FCC Digital System gets "Notice of Violation"

[Dorf411]

I just received a newsletter from EWA where we do our FCC license processing. In this newsletter it has a link to a California hospital that received a notice of violation for three infractions.

http://www.enterprisewireless.org/Media ... oring-Must click on the "blue" link for actual notice of violation.

In this notice of violation they were cited for the following:

1. Exceeding the maximum allowable ERP

2. Not sending assigned call sign during each transmission.

3. Causing harmful interference by not monitoring the channel.

So my question is, what is everyone doing to ensure the digital systems you install especially with GPS are sending the call sign and how are they monitoring the channel to prevent interference to shared channel users. Since the GPS is automatic and the radio will just blast it out I can't see how you can create any way to monitor the channel aside from programming the tx to "channel free" on MOTOTRBO. This notice of violation seem very troubling to me and it wouldn't surprise me to see many more down the road.

Any thoughts?

CUT and PASTE from the body of the FCC Letter

a. 47 C.F.R. § 90.205(h)(1): “The maximum allowable station effective radiated
power (ERP) is dependent upon the station's antenna HAAT and required
service area and will be authorized in accordance with table 2 . . .” During
the time of investigation, the San Francisco agent observed that WQET416
transmitted signal strength level was 35.0 dBµ from the actual location,
37˚58’43.00” north latitude and 122˚21’12.00” west longitude,
approximately 5.0 km radius from its fixed mobile relay station location.
The station’s allowed signal strength must be 31.0 dBµ at the edge of the 5.0
km radius of the service area of operation.

b. 47 C.F.R. § 90.425(a)(1): “Stations licensed under this part . . . shall be
identified by the transmission of the assigned call sign during each
transmission or exchange of transmissions, or once each 15 minutes during
periods of continuous operation.” On September 27, 2012, the San Francisco
agent observed during the period of approximately 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
(PDT) that no call sign was transmitted. Station WQET416 failed to identify
with its call sign.

c. 47 C.F.R. § 90.403(e): “Licensees shall take reasonable precautions to avoid
causing harmful interference. This includes monitoring the transmitting
frequency for communications in progress and such other measures as may
be necessary to minimize the potential for causing interference.” At the time
of the investigation, the agent determined that the WQET416 digital
transmission on 464.775 MHz was interfering with another licensee
operating on the shared channel frequency within approximately 16.0 km
radius from its fixed mobile relay station location. Station WQET416 failed
to monitor station operation within the area of its operation.

[KitN1MCC]

if you go look up the license on the FCC data base they do not even have digital in the emmisions designator i think some one installed digital system and just fliped the switch they could be nxdn

[Dorf411]

I didn't even look at that part, why wasn't that another line item to ding them on? What if they were properly licensed for a digital transmission do you think they would have received the same violation?

[tvsjr]

I have to wonder who they pissed off. The FCC, by and large, doesn't have the time to come hunt and see if you're 4dBu over at 5km...

[MSS-Dave]

I have to wonder who they pissed off. The FCC, by and large, doesn't have the time to come hunt and see if you're 4dBu over at 5km...

Probably the co-channel user got tired of the digital noise and made a call. Repeater hopefully can programmed to send CWID in the 15 minute interval.

Dave

[Tom in D.C.]

Sounds to me like a very sloppy installation job, that's all, but it does also serve to prove that the FCC actually does field checking in some places. Then too, the lack of an ID'er makes me think that someone "handy" perhaps did a DIY install.

[rescuer]

This topic brings up a point that I have never really had explained;

IF we are supposed to monitor a channel before we transmit, how do we do that on a repeater channel? The frequency we would monitor would be the repeater output frequency. There is no way to monitor the repeater input frequency (short of a separate channel). As for transmitting the callsign, if a repeater is set up to automatically transmit the callsign at selected intervals, etc., is a user still obligated to transmit the callsign (verbally) after transmission? Verbally would be the only way to identify the callsign on the input frequency.

Is this situation addressed in licensing, such as enough geographical separation so that this situation would never be an issue?

Just curious.

Thanks.