[BC] to light or not to light

[Thomas G. Osenkowsky]

> As someone else mentioned not too long ago, it is also useful to 
> check with the local airport and flyers to ensure they are not 
> "counting" on your lights for safety.  While you may have the right 
> to de-light, there always could be some small liability ... and a 
> lawyer looking for business ...

The FAA bears the sole responsibility for hazard determination.
Just after I rebuilt WNYC(AM)'s transmitter plant in Greenpoint,
Brooklyn (830 KHz, now defunct) helicopter pilots persuaded the
FAA to mandate strobe lighting on the towers. They were just
off the river. The towers were previously unlit. If the FAA has
determined there is no hazard, they bear the responsibility for
that decision.

If you elected to keep the lighting at the request of the local airport,
pilots, etc. the station would willingly accept responsibility for the
maintenance of that lighting. Doing so may violate their Tower
Registration.

Here's a hypothetical scenario: WLAD, Danbury, CT's tower is
very close to Danbury Airport (DXR). Many pilots who have an
ADF set it to 800 KHz and follow the needle straight towards the
field. We also own WREF, Ridgefield, CT (850 KHz). If we
diplexed WLAD and WREF at the Ridgefield, CT site and a pilot
still believed we had not moved would WLAD be responsible for
that pilot's navigation?

Just playing Devil's Advocate. (Vanity is my favorite sin)

Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE