Archive for the ‘Radiolocation’ Category

Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

This summarizes a selection from 173 applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during August and September 2011. These are related to long-range low-frequency radar, amateur radio, shortwave data, wireless microphones, single-sideband, mine detection, millimeter-wave communications, signal intelligence, automotive radar, satellite feeder links, meteor-burst communications, aircraft telemetry, white space systems, border security radar, 3G and 4G applications, RFID, wind turbine testing, unmanned aerial vehicles, spacecraft telemetry and control, aircraft passenger broadband, and autonomous aircraft landing systems. The descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency found in the application.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during February 2011. These are related to cognitive radio, land mobile, TV white space, unmanned aircraft systems, satellite terminals, ultra-wideband, wildlife tracking, interference detection, and radar. The descriptions are sorted by frequency.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during January 2011. These are related to land mobile radio, VHF propagation study, satellite communications, network-centric warfare, TV white space, software defined radio (SDR), military command and control, remotely piloted aircraft, LTE, radio direction finding, OpenBTS, Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), peer-to-peer communications, flight test telemetry, automotive telemetry, WiMAX, surveillance radar, vehicle radar systems, and millimeter-wave communications.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during September 2010. These are related to radar, military communications, ad hoc networks, GPS, avionics, WiMAX, maritime identification systems, TETRA, public safety, land mobile interoperability, prison cellphone management, air-ground radiotelephone service, picocells for cable systems, transportable satellite antennas, unmanned aircraft systems, consumer satellite terminals, and low-profile satellite antennas.

  • Northrop Grumman filed an application for special temporary authority in support of airborne experimental testing of the STARLite Tactical Radar System a small, lightweight (65 pounds) radar used for tactical reconnaissance by Unmanned Aerial Systems. Transmissions will be between 16.2 to 17.3 GHz. The radar has three modes: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI), and Maritime Moving Target Indicator. In the SAR mode, the radar imagery can be one of three forms: parallel to the aircraft flight vector, along a specified ground path independent of the aircraft flight path, or a higher-resolution spot image. In the GMTI mode, the radar provides moving target locations overlaid on a digital map. The MMTI mode performs a similar function for targets over water.

  • DRS Tactical Systems, a supplier of rugged computer equipment for military environments, filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for experimental license to test a mobile radio gateway. In the test, the mobile node will be a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (Humvee) with a mast. Equipment will be Harris model RF-7800W-OU440 broadband Ethernet radios attached to a DRS gateway system. This system is intended aid military and commercial entities by providing complex gateway functionality while in motion. Operation will be on 4.94-4.99 GHz.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during May 2010. These are related to WiMAX, sensors, SAW devices, radio-location, ultra-wideband, white space, aircraft passenger communications, landslide monitoring, collision avoidance radar, mobile DTV, LTE, Inmarsat handsets, highway rock-fall monitoring, HF communications, spacecraft link characterization, and interference into broadband access.

  • Polytechnic Institute of NYU filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for experimental license to conduct a network research project using WiMAX on 2535-2540 MHz. This is part of the nationwide Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project, a suite of infrastructure that will support experimental research in network science and engineering. GENI is supported by the National Science Foundation and managed by the GENI Project Office at BBN Technologies.
  • Mnemonics, Inc. filed an application (with supporting exhibits) for experimental license to operate in support of a research project that is to develop and demonstrate the viability of wirelessly extracting measured data from a network of passive surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor devices. This sensing technique is said to have several advantages over existing sensors, including no wired connections needed to extract data, no power requirements, operation up to 1000 degrees C., and sensor cost in-quantity in the tens of cents each. Operation will be on 915 MHz.

SAW

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during March 15-30, 2010. These are related to weather radar, medical telemetry, RFID, satellite, aircraft telemetry, high-frequency direction finding, and meteorological telemetry.

