(800) 571-GMRS (4677)PART TWO in our series on FCC licensing:
“Why”, you may ask, “is licensing required?” Drawing information from multiple sources, as well as years of experience in the two-way radio industry, this is the answer: Commercial radios use frequencies that may cause unintentional interference to other radio users. When the very first radio transmissions began in the mid 1880’s, there were no licenses. 1912 was the year the first regulations were applied to radio, and amateurs using radio were now required to get licenses in order to practice. In later years, The Communications Act of 1934 combined and organized the federal regulation of telephone, telegraph, and radio communications. The Act created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to oversee and regulate these industries. As the radio frequency spectrum began to come into greater and greater use, and in order to divide the spectrum up between the various purposes for the use of specific frequencies, the FCC created multiple kinds of licenses for two-way radio (and other) users. The RF spectrum has limited room. With too many users on any one channel or frequency, communication can be interrupted by other radios users, overheard, or completely cut out. Not only that, if various entities begin transmitting on the same frequency as, for example, your local FM radio station or an Airport control tower, chaos would certainly ensue. The spectrum needs to be managed in an orderly manner, and establishing licensing is the FCC’s way to regulate it. With an FCC license comes a unique, legal call sign (with which the entity having permission to transmit must identify themselves) a list of specific frequencies (channels) on which they may operate, modes (AM, FM, SSB, DMR, NXDN, etc) which they are allowed to use, number and type of units (mobile, fixed, repeaters, etc) and geographical areas (circumference around a central point, or a state or region, etc) within which the Licensee is authorized to transmit (permitted coverage area). It also calls out other technical aspects and identifies which kind of entity is licensed. This all becomes a part of the public records regarding the license.
Radios Across America LLC is a full-service two-way radio dealer you can trust. We can help not only with Frequency Coordination and Licensing, but provide a wide variety of radios for pretty much any business. Give us a call at (800) 571-GMRS (4677) or drop us a line through our contact page.
See Part Three in Our Series on FCC Licensing for More Information.
(For purposes of this article, we are using the terms “Commercial” and “Business” in regard to radios and systems interchangeably.)
