Xref: news.cs.tut.fi rec.radio.scanner:5568 rec.radio.info:4580 Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.cc.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!library.ucla.edu!psgrain!news.tek.com!thd.tv.tek.com!bill From: bill@thd.tv.tek.com (William K. McFadden) Newsgroups: rec.radio.scanner,rec.radio.info Subject: FCC License Data Sources Followup-To: rec.radio.scanner Date: 1 Apr 1994 17:33:40 GMT Organization: Tektronix, Inc, Beaverton, OR, USA Lines: 162 Approved: rec-radio-info@ve6mgs.ampr.ab.ca Distribution: usa Message-ID: <2nhltk$d51@news.tv.tek.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: thd.tv.tek.com [last changed 01-Mar-94] Changes preceeded by "|". Please e-mail corrections and additions to me. INTRODUCTION This is a list of FCC license data sources available to scanner listeners. The FCC master contains a wealth of data about every non-government license in the United States. Most of the sources below contain a subset of this data, although a few contain all of it. Government licenses are not administered by the FCC, and the data is not available to the public. If you are interested in purchasing the data, you might want to consider forming a co-op of people in your area to share the cost. As far as I know, this is legal since the information is in the public domain. | However, most software supplied to view or manipulate the data is | copyrighted and must be purchased separately by each user. Prices are rounded to the nearest dollar and include shipping, if known. C.E.T. CET sells records of all stations inside a 30-mile radius for $80. (Major cities cost extra.) A 70-mile search costs $178. The data is provided on floppy disks and is available in ASCII columnar and comma-delimited formats. CET does not provide data for licenses that do not contain specific geographic coordinates (i.e., mobile-only systems) or specific operating frequencies (e.g., amateur radio). To do the search, CET requires the latitude and longitude of the center of the 30-mile radius. I calculated mine from a USGS topographic map I obtained at a local nautical supply store. Alternatively, you can obtain the coordinates for your town from the University of Michigan's geographic name server. Run "telnet 141.212.99.9 3000" and enter your zip code. For my area, the server returned the coordinates of the main post office. CET can be reached at 800-445-0297. GROVE Grove sells FCC data on disk by state. The first state is $40, and each additional state is $30 (add $10 for CA, FL, TX). The disk comes with a database search program. Grove Enterprises can be reached at 800-438-8155. MICROFICHE Lee Reynolds (lee@tosspot.sv.com) has made available copies of the entire FCC master on microfiche for $75 a copy. There are three sets in all - by callsign, geographic area, and frequency - for a total of about 200 fiche. His current set is from early 1993. E-mail Lee for more information. The Bearcat Radio Club sells the FCC master by state for $15. Bearcat Radio Club can be reached at P.O. Box 291918, Kettering OH, 45429. PERCON PerCon sells a variety of FCC data on CD-ROM and floppy. CD-ROMs are available by state, region, or category, and floppies are available by state. Also available is a CD-ROM of the entire US (2.5 million records). Data is updated approximately every six months. | State floppies are $35 per state. CD-ROMs are $100 each. Quantity | discounts available. PerCon can be reached at 716-386-6015. POLICE CALL This is probably the most cost-effective source of public service license information. The detail is limited, but the information that is there is often more useful than the FCC master. For example, an entry in Police Call that reads, "Portland Police, Net 3, North Precinct," reads, "Portland, City of" in the master. Police call is available in 9 volumes covering different regions of the US. It can be purchased at Radio Shack stores for $10 per volume. SCANWARE ASSOCIATES ScanWare Associates sells a PC-based database program called the FCC Frequency Retrieval System V2.0. It comes with FCC data for one state, covering all services from 10 kHz through 2036 MHz. Data is updated approximately every six months (last update was Dec. 1, 1993). Cost is $35 for the first state and $20 for each additional state. (Add $5 | for CA, FL, TX, NY.) Quantity discounts available. Fully working shareware copy downloadable from their BBS at 206-871-4228 (FCC200.ZIP). ScanWare Associates can be reached at 206-698-1383 (voice) or 206-698-8207 (fax). APPENDIX Here is table of data fields in the FCC master. Fields provided by various products are indicated by "*" or the field length, if known. PERCON PERCON PERCON POLICE SCAN DESCRIPTION SIZE CET GROVE FLOPPY US CD OTHER CD CALL WARE Frequency (or Lower Limit) 16 11 * 16 16 16 * 11 Upper Frequency Limit 16 16 16 11 Callsign 10 8 * 10 10 10 * 10 Service Code 2 2 * 2 2 2 * 2 Licensee DBA Name 40 40 40 40 40 Licensee State 2 2 2 2 Licensee Zip 9 5 9 9 Licensee Address 35 30 35 Licensee City 20 15 20 20 Licensee Name 200 32 * 100 * Applicant Phone 10 10 Transmitter Latitude 6 6 * 6 6 6 6 Transmitter Longitude 7 7 * 7 7 7 7 Transmitter Elevation 5 5 5 5 5 5 Transmitter Height 5 5 5 5 5 Transmitter HAAT 5 5 5 5 Transmitter Effective Height 5 5 5 TX Antenna Structure Height 5 5 5 Transmitter Address 80 80 80 80 Transmitter City 20 10 * 20 20 20 * 20 Transmitter County 30 10 * 30 30 30 30 Transmitter State 2 2 * 2 2 2 * 2 Class of Station 4 4 4 4 4 * 4 Type of Message Service 1 1 Area of Operation 1 1 Radius of Operation 4 4 4 Antenna Type 10 10 10 Antenna Elevation Angle 6 6 Antenna Azimuth 6 6 Antenna Polarization 3 3 3 Antenna Gain 4 4 Antenna Path Length 6 6 Antenna Beam Width 8 8 ERP Out 8 4 8 8 8 ERP Units 2 1 2 ERP Indicator 1 1 Power Out 8 4 8 8 8 Power Out Units 2 1 2 Power Out Indicator 1 1 Emissions 15 15 15 15 License Issue Date 6 6 License Expiration Date 6 4 6 Operation Begin Time 4 4 Operation End Time 4 4 Number of Vehicle Mobiles 4 4 4 4 * 4 Number of Portable Mobiles 4 4 4 4 * 4 Number of Aircraft Mobiles 4 4 4 4 * 4 Number of Marine Mobiles 4 4 4 4 * 4 Number of Pager Mobiles 5 4 5 5 5 ERP = Effective Radiated Power, HAAT = Height Above Average Terrain -- Bill McFadden Tektronix, Inc. P.O. Box 500 MS 58-639 Beaverton, OR 97077 bill@tv.tv.tek.com, ...!tektronix!tv.tv.tek.com!bill Phone: (503) 627-6920 How can I prove I am not crazy to people who are?