The FCC released its list of experimental actions covering licenses issued between Oct. 1, 2007, and Nov. 1, 2007. Fifteen of the licenses allow use of VHF and UHF TV spectrum for "evaluating communications inside and around a nuclear reactor."
The licenses cover nuclear power plants in New Jersey, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Washington, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, and Missouri. Nuclear power plants have been using wireless intercom equipment designed for broadcast IFB use under Part 74 to allow hands-free communication inside nuclear power plans for some time under experimental licenses, as discussed in previous RF Report articles.
A new element is that most of the recent licenses allow operation in the two-way VHF band below Channel 7, as low as 150 MHz. Could it be that the nuclear power plant operators are looking for options outside the TV bands to avoid potential interference from unlicensed white space devices?
Georgia Institute of Technology received license WE2XLC to operate in the bands 476–488 MHz, 494–500 MHz, 554–566 MHz and 656–662 MHz to "measure the effect of low-power radio signal transmissions on incumbent television and wireless microphones" in Atlanta.
Other interesting license grants include WE2XIG to Nextlink Wireless Inc. to operate in the 25,285–26,140 MHz band for testing "Spectrum Radio Systems in a rugged metro environment." The license is for fixed operation in Philadelphia, Pa.
The University of Massachusetts was allowed to use 93.8–94.4 GHz for "researching weather echo with a weather radar" in Sunderland, Mass.
For the complete list, see the list of experimental actions.
