Police Radio Keeps Disrupting Sprinklers, Local Residents Get FCC Involved
The police around Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Duncanville Texas have a fancy new communications system that broadcasts their 10-4s and 187s up to 50kms, which coincidentally enough is screwing up a fancy radio-controlled networked sprinkler system in that general area. Turning off the sprinklers may not sound like it does anything except for making the grass die, but that’s exactly what local residents are pissed off about—pissed off enough to get the FCC involved. Too bad for residents that the precedent for FCC decisions on cases where two frequencies overlap is to award use to public safety. If they don’t, those same residents would be enjoying that fresh, green lawn when they’re burning to death. [Dallas News]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
That’s a consequence of a cheap radio control. The FCC lets us use cheap, unlicensed radio links with the condition we accept interference. The manufacturer COULD have used better receivers to avoid the problem, but saw no need. Most places, there still isn’t.
This is very simple. The receivers are probably being overloaded by the new communications system. The residents have no legal recourse in the matter as a licensed system is interfering with an unlicensed system, even if the unlicensed system is operating legally. Part 15 of the FCC rule which governs unlicensed devices and legal unlicensed operation states these rules.
I’ve done some poking around on the Net and am glad to report that it seems the complaining City went beyond the terms of its license, leading to reception capabilities the frequency coordinators could not have foreseen. It may even be trying to get someone else to pay for replacing the equipment, which at 15 years could could be reaching the end of its useful life.