ARLA/CLUSTER: FCC apontada por ter mandado desligar em Março de 2017 os amplificadores da mais importante estação que emitia em AM por interferências em Arecibo

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

FCC silenced Puerto Rico radio station's boosters in March 2017

WAPA (680 AM) is a radio station in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
After Hurricane Maria took out power, phone lines, cell towers and
internet, WAPA was the only Puerto Rican radio station on the air for
crucial public emergency communication.

But WAPA's signal coverage was significantly cut in March 2017 when
the FCC refused to renew the license for synchronous AM booster
stations at Arecibo, Mayaguez and Aguadilla in March due to procedural
issues with the petition for renewal. This decision limited the
coverage, signal strength and signal quality of this station for
remote and mountainous parts of Puerto Rico where the need for
emergency communications is greatest.

The FCC audio division chief who pulled WAPA's synchronous booster
license decided to retire a few days ago. The position is open but is
focused on legal training rather than technical expertise and
experience with emergency communications.

FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and
satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness
throughout the lower 48 states. With IoT, cellular, mesh, satellite,
social media and cognitive radio, communications technology is
changing much faster than the FCC's legal efforts to regulate it. But
its arcane regulations leave Puerto Rico as one of the few islands in
the Caribbean without a long distance shortwave broadcast station.

With line of sight FM stations offline and WAPA's AM station neutered,
post-Maria Puerto Ricans have a better chance of getting news and
emergency information from Havana, Cuba than from anything under the
FCC's increasingly pointless jurisdiction.

Read the full article
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/09/29/216207/fcc-silenced-puerto-rico-radio-stations-boosters-in-march-2017

• Our thanks to Stephen, G7VFY for spotting this item