphia area.  WVLT is a Class A FM station located 35 miles from Philadelphia.

I am disappointed but at the same time understanding of the recently announced statistics related to the participation of LPFM stations in the 2016 Emergency Alert System (EAS) test and the subsequent reporting using the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS).  In the Commission's report, they claim that only 61 percent of LPFM stations participated in the testing.

A Petition for Rulemaking  has been filed by Aztec Capital Partners, Inc.  Aztec is the licensee of WHAT-AM, Philadelphia and is the permittee of a translator W221DS, which was moved to the northwest during the 2016 AM Revitalization "250-mile" move window of 2016.  This translator has been faced with numerous informal objections by Clear Communications (not iHeart), licensee of WVLT, Vineland, NJ, a class A FM station located to the southeast of Philadelphia towards Cape May, NJ.

Starting on April 10, 2017, the new rules regarding FM translators for AM stations and how far the 60 dBu protected service contour of the translator can extend will go into effect.  

The 2 mV/m contour

Like how FM stations, including LPFM stations have protected service contours that designate a primary service area where there is an expectation of station reception, AM has a similar contour.  The contour designates where the signal is expected to reach a 2 millivolt per meter (mV/m) field strength.  The shape of the contour depends on antenna directionality as well as conductivity of the ground in the area around the station.  The map to the right is KIDR, an AM station operating on 740 kHz in Phoenix with 1 kW into a directional antenna.  The contours the FCC takes into consdieration for this rule is the daytime 2 mV/m contour.  Most stations will have different 2 mV/m contours at night. 

"REC's position on the status of North Miami Hispanic Community Radio and South Miami Hispanic Community Radio has not changed. 

In January 2016, REC filed a supplement to the original Cesar Guel informal objection based on subsequent filing activity under the North Miami and South Miami applications.  Our investigation has found the potential of an unauthorized transfer of control of both applications to Ministerio Internacional Yo Soy, Inc.