The FCC on January 26 this year authorized KBRT (AM) to move from Santa Catalina Island to Sierra Peak between Irvine and Corona, and increase its daytime power to 50kW directional. With KFMB-AM San Diego on 760kHz and KBRT Avalon on 740kHz, the two stations have had interference issues since 1962 when the FCC gave KBRT the class D daytime-only allocation. The two are unusually close-spaced in both frequency and geography. But the matter heated up in 2007 when KBRT began broadcasting Ibiquity digital sidebands, essentially wiping out coverage of KFMB-AM north of San Diego.

The FCC said KBRT owner Kiertron must continue to operate its AM IBOC channel upper sideband at -29dB from Ibiquity standard levels of -28dBc (28dB below carrier), as it had volunteered in March of 2010 to do. The new day and night pattern gives KBRT a major lobe south-southwest toward south coastal Orange County and moderate nulls northwest toward co-channel KCBS in San Francisco and southeast toward San Diego. The FCC gave KBRT a low nighttime power that it will continue to maintain.

In correspondence filed with the FCC in 2008, KBRT owner Kiertron did not deny the interference it was causing, but claimed that KFMB had no protection of its signal outside of the San Diego metropolitan area due to the wording of the original KBRT authorization to broadcast in 1962.

According to the terms of their FCC Construction Permit, KBRT has until January 2015 to complete their move to the mainland.

Larry Douglas of Access Media Group reports that their television “production trailer (a black Hallmark 5×8 enclosed trailer, Colorado license number 695OMO) was stolen [Sunday, November 20, 2011] with most of our production gear inside.  This includes 3 of our Sony HD XDCAM cameras, our FOUR-A Switcher, SONY monitors, racks, audio equipment, 12 foot EZ-JIB, Spider-pod camera platforms, cables, AJA ioHD, misc AJA SDI boxes and a lot more.

“The thieves may try and sell this gear. Please spread the word… and if anyone hears anything please pass the information along to the police and myself.”

Contact Larry at (719) 337-2100 or ldouglas@amgtv.com.

As Chief Engineer of Clear Channel’s San Diego LP-1 (KOGO) and LP-2 (KLSD) stations, Bill Thompson led San Diego’s effort to relay the national EAS test. Here’s Bill’s take on the November 10, 11 AM test:

KOGO got its audio directly from FEMA or whatever ‘alphabet soup’ government agency originated the test via a dial up phone connection. They issued the command to the PEP Sage Endec located at the KOGO Transmitter to start the test…then dumped the audio into it (bad as it was)…then issued the EOM Command. KLSD received the KOGO Test “off-the-air”, and rebroadcast it. KOGO and KLSD also got the test from KNX (off-air) and NPR (via ISDN from KPBS), since NPR was an entry point.

We did a couple of closed circuit tests with NPR, and they worked fine…[but the day of the test] the NPR feed was from WJLA-TV in Washington; which we found to be a bit weird.

There’s a lot of fuss regarding the test ‘failing’, and I feel that’s a wrong answer! From a technical standpoint, I think it was at least a modest success here in San Diego. Every participant got the tones, albeit the audio was pretty bad. On a national scale, there were areas with problems and I think those problems probably started at the PEP level. However, for something that complex and so sprawled out to go as well as it did the first time out of the gate I think is commendable. I’m sure there will be a LOT of changes made in the PEP system before the next test, foremost being the method of delivering the audio to the PEP Stations.

Meanwhile, Bill’s manager at Clear Channel, John Rigg, serves on an EAS PEP committee, chimed in:

Officially we made the effort to receive the test via 3 different paths–two worked, one did not.  The two that worked were normal connections and special lash-ups for the test. Oddly enough, the NPR inbound was one of the paths that did not function. The test supplied to NPR was flawed and did not propagate.

John said he would wait to hear from his PEP colleagues and FEMA before making further comments.

Bob Gonsett, Steve Blodgett, and friends have posted extensive reviews and comments here.