Sec. 25.274  Procedures to be followed in the event of harmful 
          interference.

    (a) The earth station operator whose transmission is suffering 
harmful interference shall first check the earth station equipment to 
ensure that the equipment is functioning properly.
    (b) The earth station operator shall then check all other earth 
stations in the licensee's network that could be causing the harmful 
interference to ensure that none of the licensee's earth stations are 
the source of the interference and to verify that the source of 
interference is not from a local terrestrial source.
    (c) After the earth station operator has determined that the source 
of the interference is not another earth station operating in the same 
network or from a terrestrial source, the earth station operator shall 
contact the satellite system control center and advise the satellite 
operator of the problem. The control center operator shall observe the 
interference incident and make reasonable efforts to determine

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the source of the problem. A record shall be maintained by the control 
center operator and the earth station operator of all harmful 
interference incidents and their resolution. These records shall be made 
available to an FCC representative on request.
    (d) Where the suspected source of the interference incident is the 
operation of an earth station licensed to operate on one or more of the 
satellites in the satellite operator's system, the control center 
operator shall advise the offending earth station of the harmful 
interference incident and assist in the resolution of the problem where 
reasonably possible.
    (e) The earth station licensee whose operations are suspected of 
causing harmful interference to the operations of another earth station 
shall take reasonable measures to determine whether its operations are 
the source of the harmful interference problem. Where the operations of 
the suspect earth station are the source of the interference, the 
licensee of that earth station shall take all measures necessary to 
eliminate the interference.
    (f) At any point, the system control center operator may contact the 
Commission's Columbia Operations Center in Columbia, Maryland, to assist 
in resolving the matter. This office specializes in the resolution of 
satellite interference problems. All licensees are required to cooperate 
fully with the Commission in any investigation of interference problems.
    (g) Where the earth station suspected of causing interference to the 
operations of another earth station cannot be identified or is 
identified as an earth station operating on a satellite system other 
than the one on which the earth station suffering undue interference is 
operating, it is the responsibility of a representative of the earth 
station suffering harmful interference to contact the control center of 
other satellite systems.
[ 58 FR 13421 , Mar. 11, 1993, as amended at  62 FR 5931 , Feb. 10, 1997]