Confession: I have NO idea whether we have FCC licenses for any of our equipment. I never knew we possibly needed FCC licenses, and the person who might have, yadda yadda yadda, is long gone. After reading some of the narrow-band stuff on here, I contacted my Trimble vendor back in October (emails below, with a few omissions for anonymity) and it seemed we were OK by his/her response. But . . . the more I read around here, the more questions I have.
Like, is Sales Rep correct? The DC's and S6 are not "affected by this?" Are we in FCC compliance? What about the NetR5? What is the Meaning of Life?
If we DO need FCC licenses for anything, how can I check if we have them? TIA for any and all help (but please be gentle.) :-$
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Dear Sales Rep,
We haven't used a physical base station with 2-way radios for RTK corrections in years. We've been using bluetooth/cell/WiFi hotspot connections to internet data through the controller. I'd like to double check for FCC narrowbanding compliance in light of the looming deadline for any of the following Trimble equipment:
TSC2 Survey Controller
TCU Survey Controller
S6 Total Station
GNSS R8-2 receiver
NetR5 Reference Station used only as a RTN mountpoint
The person who handled previous dealings of this sort for us no longer works here. I'm unclear about what, if anything, I need to address. Could you please tell me how to find out?
Thank you for your help,
Regards, From Me
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Reply from Sales Rep, same day:
To Me,
The only thing that will fall under the new FCC narrowbanding requirements is anything transmitting/receiving GPS RTK radio signals. The data collectors and S6 2.4 GHz radio is not affected by this.
I’m not all that familiar with the NetR5 infrastructure GPS receiver. (emphasis mine) Do you know if it has an external radio broadcasting an RTK signal? Or does it only provide internet data for RTN and static download?
Regards,
Sales Rep
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Any advice, folks? :-S 🙂 Thanks
It sounds like you proably are NOT transmitting anything so no FCC license needed.
You can search FCC Licenses here.
Unless there is a built in UHF radio in the Trimble base station, then that wouldn't need one for that.
If you have any crew radios those also usually need to be licensed.
SHG
The only equipment you listed that uses radio comm is the S6, which uses newer 2.4ghz radios, and is not subject to narrow band requirements. It's only radios in the 400hz range that are subject. In fact, according to Trimble, these 2.4ghz radios do not require an FCC license.
Your GPS is network rovers, which get their corrections via the internet rather than over the air, so they don't require any FCC licenses, either..
> It's only radios in the 400hz range that are subject.
Other radios are also included, ALL VHF and UHF radios:
On January 1, 2013, all public safety and business industrial land mobile radio systems operating in the 150-512 MHz radio bands must cease operating using 25 kHz efficiency technology, and begin operating using at least 12.5 kHz efficiency technology.
For surveyors this means RTK, Robots, Voice and ANYTHING else, read the FCC site here.
SHG
from the Trimble website, the 2.4 GHz radios (used by robots) use a frequency range from 2401 to 2470MHz. this seems to be well outside the range of the Narrowband requirement.
I've been told by our local Trimble dealer that the older style robotics radios are exempt as they transmit at such a low wattage. Anyone else been told this?
I've been told they are exempt from licensing ... they are 0.25 watts and the minimum for *licensing* is 1 watt. What I've never heard, or been able to clarify, is if they are exempt from *narrow banding*. I've never seen an FCC document that exempts lower wattage radios from narrow banding ... I'd love to see this cleared up, but I'm fairly certain that the FCC wants all radios in that spectrum narrow banded.
When I spoke with our local dealer about narrowbanding three 5603's this year he somewhat laughed saying that he had "never" narrowbanded one.
At several thousand a gun to do so I liked his answer, however I am with you though in thinking that the FCC wants all equipment operating in this range to comply.
> from the Trimble website, the 2.4 GHz radios (used by robots) use a frequency range from 2401 to 2470MHz. this seems to be well outside the range of the Narrowband requirement.
Correct, sorry for the confusion. What I was trying to point out is there is a wide range of frequencies outside of 400 MHz subject to narrowbanding, BUT in this specific case, yes the 2.4 GHz radios would be exempt from narrowbanding.
SHG
Thnaks, SHG - I appreciate your help. :good:
Thanks for the help! (Great username, BTW.) 🙂
My tech guy said he is seeing people buying up the older radios, not switching to the 2.4. At 6k per instrument, seems like you'd be better off upgrading the whole thing. And on GPS just going to cell phones
I think you and the Trimble folks are in kahoots.
After reading other posts about the Parani setup I may look into that as another tool in the chest.
The requirements don't depend ONLY on the operating frequency, they also depend on the service the radio is licensed in. For example, VHF and UHF radios licensed in the Amateur Radio Service are not affected by narrowbanding even though some of them operate around 146, 223, or 440 MHz. The FCC web page mentioned above says "public safety and business industrial land mobile radio systems operating in the 150-512 MHz radio bands". Since radios that don't need licenses are not in the Industrial/Business Radio Pool, the public safety radio service, or any other radio service, narrowbanding does not apply.
See http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=wtb_services_home for a list of radio services.
> I think you and the Trimble folks are in kahoots.
>
> After reading other posts about the Parani setup I may look into that as another tool in the chest.
Me? I'm just trying to figure this out!