Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!elroy!gryphon!vector!telecom-gateway From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Praise the Lord and Pass the RF Filters Message-ID: Date: 23 Jun 89 00:23:26 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 168 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 208, message 1 of 3 Indiana Bell service in the northeast section of Hammond, IN has gone to hell, but the telco says its not their fault, and they are trying to work with the people involved to correct the problem. For instance, consider the case of Steve Gescheidler, a resident of north Hammond, living just a few blocks from the Illinois/Indiana state line: he shares a party line with Jesus. When he picks up his telephone, a voice will often be on the wire reading from Ephesians, or bellowing at him to repent before he Burns In Hell forever. Sometimes the voice is trying to sell him spiritually enlightening audio tapes -- Visa and MasterCard accepted, of course. His neighbor around the corner, Judy Maruszczak, has a heavenly instrument also: When she tries to make a phone call, it will often times be drowned out by hand-clapping gospel music. Her VCR also likes to preach to her. The Hammond legal firm of Efron and Efron owns a pious dictaphone machine. When the secretary is in the midst of transcribing legalese, threats of fire and brimstone suddenly are heard on the tape. In addition, their phone system is electronic, and when they put calls on hold, as often as not a few seconds later the hold is broken and the call is lost. Several times per day the phone will ring, and no one is on the line at all. Linda Reynolds, another resident in the area said her television, her VCR and her cordless phone all began urging her down the righteous path last fall. She said sometimes at night the cordless phone begins ringing by itself, and going off hook for no reason, tying up their wire-line. Nine year old Tommy Kotul learned how to find salvation while he was trying to play 'Sports Baseball', an Atari game cartridge. He also said that one day in school, a choir started singing hymns over the school's public address system, which is in the form of speakerphones connected to the intercom phone on each teacher's desk. Although the sanctified interference shows up in the damndedest ways, on all sorts of electronic gizmos, it invariably is on the phone lines of the good (and presumably by now, God-fearing) residents of North Hammond, an Indiana community which straddles the Illinois state line with the communities of Burnham and Calumet City, Illinois to the south and west, and Chicago at it's northwest tip on the state line. So people began asking Indiana Bell, "what the heck is this, anyway?"... WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters, Inc....that's what it is.... this religious station, operating at 92.3 on the dial, licensed in Hammond, IN, with transmitter facilities in Burnham, IL is the culprit. Operating with an antenna height of 500 feet, and 50,000 watts of radiated power, the folks at WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters, Inc. are literally *saturating* a two mile area around the northern end of the Indiana/Illinois state line, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Gescheidler lives about four blocks from WYCA's transmitter. He first began noticing the sanctified interference last fall, and it became louder and louder as the months went on, always on his end. "It seems like when I am in the middle of an important conversation, some preacher always comes on and tells me I'm going to Hell," he said, adding that the phone lines had already gone to hell, and no one seemed to give a damn about it. After complaining several times to Indiana Bell, Gescheidler and his neighbors complained to the Federal Communications Commission, the Indiana Utilities Regulatory Commission, and finally to the radio station itself. No one, he realized, least of all the radio station, was willing to take any responsibility for the problem. WYCA isn't breaking any broadcasting rules according to Paul Gomell, an FCC Chicago office technician whose duties include periodic examination of WYCA's equipment. "The home equipment is probably not adequately filtered," he said. "The problem has nothing to do with Indiana Bell's equipment," said Delores Steur-Wagner, Indiana Bell's community affairs manager for Hammond. "If there are complaints, they should go to the FCC." Chris Alexander, Dallas-based Vice President-Engineering for WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters parent corporation said, "The signal is so strong, you expect this kind of interference in devices that are not well-shielded. We try to advise people as best we can, and we have worked closely with Indiana Bell and Illinois Bell to resolve complaints." In November, 1986, the