The point is from 1200 the day prior (when SC are assigned and you tell scheduling you will be NC) up until the time in your SC window you choose to view your icrew schedule, scheduling cannot assign you a rotation that reports in your first two hours. Scheduling can only assign a SC pilot a rotation that reports inside the SC window. So with a 6 hour window, by going NC you are cutting your usability by 1/3. If you don’t go NC then they can assign you a report 1 minute into your SC window, and it’ll obviously go out late because they can’t call you until your SC starts and you still have your promptly available time to get to the airport.

So, with standard SC contactability, you can get a report 0:01 into your SC window. The point of going NC is that you wouldn’t ever be PWA legal to be assigned that rotation in the first place. Again, going NC for SC only gives the company a 4 hour window to hit you with a report time.

And for the “long” local commuters, parsing the language I don’t see anything in the PWA or SRH that says you have to wait until SC starts to call scheduling and end your NC status. If it takes you 3 hours to drive in you could call them 1 hour prior to SC starting and end the NC at that point, and if you have a rotation assigned reporting at the 2:00 mark into your SC you can still make report legally.