2月7日、関西在住のWakiさん、Northさんが太さんの掲示板に「1500に1640-KDIA(Vallejo, CA)と1690-KFSG(Roseville, CA)がいきなりガツンと入感した」ことを報告されました。出力切り換え時刻ではないかと推測されたWakiさんが、Shinさんの協力を得て早速KFSGのLeonard Harris氏にコンタクトを取られ、下記の情報を得られました。おなじみの太さんの掲示板より転載します。
Thank you for your report and mp3 files regarding KFSG radio.In answer to your questions:
(1) You are correct in assuming that during February,KFSG increases power from 1 kw to 10 kw at 1500UTC.
(2) During weekdays, KFSG broadcasts programs in Spanish and Russian. Programmers purchase air time and act as independent producers. They are not employees of KFSG. During the weekends (Saturday and Sunday), we have
programmers broadcasting in other languages, one of which is Korean. You heard Korean on Sunday (Monday,your time)
DX propogation has been good this winter on the broadcast band as we have had several listener reports from Europe and Asia.
I am the engineer for my companies stations in San Jose, San Francisco, and the Sacramento area. I live near San Francisco in Alameda, CA. I am a ham operator (WA6PKB) and over the years have talked to many JA (Japanese) stations.
I am attaching in Word format, a verification report. I visit KFSG about every two weeks, so it may be a while before I see your mailed report.
この返信により、KFSGはロシア語でも放送していることがわかったほか、韓国語は日曜日のみという推測をも裏付けてくれました。情報をご提供いただいたWakiさん、連絡先をご提供いただいたShinさん、またこのような貴重な情報を得る場を開設、運営されておられる太さんに感謝します。
なお、北米中波局を管理するFCCのホームページにはLocal Sunrise / Sunset Calculationsのページがあり、ここで得られる時刻が出力切り換えの時刻のようです。以下の記述があります。
Given a set of coordinates (latitude and longitude) in degrees / minutes / seconds, this program will calculate the approximate average monthly sunrise and sunset times at that location. These values are important to those AM stations who must reduce power, cease operations, or change to directional operation during the nighttime hours, as well as the stations protected by the changed operation.
このプログラムは緯度と経度から月ごとの日の出と日没の時間の平均値を算出します。これは夜間、減力したり、放送を終了したり、指向性を変えたりしなければならないAM局にとってはとても重要な時刻です。
…中略…
Many AM broadcast radio stations operate with presunrise authority (PSRA) or postsunset authority (PSSA). These special authorizations allow the station to incrementally change power or mode of operation before sunrise or after sunset, in recognition that changes in the ionosphere (the atmospheric layer that reflects AM signals at night) do not occur instantly at nightfall or at sunrise. For these stations, the times shown by this program will generally indicate when the incremental station changes must begin.
だからしっかり守りなさいよ。
この記事の原文はこちら。
■FCCのホームページ
The Federal Communications Commission(FCC)
■FCCの定義する夜明け、日没時刻
Approximate Sunrise / Sunset Times(Local Sunrise / Sunset Calculations)
■FCCの管理する北米中波局のデータベース
AM Query(AMQ AM Radio Database Query)
■北米中波局のClassについて
AM Station Classes(AM Station Classes)