A Way to Free Up Some FM Frequencies

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A Way to Free Up Some FM Frequencies

Postby jon » Thu Nov 19, 2015 4:16 pm

At first glance, this seems like a trivial item, but there are a couple of interesting points involved in this piece from NWBroadcasters.com:

11/17/15 - The FCC has granted original construction permits to Bustos Media Holdings, LLC for four booster stations for KDDS-FM 99.3 Elma. They are KDDS-FM1 Seattle with .5 kW ERP, KDDS-FM2 Rainier Beach with .099 kW ERP, KDDS-FM3 Tukwila with .099 kW ERP and KDDS-FM4 Kent with 1 kW ERP. As booster stations, all will operate on 99.3 MHz. FCC data

The most obvious point is that it provides a back door into Seattle for a station half way between Olympia and the Pacific Coast.

The point that really has a lot to say about solving Canada's FM Frequency Shortage is the fact that these so-called "booster stations" could replace Canada's standard of using repeater transmitters on different frequencies than the master transmitter. Assuming it can work with higher powered repeater transmitters, as in the case of KRTH-FM's repeater in Oceanside, just North of San Diego, the CRTC could require the conversion of all existing repeater transmitters to the same frequency as the station they are repeating. In the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, the CBC and Rogers stations come immediately to mind.

Admittedly, KRTH had to synchronize the Oceanside transmitter so that it did not get out of phase with the Los Angeles transmitter in areas where the signal strengths of both were about the same. Can this be done with more than two transmitters? As in the case of the Rogers stations where I could believe that there might be places where the Vancouver, Abbotsford and Chilliwack transmitters might be close enough to even strength that all three would have to be synchronized to avoid phasing issues.
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Re: A Way to Free Up Some FM Frequencies

Postby Dan Sys » Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:31 am

Jon.....Rogers has already done this with CIOC-1 98.5 on Salt Spring Island which is a synchronized transmitter (booster) for CIOC 98.5 in Victoria. However I am not sure if CJAX-1 96.9 in Whistler is actually a synchronized transmitter for CJAX 96.9 in Vancouver because of the distance involved between the two cities.

Definitely rare in Canada, but probably the most notable synchronized transmitter in Canada was CKEY-1 101.1 in St. Catharines which boosted CKEY (now CFLZ) 101.1 in Fort Erie. It is no longer listed as being active in the I/C database, so I am assuming it was shut down after the originating station in Fort Erie made pattern changes which covered St. Catharines.

Another one of note would be Durham Radio's CJKX-2 95.9 in Toronto which is a synchronized transmitter for CJKX 95.9 in Ajax.
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