The FCC wants to equip its enforcement agents with better gear.
In the budget submitted to Congress by President Obama, the commission wrote:
“The Enforcement Bureau’s Field Offices are tasked with identifying and resolving interference matters to all types of radio systems, including those used by consumers, and particularly those used by public safety and homeland security systems,” it wrote.
“To identify and resolve interference, the Field Offices have vehicles with direction finding capability and various handheld equipments for close-in direction finding. However, the Field Offices have very limited portable or semi-fixed capability for direction finding. As radio technology has evolved including digital, spread spectrum, authorized unlicensed and other emerging technologies, locating interfering signals has increased in complexity.
“Of particular difficulty is sporadic, intermittent and remote interference, in which use of vehicles or handheld equipment is either not efficient or impractical,” the commission continued.
“Manufacturers have made technological advances such that portable direction finding systems have improved in accuracy and are no longer cost prohibitive. Additionally, systems are available that, when not in use for direction finding, can be used for spectrum and signal analysis.”
The commission asks for $350,000 for portable direction-finding gear.