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Show Illegality of VHF Boosters Is FCC Final Stand With television service very much a problem In Iron County Coun-ty and very much before the public at the present time, we reprint a report published in the Dee. 1 issue of Television Ti -1 pest. The article, published under Ihe heading "FCC Foreshadows Demise of Illegal roosters," lnrti-j cates that an order may be forth-1 comln to shut down all booster Stations. Such action, of course, Would be a shock to Iron County viewers. The complete report is as follows: j Looks like the Illegal vhf boos-tor's boos-tor's goose Is finnaly cooked. Af-1 ter several years of rather silly political folderol for FCC majority ma-jority this week Instructed staff to draft final decision throwing out its rule-making proposal to legalize the troublesome repeaters. repeat-ers. There may yet be a slip because official last word is still to come but it's unlikely. Here's brief history of It all: ' For several years, citizens here and there mostly in the Northwest, North-west, had Installed little Jerry-built Jerry-built amplifiers on mountain-tops, mountain-tops, picked up distant stations, beamed them into valley towns on same channel or an a different differ-ent vhf channel. FCC ruled that these operations were Illegal and dangerous , Booster operators took FCC to court, got a delay, persuaded the fcomrrlsslon to take another look. Last year, one month after deciding de-ciding boosters were illegal, FCC reversed ltsolf, started rule-making looking toward legalizing them (Vol. 13:31). This week's action indicates that the end is about at hand. Commission again deciding against the boosters primarily on these counts: (1) Danger to Safety and special services such as aircraft navigation signals. C2) Destruction pf TV service itself. it-self. It was always felt that FCC gave In to easily to political pressures when Colorado Gov. McNlchols urged It to triy to' find a home for boosters (Vol. 13:28). However, McNlchols was; sat on pretty hard by his neighboring neigh-boring western governors when! he sounght to give impression that he spoke for them and Ifa believed politics are largely out of the picture now. posed denial is success of uhf translators (Vol. 14:4G), which are perfect substitute for Illegal boosters, though more expensive. There are some 1000 1500 boost-ers boost-ers operating, and it's presumed i FCC will be quite lenient in glv-ing glv-ing operations time to quit and convert to translators if they choose. Translator manufacturers should be preparing for a roaring business busi-ness in the hamlets of the Northwest. North-west. Interestingly, principal ' tr;;r..!str,r rr.sr.ufsciurcT dlcr Electronics first supported the FCC's booster-legalizing proposal, thought adequate proteeeive techniques could be devised. It later changed its mind complete- |
