Just seems to me there is a lot of favoritism going on in the FCC. What one station get's by with another station thinks hey so and so can do it then so can i. But..... That is not always the case now is it?
Having no actual experience I would guess that one inspection might differ from another because some human beings are different from one another, even those doing the same job. Some might be socially healthy with a deep interest and understanding of other human beings and inclined to be reasonable, others might be anti-social and get some measure of satisfaction about using authority as a weapon to destroy hopes and dreams.
But I don't know that to be true.
OK then let me rephrase ... under what conditions would a signal of 250uV@3M be able to make 1320 feet?
We know FM is LOS and height is certainly a factor, but nothing I've seen or heard of short of some sort of strange once-in-a-lifetime anomaly would get it that far; it certainly wouldn't be normal.
"I've seen or heard of short of some sort of strange once-in-a-lifetime anomaly would get it that far; it certainly wouldn't be normal."
"What's normal?"..LaForge
😀
RFB
A very sensitive receiver hooked up to a 10 element yagi outdoor FM antenna with a pre-amp and aimed directly at your transmitter would probably bring your legal Part 15 station in very well at 1/4 mile.
But how many of your potential listeners have a set-up that good.....and how many would be willing to set up that kind of a system just to hear your station?
This is why most of us choose to stretch that 250uv/m @ 3m line "just a little"
I know plenty who set up even more elaborate antenna systems and use very expensive radios to listen to pops and noise and static for hours in headphones with the volume blasting.
These days with cable and iMobile and just general lack of interest in terrestrial radio, there are far less out there who would bother to jot on down to radio shack and get an outdoor FM antenna and a 20 foot TV antenna mast and put it up. In their minds...why should they! And they are right considering what is on the dial these days ain't worth the hassle or effort...except of course to pick up our flea signals containing real radio...if they knew about it!
A lot of people never even knew there was FM radio available on the cable until the cable company started advertising it. Distant FM stations were pipped in at the cable head end with large high gain antennas, and a local cable FM station or two to boot...back in the day when even the cable company really cared about public interest.
Don't see that anymore do we.
Tell the people about it and it could spark interest, enough that there is bound to be a few who will set up a decent antenna. If they like what they hear, they spread the word and so on. Soon you will get letters asking how can get your station..well time to play the role of Public Relations for your station..time to get out there and push real radio on the 1 to 1 personal level instead of small pieces of paper called business cards and flyers.
RFB
the old days when they used a wideband preamp and antenna and just piped in the entire FM band. you could get into the head end with a high gain yagi pointed at head end and a 1mW cable modulator and run a Cable FM that way if you lived close enough to the head end.
Who can afford it these days? It's enough just to acquire a good SW radio with good FM and AM selectivity/sensitivity.
Unless you're the well-off HAM radio hobby-guy. I just went to local meeting where one of the members in that category did a slide show of him working HAM radio stations on the U.S. West Coast from his second waterfront home in New Zealand, where he just recently got a NZ HAM license.
Used NZ repeaters to get to the hi-grade internet connection -> U.S. West Coast Repeaters -> West Coast contacts.