§ 27.1134   Protection of Federal Government operations.

   (a) Protection of Department of Defense operations in the 1710-1755 MHz
   band. The Department of Defense (DoD) operates communications systems
   in the 1710-1755 MHz band at 16 protected facilities, nationwide. AWS
   licensees must accept any interference received from these facilities
   and must protect the facilities from interference. AWS licensees shall
   protect the facilities from interference by restricting the operation
   of their base and fixed stations from any locations that could
   potentially permit AWS mobile, fixed, and portable stations
   transmitting in the 1710-1755 MHz band to cause interference to
   government operations within the radii of operation of the 16
   facilities (the radii of operation of each facility is indicated in the
   third column of Table 1 immediately following paragraph (a)(3) of this
   section). In addition, AWS licensees shall be required to coordinate
   any operations that could permit mobile, fixed, and portable stations
   to operate in the specified areas of the 16 facilities, as defined in
   paragraph (a)(3) of this section. Protection of these facilities in
   this manner shall take place under the following conditions:

   (1) At the Yuma, Arizona and Cherry Point, North Carolina facilities,
   all operations shall be protected indefinitely.

   (2) At the remaining 14 facilities, airborne and military test range
   operations shall be protected until such time as these systems are
   relocated to other spectrum, and precision guided munitions (PGM)
   operations shall be protected until such time as these systems are
   relocated to other spectrum or until PGM inventory at each facility is
   exhausted, whichever occurs first.

   (3) AWS licensees whose transmit operations in the 1710-1755 MHz band
   consist of fixed or mobile operations with nominal transmit EIRP values
   of 100 mW or less and antenna heights of 1.6 meters above ground or
   less shall coordinate their services around the 16 sites at the
   distance specified in row a. of Table 2. AWS licensees whose transmit
   operations in the 1710-1755 MHz band consist of fixed or mobile
   operations with nominal transmit EIRP values of 1 W or less and antenna
   heights of 10 meters above ground or less shall coordinate their
   services around the 16 sites at the distance specified in row b. of
   Table 2. These coordination distances shall be measured from the edge
   of the operational distances indicated in the third column of Table 1,
   and coordination with each affected DoD facility shall be accomplished
   through the Commander of the facility.

   Table 1—Protected Department of Defense Facilities
   Location Coordinates Radius of
   operation
   (km)
   Cherry Point, NC 34�°58′ N, 076�°56′ W 100
   Yuma, AZ 32�°32′ N, 113�°58′ W 120
   China Lake, CA 35�°41′ N, 117�°41′ W 120
   Eglin AFB, FL 30�°29′ N, 086�°31′ W 120
   Pacific Missile Test Range/Point Mugu, CA 34�°07′ N, 119�°30′ W 80
   Nellis AFB, NV 36�°14′ N, 115�°02′ W 160
   Hill AFB, UT 41�°07′ N, 111�°58′ W 160
   Patuxent River, MD 38�°17′ N, 076�°25′ W 80
   White Sands Missile Range, NM 33�°00′ N, 106�°30′ W 80
   Fort Irwin, CA 35�°16′ N, 116�°41′ W 50
   Fort Rucker, AL 31�°13′ N, 085�°49′ W 50
   Fort Bragg, NC 35�°09′ N, 079�°01′ W 50
   Fort Campbell, KY 36�°41′ N, 087�°28′ W 50
   Fort Lewis, WA 47�°05′ N, 122�°36′ W 50
   Fort Benning, GA 32�°22′ N, 084�°56′ W 50
   Fort Stewart, GA 31�°52′ N, 081�°37′ W 50

   Table 2—Coordination Distances for the Protected Department Of Defense
   Facilities
   1710-1755 MHz transmit operations Coordination
   distance
   (km)
   a. EIRP ≤100 mW, antenna height ≤1.6 m AG 35
   b. EIRP ≤1 W, antenna height ≤10 m AG 55

   (b) Protection of non-DoD operations in the 1710-1755 MHz and 1755-1761
   MHz bands. Until such time as non-DoD systems operating in the
   1710-1755 MHz and 1755-1761 MHz bands are relocated to other spectrum,
   AWS licensees shall protect such systems by satisfying the appropriate
   provisions of TIA Telecommunications Systems Bulletin 10-F,
   “Interference Criteria for Microwave Systems,” May, 1994 (TSB 10-F).

   (c) Protection of Federal operations in the 1675-1710 MHz band—(1) 27
   Protection Zones. Within 27 Protection Zones, prior to operating a base
   station that enables mobile or portable stations to transmit in the
   1695-1710 MHz band, licensees must successfully coordinate such base
   station operations with Federal Government entities operating
   meteorological satellite Earth-station receivers in the 1675-1710 MHz
   band. See 47 CFR 2.106, footnote US 88, for the 27 Protection Zones and
   other details.

   (2) Operation outside of 27 Protection Zones. Non-Federal operations,
   for mobile and portable stations operating at a maximum EIRP of 20 dBm,
   are permitted outside of the protection zones without coordination. All
   non-Federal operations for mobile and portables operating at a maximum
   EIRP of greater than 20 dBm and up to 30 dBm must be coordinated
   nationwide. All such operations may not cause harmful interference to
   the Federal operations protected in 47 CFR 2.106, footnote US 88.

   (3) Interference. If protected Federal operations receive harmful
   interference from AWS operations in the 1695-1710 MHz band, an AWS
   licensee must, upon notification, modify its operations and/or
   technical parameters as necessary to eliminate the interference.

   (4) Point of contact. AWS licensees in the 1695-1710 MHz band must
   provide and maintain a point of contact at all times so that immediate
   contact can be made should interference against protected Federal sites
   occur.

