(From the ARRL) The FCC has issued a Citation and Order (Citation) to Amcrest Industries, LLC (formerly Foscam Digital Technologies, LLC), an importer and marketer of popular and inexpensive Baofeng handheld transceivers, alleging that the company violated FCC rules and the Communications Act by illegally marketing unauthorized RF devices. The FCC asserts that Amcrest marketed Baofeng model UV-5R-series FM handheld radios capable of transmitting on “restricted frequencies.” The Baofeng models UV-5R and UV-5R V2+ were granted an FCC equipment authorization in 2012 to operate under Part 90 Private Land Mobile Radio Service (Land Mobile) rules.

Continue reading FCC Cites Baofeng Importer for Marketing Unauthorized Radios →

GatesAir, the descendant company of Gates, Harris, and Intraplex, has assembled a learning center in order to bring its customers and prospects up to technical speed. Courses touch on subjects like…

• HD Radio Time and Level Alignment
• Intro to Broadcast Transmitter Technology
• 950 MHz Networking Using Intraplex
• TV Repack Roundtable
• AES67 in the Studio

…and many more.

Check it out!

The Battle for the C-Band Heats Up

By Chris Imlay, SBE Legal Council 

On April 19, 2018, the FCC issued a public notice of a temporary freeze on applications for new or modified fixed-satellite service earth stations and fixed microwave stations operating in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band. This is the C-Band downlink.
Continue reading Register Your C-Band Receive-Only Earth Station Now →

KFPH-CD, Channel 35 in Phoenix, Arizona was granted a Special Temporary Authority by the FCC in early April to broadcast an experimental signal compliant with the current ATSC 3.0 interim digital transmission standard. The Unimas low power sister station of KTVW-DT will serve as “lighthouse” host to the subchannels of several other Phoenix TV stations, including KASW (Nexstar/CW), KPNX (TEGNA/NBC), KNXV (Scripps/ABC), KPHO (Meredith/CBS), KSAZ (Fox), KTAZ (NBC/Telemundo), KTVK (Meredith/independent), KTVW (Univision/UniMas), and KUTP (Fox/MyTV).

KFPH-CD proposes to adhere to the current FCC Report and Order that requires KFPH-CD to simulcast an ATSC 1.0 signal on its main KTVW-DT physical channel.

The experiment is being operated by the Pearl TV consortium run by several of the aforementioned participating owner groups “with a shared interest in exploring forward-looking broadcasting opportunities, including innovative ways of promoting local broadcast TV content and developing digital media and wireless platforms for the broadcast industry.”