Not Me - I’m not Climbing the Water Tower
Back in 2003, the Township of Roxbury, New Jersey purposely did not renew their license authorizing the use of 45.24 MHz. But on February 17, 2015, the FCC knocked on their door with some surprising news. Evidently, the Township had never turned the transmitter off. For 12 years, the Township of Hanover, New Jersey had reported to the FCC that they were receiving a constant carrier signal on 45.24 MHz, a frequency for which they were authorized under KDE641. The FCC had determined the signal was coming from a water tower where the old transmitter operated by the Township of Roxbury was still connected and operating. The Township of Roxbury received a Notice of Unlicensed Operation from the FCC.
Category: Enforcement CornerDigital Dilemma
A medical center and a school district had operated their respective analog radio systems on shared frequency for years. But when the school district migrated to a digital system, the acceptable sharing experience concluded due to noise issues resulting from the different technologies. EWA identified the licensees and the respective service shops who fortunately agreed to resolve the sharing problem. The FCC’s assistance was not required.
FCC Modifies Public Safety Trunking Rules
FCC announced rule changes that will permit proposed Public Safety centralized trunked system’s service contours to be overlapped by the interference contour of incumbent stations. Of course, public safety applicants would have to accept any resulting interference. Thankfully, this permissive rule change is not applicable to Industrial/Business Pool frequencies, where acceptance of such a condition might enable the applicant to block the expansion of viable incumbent systems. In this Second Order, the Commission also amended it rules – applicable within the 150-174 MHz band for both Industrial/Business and Public Safety applicants – regarding the protection of mobile stations that are associated with a base station. Specifically, the FCC’s rule change states, “Contour calculations are required for associated mobile stations only in the 150-174 MHz band, with the associated base station’s service contour used as both the mobile station’s service contour and its interference contour.”
Category: In the newsUnfortunately - Enforcement Bureau Reduction Planned
It’s hard to comprehend that the Commission leadership is considering reducing the number of its employees in the field, eliminating field offices – perhaps even its most active Philadelphia Office – and centralizing to a greater extent its functions within the Washington, D.C. headquarters. According to a Commission official, “Interference resolution is and will remain the field’s top priority, our methods and organization need to evolve with changes in the industry such as spectrum sharing, improvements in remote detection, and self-regulation. The proposals under consideration would adequately equip the field to meet the enforcement needs of the commission.” We will have to wait and see as the Enforcement Bureau has been understaffed and underfunded for decades, which has required it to consistently limit its activities and to create enforcement priorities. Further details will be provided as the FCC designs and implements these critical changes.
Category: In the newsLicensing Procedures for Expansion/Guard Bands Identified
A new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) has been prepared by the LMCC and all of the FCC’s certified frequency advisory committees who wish to serve applicants within the 815-816/860-861 MHz Expansion Band and the 816-817/861-862 MHz Guard Band. The MOA defines the processes by which applications for 800 MHz EB/GB channels will be handled in the coordination process to avoid the submission of mutually exclusive applications. The MOA was submitted to the FCC for informational purposes, will be posted for public inspection on the LMCC’s web site (www.lmcc.org) as soon as it is officially executed.
Category: In the newsFlathead County – One Last Time - Maybe
As reported in the last issue of Insider, the FCC recently banished as a nuisance arguments posed by EWA regarding Flathead County, Montana’s waiver to integrate eight (8) B/ILT channels within its already robust spectrum position. Since new information seemed to crop up every time the County responded to EWA, and now in its Order, new information was introduced by the FCC, EWA was left with no choice other than to defend its position for the record formally filing a letter of clarification. Specifically, EWA did not request reconsideration of the FCC’s Order, but noted that (1) PS deployment of VHF P25 technology seemed likely to increase requests for waivers to access I/B frequencies; (2) if PS entities do not intend to use 700 or 800 MHz spectrum in rural areas, eligibility for that spectrum should perhaps be expanded to other Part 90 users; (3) it is not possible for third parties, including EWA and the FCC, to validate claims that absolutely no VHF public safety PS channels are available for Flathead County’s use as public safety frequency coordination analyses are performed on an ad hoc basis and do not particularly follow the requirements of Rule Section 90.187; and (4), if public safety entities need additional capacity to accommodate Federal agency users as it appears to be the case as reported by the FCC in its Flathead County Order, then wouldn’t it be better if those Federal Agencies contributed Federal Government spectrum to the spectrum mix rather than relying on using Industrial/Business frequencies. Reallocation of Industrial/Business spectrum through such ad hoc processes removes the spectrum away from utilities, energy, medical, educational, transportation and other American business enterprises who are not provided the luxury of accessing, through waivers, vast swaths of public safety spectrum even in such remote places as Flathead County.
Category: EWA On Your Side