   (5) Coordination procedures. Federal use of the radio spectrum is
   generally governed by the National Telecommunications and Information
   Administration (NTIA) while non-Federal use is governed by the
   Commission. As such, any guidance or details concerning
   Federal/non-Federal coordination must be issued jointly by NTIA and the
   Commission. The Commission may jointly issue with NTIA one or more
   public notices with guidance or details concerning the coordination
   procedures for the 1695-1710 MHz band.

   (6) Requirements for licensees operating in the 1710-1755 MHz band. AWS
   licensees operating fixed stations in the 1710-1755 MHz band, if
   notified that such stations are causing interference to radiosonde
   receivers operating in the Meteorological Aids Service in the 1675-1700
   MHz band or a meteorological-satellite earth receiver operating in the
   Meteorological-Satellite Service in the 1675-1710 MHz band, shall be
   required to modify the stations' location and/or technical parameters
   as necessary to eliminate the interference.

   (d) Recognition of NASA Goldstone facility operations in the 2110-2120
   MHz band. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
   operates the Deep Space Network (DSN) in the 2110-2120 MHz band at
   Goldstone, California (see Table 3). NASA will continue its operations
   of high power transmitters (nominal EIRP of 105.5 dBW with EIRP up to
   119.5 dBW used under emergency conditions) in this band at this
   location. AWS licensees must accept any interference received from the
   Goldstone DSN facility in this band.

   Table 3—Location of the NASA Goldstone Deep Space Facility
   Location Coordinates Maximum
   transmitter
   output power
   Goldstone, California 35�°18′ N 116�°54′ W 500 kW

   (e) Protection of Federal operations in the 2200-2290 MHz band—(1)
   Default emission limits. Except as provided in paragraph (e)(2) of this
   section, the following default out-of-band emissions limits shall apply
   for AWS-4 operations in the 2180-2200 MHz band.

   (i) For these AWS-4 operations, the power of any emissions on all
   frequencies between 2200 and 2290 MHz shall not exceed an EIRP of
   −100.6 dBW/4 kHz.

   (ii) No AWS-4 base station operating in the 2180-2200 MHz band shall be
   located less than 820 meters from a U.S. Earth Station facility
   operating in the 2200-2290 MHz band.

   (2) Agreements between AWS-4 operators and Federal government entities.
   The out-of-band emissions limits in paragraph (e)(1) of this section
   may be modified by the private contractual agreement of licensees of
   AWS-4 operating authority and Federal government entities operating in
   the 2200-2290 MHz band. Such agreement shall be transmitted to the
   Commission by the National Telecommunications and Information
   Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. A licensee of
   AWS-4 operating authority who is a party to such an agreement must
   maintain a copy of the agreement in its station files and disclose it,
   upon request, to prospective AWS-4 assignees, transferees, or spectrum
   lessees, to Federal operators, and to the Commission.

   (f) Protection of Federal operations in the 1755-1780 MHz band. The
   Federal Government operates communications systems in the 1755-1780 MHz
   band. Certain systems are expected to continue to operate in the band
   indefinitely. All other operations will be relocating to other
   frequencies or otherwise cease operations in the 1755-1780 MHz band in
   accordance with 47 CFR part 301. Until such a time as Federal
   operations in the 1755-1780 MHz bands vacate this spectrum, AWS
   licensees shall protect such systems and must accept any interference
   received from these Federal operations. See 47 CFR 2.106, footnote US
   91, for details. AWS licensees must successfully coordinate proposed
   operations with all Federal incumbents prior to operation as follows:

   (1) Protection Zone(s). A protection zone is established for each
   Federal operation pursuant to 47 CFR 2.106, footnote US 91. Unless
   otherwise specified in later Commission actions, the default protection
   zone is nationwide. A base station which enables mobile or portable
   stations to transmit in the 1755-1780 MHz band may not operate within
   the Protection Zone(s) of a Federal operation until the licensee
   successfully coordinates such base station operations with Federal
   Government entities as follows depending on the type of Federal
   incumbent authorization:

   (i) Federal US&P Assignments. Each AWS licensee must coordinate with
   each Federal agency that has U.S. and Possessions (US&P) authority
   prior to its first operations in its licensed area to reach a
   coordination arrangement with each US&P agency on an
   operator-to-operator basis. (Agencies with U.S. and Possessions (US&P)
   authority do not operate nationwide and may be able to share, prior to
   relocation, in some areas.)

   (ii) Other Federal Assignments. Each AWS licensee must successfully
   coordinate all base station operations within a Protection Zone with
   the Federal incumbents. The default requirement is a nationwide
   coordination zone with possible revisions to the Protection Zone and
   other details to be announced in a Joint FCC/NTIA public notice.

   (2) Interference. If protected Federal operations receive harmful
   interference from AWS operations in the 1755-1780 MHz band, an AWS
   licensee must, upon notification, modify its operations and/or
   technical parameters as necessary to eliminate the interference.

   (3) Point of contact. AWS licensees in the 1755-1780 MHz band must
   provide and maintain a point of contact at all times so that immediate
   contact can be made should interference against protected Federal
   operations occur.

   (4) Coordination procedures. Federal use of the radio spectrum is
   generally governed by the National Telecommunications and Information
   Administration (NTIA) while non-Federal use is governed by the
   Commission. As such, any guidance or details concerning
   Federal/non-Federal coordination must be issued jointly by NTIA and the
   Commission. The Commission may jointly issue with NTIA one or more
   public notices with guidance or details concerning the coordination
   procedures for the 1755-1780 MHz band.

   [ 69 FR 5716 , Feb. 6, 2004, as amended at  73 FR 50571 , Aug. 27, 2008;  78 FR 8270 , Jan. 5, 2013;  79 FR 32414 , June 4, 2014]

   return arrow Back to Top