Last week the FCC released a list of experimental licenses granted from the beginning of February 2013 to June 1. Several of the applications will be of interest to broadcasters.
Gray Television Licensee, LLC was granted WG2XPLL to use 1990-2110 MHz and 2450-2483.5 MHz to test a system that will utilize fixed sectorized steerable antennas mounted under radomes on mobile units fixed in Bryan and College Station, Texas. Note that the 2 GHz frequencies listed include frequencies no longer allocated for Part 74 broadcast auxiliary service use.
Users of 2.5 GHz ENG channels around Boardman, Ore. may be interested in watching INSITU's use of 2390-2490 MHz as well as1370-1381 MHz and 4411-4489 MHz “to support research and development of UAV under a DOD contract.”
I've previously described Globalstar's testing in the 2.5 GHz band which has been reported to have caused interference to at least one station's ENG operations around the San Jose, Calif. area. Boston stations may want to check the grant of WG2XNK to Jarvinian Wireless Innovation Fund for use of 2473-2495 MHz “to test terrestrial low power service” mobile in the Cambridge, Mass. area. Call sign WG2XNS was granted covering operations on the same band “to determine the performance of carrier grade terrestrial low power service” mobile in Cupertino, Calif.
It looks like low-band VHF is not dead! Motorola Solutions was granted KI2XBM to use 72.94 MHz, 72.95 MHz, 72.98 MHz, 74.6-74.8 MHz and 75.66 MHz for “testing and demonstrating land mobile radio equipment” mobile in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
I've previously described Qualcomm's proposal to use 14.0-14.5 GHz to provide air-ground Internet service to aircraft. Qualcomm received license WG2XNM “to test Air-Ground communications service” fixed in Bakersfield and San Diego.
Licenses granted for testing white space devices include use of 674-686 MHz by Rutgers University in North Brunswick and Piscataway, N.J. and use of 470-608 MHz and 614-698 MHz by Rainmaker Network Services in Thurman, N.Y.
There were several experimental licenses granted for use of certain frequencies, including some in the 420-450 MHz ham radio / Federal Government shared band, to allowing communication with CubeSats.
Brian D. Justin Jr. received WG2XPN to use 70.004 – 70.006 MHz “to evaluate VHF E-skip radio propagation” in Bedford, Va, and Brian Pease received WG2XPJ allowing use of 135.70-137.80 kHz and 472-479 kHz for antenna testing in Milton, Vt.
There were several licenses granted for equipment testing in the 5 GHz U-NII and Wi-Fi bands, many to CBF Networks for fixed and mobile testing in multiple New Jersey counties.
For more information on experimental licenses, enter the callsign or other search criteria in the FCC Experimental Licensing System Generic Search.
