Recently the AM engineering community, after years of trying, finally won the OK to use computer modeling techniques for verifying AM directional antennas.
Now the Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission has clarified procedures for verifying the performance of AM DAs using such “moment method modeling.”
Saying it has received numerous questions, the bureau issued a public notice this week. The information “is intended to provide general guidance reflecting the staff’s initial interpretation of the new rules,” it said. “It is not intended to establish binding precedent. The staff will make specific rulings in response to actual applications on a case-by-case basis.”
The notice address topics including the types of antenna systems eligible for moment method proofs; tower location tolerance; the exemption of formerly licensed facilities from a survey requirement; accounting for base region effects when base sampling is used; agreement between calculated and measured tower base impedances; determination of licensed parameters vs. operating tolerances; antenna monitor calibration; filing fees; and other questions.
Read it here (PDF).
Related:
“How to Produce Good Models” by Cris Alexander (Feb. 2009)
“The New AM DA Rules and You” by Tom McGinley (June 2009)
