more on Public radio seeks recall of FM devices used in cars

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Josephson <david () josephson com>
Date: October 28, 2006 3:27:50 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Public radio seeks recall of FM devices  
used in cars

Dave, an engineering/politics comment for IP if you like.
> I am almost spitting tacks after reading this.
>
> For decades J.C. Whitney, Radio Shack and other "electronic"  
> vendors have sold FM modulators. Now all of a sudden when satellite  
> radio is starting to pull listeners away from terrestrial  
> broadcasting, does anyone, let alone National Public Radio,  
> actually care about it?!?
As mentioned by another poster, the reason is that FCC has  
established practical rules for such devices, and both Sirius and XM  
seem to have deliberately brought equipment to market that not only  
breaks those rules, but according to some reports have made  
deliberately false filings with the FCC to get authorization for  
modulators with much higher output power than is permitted.

A bigger problem is that FCC no longer has the resources to do much  
on its own. We have written here about the spectrum auction debacle,  
and there are many others (watch for a tremendous fight in the next  
two years over spectrum vacated when the analog TV transmitters go  
dark in February, 2007 -- FCC issued its first Report and Order on  
this, last week.) In the case of unlicensed low power radiators such  
as FM modulators, the requirement for compliance testing has evolved  
from a nuisance to a charade. Anyone may upload a boilerplate list of  
procedures and become a "listed" test lab for low power unlicensed  
devices, without any on-site review or accreditation. Is it any  
wonder that some might be willing to report fudged test data?

--
David Josephson


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