  • Fitness Foundation filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for experimental license to test wireless monitoring and reporting of people’s activity levels in support of an effort to combat obesity and promote active lifestyles. Operation is to be on 174-216 MHz and 512-700 MHz near Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. FCC staff is concerned about the potential for interference to others and has asked the applicant why so much bandwidth is needed.
  • Hyperion Technology Group filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for experimental license to support the development of a system capable of early detection of extreme weather phenomena, including wind shear, tornadoes and hurricane-spawned tornadoes. Operation is to be nationwide on 10.4-10.6 GHz. FCC staff questions this frequency selection, saying in correspondence to the applicant that there are two footnotes to the U.S Table of Allocations that are problematic. US58 prohibits pulsed emissions in 10-10.5 GHz. US59 prohibits any emission other than N0N in 10.5-10.55 GHz. Staff further observes that while experimental licenses are not always bound by allocation restrictions, there is great likelihood that NTIA would object to this application when it gets coordinated with government users. The applicant has suggested a compromise, and notes that the frequency range was selected based on the availability of relatively-inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf hardware for the initial research. Once the concept is validated and high-energy wind phenomena are better understood, it is the applicant’s intention to move to a different frequency and build custom hardware to support that frequency.
  • David Miller (MIT) filed an application (with supporting exhibits) for experimental license to conduct testing of the CASTOR (Cathode/Anode Satellite Thruster for Orbital Repositioning) satellite. The intent is to validate the performance and application of Diverging Cusped Field Thruster (DCFT) technology. According to the Miller, this will be achieved by taking on-orbit state data to compare the degradation experienced by the DCFT to that of similar technologies such as Hall thrusters. In order to measure the thruster’s on-orbit performance, efficiency, and degradation, it is necessary to transmit sensor data and pictures obtained from an onboard camera to a ground station. Operation is to be in low-earth orbit (700-3000 km) on 2.4000-2.4835 GHz.
  • Northrop Grumman filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for special temporary authority for the purpose of developing an airborne platform with a microwave transmitter to fulfill a contract with the US Air Force. The requested frequency band is 2250-2260 MHz.
  • The University of Washington filed an application for special temporary authority to operate on 433.845-433.995 MHz from free-flying balloons launched in Washington State. This is to support, as part of a class project, research in atmospheric structure using a transmitter as a sounder to make atmospheric temperature profiles and as a beacon to recover the transmitter.
  • Keurig, Inc. filed an application for special temporary authority to operate RFID technology on 902-928 MHz. Keurig is a vendor of single-cup beverage brewing systems. Its new Keurig B80K home-based brewers will use new beverage identification technology implemented with RFID. In the system, “K-Cups” containing the beverage powder are embedded with RFID tags. The brewers identify the type of K-Cup used and adjust brewing parameters to match the beverage. Prior to design finalization of the brewer, Keurig wants to conduct consumer acceptance testing with 300 brewers in the field.
  • Ticom Geomatics filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for experimental license to operate on various high frequencies in the 2-30 MHz range for test and development of direction finding techniques. As part of a US Navy contract, the company is extending high-frequency groundwave geolocation techniques to include skywave and near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) signals. This work will include enhancements to a groundwave/skywave discriminator, extensions to include ionospheric modeling, and geolocation and error model enhancements.

Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during February 21-26: radar, WiMAX, MVDDS, aeronautical communications, private mobile data, millimeter wave, high-frequency data, space communications, and radiolocation.

  • The Maryland Department of the Environment filed an application (with supporting exhibits) to operate a wind-profiling radar on 915 MHz. The equipment was developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and fabricated by Radian International. The antenna is to consist of one steerable four-panel micro-patch phased array.
  • DTV Norwich filed an application (with supporting exhibit) for special temporary authority to conduct propagation tests prior to potential full-scale deployment of Multichannel Video and Data Distribution Service (“MVDDS”) at 12.2 to 12.7 GHz in the Miami area. This is to determine the suitability of potential transmitter sites for full-scale operation, for which DTV Norwich has a license.

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