FCC Issues White Space Rules Erratum

Last Friday the FCC issued an Erratum (DA 09-20) to its Second Report and Order and Memorandum Opinion and Order on unlicensed TV band devices (TVBDs) also known as white space devices.

The three pages of corrections range from major changes, such deleting Section 15.712(f)(2)(A) that would have prohibited TVBDs from operating within 134 km of the 13 metropolitan areas listed in Section 90.303(a), to small fixes such as changing the word “listens” to “monitors” in Section 17.703(n).

While some of the numbers used in the body of the R&O/MO&O were changed, I saw only one number changed in the rules. Section 15.709(c)(4) was corrected by changing the number “620” to “602” in a formula for calculating undesirable emission limits for TVBDs in the 602 to 607 MHz band in the second row of the second column in the table.

Refer to the Second Report and Order and Memorandum Opinion and Order (FCC 08-260) and the Erratum (DA 09-20) for additional information.

Read all of RF Reporthere.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.