Capability of the FCC mobile monitoring van

The Spectrum Management Task Force of the Federal Communications Commission was formed, in part, for the purpose of devising new methods of spectrum management. Initial efforts have been directed toward improved spectrum utilization in the Land Mobile Service (which includes a large number of different types of users on approximately 2,000 channels, assigned on a noncontinuous basis, on three bands (25 to 50 MHz or "Low Band," 150 to 174 MHz or "High Band," and 450 to 470 MHz or "UHF Band", with additional channels specifically provided by FCC action in the lower UHF television channels in certain metropolitan areas, and with additional frequency space to become available in the 900 MHz region, but with frequency congestion generally to be found in all large population centers, and apparent maldistribution of users upon available channels). One technique which is being applied to the overall problem is the mobile spectrum monitoring van designed to measure occupancy, transmission, and other parameters of the land mobile channels.