Terrestrial "call signs" -- are they required to be correct?

[davodavo]

I have an odd situation, where I receive a very weak signal from a station that is a "clone" of another one much farther away. The close station and the far one are both 3 kW ERP transmitting on channel 2 (virtual channel 45). Interesting that both of them have exactly the same lineup.

It's perfectly reasonable that I receive the close station (25 miles), but it has the call sign of the one that's 160 miles away. I'd love to believe that my gigantic antenna and preamp are that good, but it seems unlikely (altho...at 56 MHz you can get stuff a lot farther away than up at 560 MHz).

It's possible the station operators are just sloppy, putting up the wrong call sign. But it's hard to believe that would be legal.

Ideas?

(and yes, OF COURSE there's no website or way of contacting this station operator--they're a religious broadcaster with dozens of stations all over the country)

[JoeAZ]

How do you know that the stations are 3 Kw?
How do you know that the stations are 25 and
160 miles away??? Assuming those are correct,
you are receiving one of many religious "networks"
on both stations. The station ID you speak of is
the main station for the network and the others are
all repeaters/translators of that network. If you
contact engineering at the main station, they should
be able to give you the ID's of the two stations you
receive.

[ADTech]

I can guarantee you that you are not receiving two separate broadcasts that are both transmitting on channel 2. The co-channel interference would make reception impossible.

It sounds like you're north of San Francisco and, most likely, are receiving signals from the KKPM (One Ministries) network. They operate a network of translators and low-power stations (operating as translators). Click here for a map of their network: https://www.rabbitears.info/contour....78cf6212b6c0ea

Translators operate as a 100% pass-thru service of the original programming. The only exceptions I know of are that the virtual channel might change and that each translator is required by regulation to provide a "station ID" for that transmitter, generally twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, either by Morse code or a visual or audio announcement. Other than those IDs, the transmitted content would be an exact copy of the originating station's content.


BTW, the operator is easily reachable, he's a regular over at AVSforum under the screen name of "kkpm" and usually posts in the San Francisco and the forums for neighboring DMAs where he has a presence.

[davodavo]

Originally Posted by JoeAZ

How do you know that the stations are 3 Kw?
How do you know that the stations are 25 and
160 miles away???

This info from https://larrykenney.com/sfonair.html
which appears to get its info directly from FCC database.

The station ID you speak of is
the main station for the network and the others are
all repeaters/translators of that network.

Each of the stations has its own callsign. By callsign, I mean the characters that appear right next to the stations' virtual channel...and that info is all digitally encoded in the broadcast signal.

As these two "stations" (really, they're just repeaters of a feed from somewhere) have separate callsigns, you'd expect them to be correct...

[davodavo]

Originally Posted by ADTech

I can guarantee you that you are not receiving two separate broadcasts that are both transmitting on channel 2. The co-channel interference would make reception impossible.

Sorry for my ambiguous communication. I know I'm receiving only one of these stations, but the one that declares itself to be the one I'm receiving is waaaay too far away to be believed. Both stations encode their call signs in the broadcast signal (it's presented on-screen alongside the virtual channel number).

Translators operate as a 100% pass-thru service of the original programming. The only exceptions I know of are that the virtual channel might change and that each translator is required by regulation to provide a "station ID" for that transmitter, generally twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon, either by Morse code or a visual or audio announcement. Other than those IDs, the transmitted content would be an exact copy of the originating station's content.

The station ID I'm referring to is the one that is encoded in the signal -- not an on-screen video. My TV presents it alongside the virtual channel #...and that's where the question started: have people experienced situations where that station ID is wrong?


{QUOTE]BTW, the operator is easily reachable, he's a regular over at AVSforum under the screen name of "kkpm" and usually posts in the San Francisco and the forums for neighboring DMAs where he has a presence.[/QUOTE]
OOOOOOOOOh, thanks for this pointer. I had no idea how to contact them.