station raised its antenna to 500 feet from 400 feet, and increased its power from 30,000 to 50,000 watts, Alexander said. "We made these changes only after receiving permission to do so from the Federal Communications Commission." Alexander said that this change in power and antenna height created a so-called 'blanketing area' -- an area of about 1.7 miles in any direction of the transmitter and antenna -- where the signal is so strong and so permeating, it is literally everywhere, in everything. "Indeed this is the case," said one neighbor five blocks from the site. "I have gone for early morning walks in the open field where the antenna is constructed. In the crisp, early morning air, you can almost feel the signal; smell that ozone; sense the corona." Alexander said, "We operate completely within the law. We observe all FCC regulations at all times." He noted that one condition for the change in antenna height and power output being granted by the Commission was that WYCA was ordered to assume responsibility for correcting certain types of radio interference in an area 1.7 miles in any direction of the station for a period of *one year* afterward. Alexander said during that time they worked closely with the telcos involved and "....anyone who complained about interference was given free of charge the filtering devices they needed...some of our people helped install them....just what the FCC said we had to do, we did it, in the geographic area required, for the length of time required...." Alexander noted one of the first complaints about the increased power came when prosecutors in a federal drug trial in Hammond tried to play wiretap evidence for the jury: instead, the tape recorder offered up hymns and homilies. Paul Gomell of the FCC noted that they have received complaints about the station relating to answering machines, speed-dialing equipment, cordless phones, cheapie phones, hold buttons, Touch-Tone service, and VCR's. These appurtenances and others -- like the preaching Atari game -- lend to the appearance that God is everywhere, at least in Hammond. One Indiana Bell service representative spoke, on the condition that she could remain nameless, saying that the telco had handled over 130 WYCA- related problems in the past year, but Bell spokeswoman Steur-Wagner said the company does not keep track of such things and she had no way of confirming this report. The next step to reduce the interference -- with no guarentees that it will completely end -- is to have all the interior phone wire shielded in steel casings, said Tim Timmons, Indiana Bell's regional maintainence manager for northern Indiana, "...plus of course have good filtering where the phone lines come into the building..." "What a deal!", said Gescheidler. He recently priced the job at $300 per phone from an independent contractor. "Indiana Bell said *maybe* they could do it a little cheaper for us...but they say it is not their obligation to resolve the problem any further." He mentioned that, "...one day some guy from WYCA came here with a phone man; they had some cheapie looking filter they plugged in...it didn't seem to do any good." Although the parent corporation of WYCA in Dallas may have good public relations, the neighborhood says local staff at WYCA-FM Christian Broadcasters, Inc. isn't at all concerned any longer. "They have heard so many complaints I guess they quit listening to them any longer," said a neighbor. "When I called one day -- one day when it seemed like they were much louder than usual -- and asked them in a nice way couldn't they modulate their signal a little better, a lady there told me I was being blasphemous. She told me it was anti-religious to complain. She said I should be thankful that I was able to hear the Word of God, and she hoped I would someday realize I would Burn In Hell without accepting Jesus as my Savior. That's the last time I bothered calling *them* to complain. Now the FCC and Indiana Bell say *they* can't do any more either?" No madame, they cannot. As Chris Alexander, VP-Engineering has explained time and again when asked, the Corporation follows all FCC rules at all times. "We ALWAYS do exactly what the government tells us to do," he said. And Indiana Bell brings the wire to the drop by your house. They say the line is as clean as it can be at that point. You do the rest. An old folk-prayer says, "My Lord....nothing is going to happen that You and I can't handle together. Amen." But one can have too much togetherness, as the residents of North Hammond will attest. Said Steve Gescheidler, "On the radio, they are praying for me. Meanwhile, I am praying for a phone line I can talk on without being disrupted by the choir and the organist." Radio Station WYCA-FM Studios and Executive Offices 6336 Calumet Avenue Hammond, IN 46301 92.3 on FM dial throughout northern Illinois and northern Indiana.