Editor:
I'm a senior telecom executive employed in the industry for over 35 years.
With more than a cursory knowledge of FCC and Industry Canada regulations, I've reviewed the documentation on KRPI and find the evidence more than a little unusual.
A Canadian broadcaster has apparently succeeded in masquerading as a U.S. broadcaster to use a transmitter located on U.S. soil to, by its own claims and admissions, serve a Canadian audience. This appears as a deliberate act to skirt the spirit and intent of FCC and Industry Canada/CRTC regulations. There's evidence of withholding the facts and an appalling lack of transparency.
Now KRPI has applied to construct a 50,000-watt broadcast transmitter and antenna tower array approximately 300 metres south of the U.S.-Canada border in
Point Roberts. In combination, the radiation artifacts from the antenna array will produce effective radiated power (ERP) well above the 100,000-watt level and the bulk of this RF radiation will be directed into Tsawwassen.
Make no mistake, this is a very high-power broadcast transmitter on elevated terrain.
The KRPI application is bad engineering practice and not in the public interest of Point Roberts residents. There will be interference to the residents and businesses of Tsawwassen and South Delta, predictably in all forms, the extent of which will only be known once the transmitter is on the air.
KRPI has demonstrated over the years it is incapable or unwilling to solve its well-documented interference problems in Ferndale. The move to Point Roberts appears as an attempt to escape the angry residents of Ferndale and export the interference into Tsawwassen whose residents will have little recourse with the FCC.
Real or imagined, the installation and operation of this transmitter will negatively impact home values of existing and proposed residences in Tsawwassen. Whether required by real estate disclosure documents or word of mouth, homes in proximity to this transmitter site can be expected to suffer diminution of value over time.
KRPI's plans are bad news for the residents of Tsawwassen. That this bad news is the product of a Canadian broadcaster masquerading as a U.S. broadcaster makes it an obscene act perpetrated by a business that is expected to act in the public interest.
Robert L. (Bob) Hillman Chairman, Chief Executive Officer RuralCom Corporation
