The Answer

First make sure that you really have no frequency available use our channel crawler tool, as per the following directions. If you have trouble using it, call and we will do it with you. Use either the first or third function listed below. If you are really looking, pick a number of addresses around the peripheries of town, or even a town or two outside of the city. Your transmitter is considered to have primary coverage in a 3.5 mile radius around the transmitter site, but will probably be heard at least twice and under good conditions three times that far away by people in cars and using good receivers. Remember to take into account topography- if there is clear line of site to your whole town from a mountain six miles away, it may very well still be worth it to build the station.

First, you should check on the prometheus website and look at this address- [http://www.prometheus.tao.ca/fcc.shtml]

This will tell you how to get your co-ordinates from street addresses, your altitude, topographical maps and so on on line, and also how to use the fcc channel finder tool effectively. If you put your co-ordinates into the fcc channel finder, it will tell you whether that location is eligible for a frequency, and it might give some hints about where near by could qualify. The Prometheus tool helps in three ways.

If you enter the name of a town, it picks the center point of that town and checks for available frequencies. ( just for a sense). It also checks a 5 minute square around the center point of town, as defined by the FCC location atlas.

If you enter the name of a state in the second window, it takes every town over 10,000 people in that state and tells you whether the center point of that town has a frequency available. it takes a minute or two, and it will spit out that list. Remember that these are towns that are definitely good, because they have a frequency available. it takes a minute or two, and it will spit out that list. Remember that these are towns that are definitely good, because they have a frequency available at this arbitrary center point of town. Other towns may be good- but you have to check them more thoroughly. This gives a good list of places that you know it is worthwhile to do outreach.

If you enter a set of co-ordinates, it will draw a 5 minute (about 6 kilometer) square and it will check in a grid for available frequencies at every location (about every 600 feet) within that area. This way you can get a sense of what parts of town have frequencies available, and which parts do not . The numbers on the left side of the page come up in black if there is nothing there, in blue if there is a positive result. If the result is positive, you can click on it and the channel finder page will pop up, telling you which frequency is good and then allowing you (if you scroll down the page) to draw a map of the coverage, etc. You can figure out where that co-ordinate is using mapblast.com or something like that. http://radiovolta.org/prometheus/lpfm.cgi

2) Consult an engineer: Read our explanation about what a broadcast engineer can do for you at this page:
[http://www.prometheus.tao.ca/engineer.shtml]

3) If these steps don't work, you can consider applying anyway.

There are a number of groups who originally had a frequency available to them under the rules that were devised by the FCC's broadcast engineers. These groups lost their frequency as a result of the legislation passed in the Congress last year. This legislation is not based on sound engineering practice, and it will probably be challenged in the courts. In order to get standing in such court actions, it will be important to have actually applied to the FCC for a license and to have been denied.

One good rationale for making the application is to notify the FCC of your willingness to be one of the nine "test markets-" places where the FCC will hire a contractor to conduct field studies of the amount of interference caused by low power radio. Simply write a note to that effect in one of the exhibit spaces in the tech box of the form 318.

The FCC website will automatically not allow you to submit your application if the location that you submit does not meet the requirements of the channel finder. You should document your attempt to file electronically by printing out the screens associated with your application, then fill out the form on paper and send it in to the secretary at the FCC (keep a copy of everything, of course).

It is important to realize that several judges that have heard the cases of unlicensed broadcasters have been quite moved by their stories. Unlicensed broadcasters have come close to winning their cases, but finally the judges had to rule in favor of the FCC because the unlicensed broadcaster had never applied for a radio license. I think there will be interesting cases in the next few years for some people who tried to play by the rules- applying for their license, being unfairly rejected based on the congressional legislation, going on the air anyway, and going to a judge as a test case of the constitutionality of our wealth-based broadcasting system. Some groups are already preparing for court cases in which they had a frequency taken from them by the act of Congress. We will be happy to put you in touch with them.

It is not at all uncommon for corporations to break laws in order to test their constitutionality. Often, big corporations break laws because the fines they pay are smaller than the profits that they bring in by breaking the rules. There are lawyers who are interested in doing the legal work of challenging the broadcast rules. While Prometheus Radio Project does not advise you to break any laws, if you were to choose to take this course there is a chance you could play a major role in reshaping our system of broadcast licensing.