Steve Crowley

Ranking U.S. Tower Companies ow.ly/AOu650YCMyB

"The purpose of operation is to support university research conducted by the University of Washington investigating the detection of an airborne target within the main lobe of an antenna transmitting a 174 MHz - 216 MHz band. Transmissions will be used to evaluate the detection performance of a bistatic radar system against a corner-cube reflector attached to a tethered weather balloon. Research will characterize key system parameters including detection range, range resolution, clutter rejection, and signal-to-noise ratio under realistic field conditions." apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo…

FCC Seeks Recent Graduates for New Honors STEM Program fcc.gov/document/fcc-s…

"Omega Wave, Inc will be testing the creation of Surface Waves between two dielectrics, air and earth using our newly designed RF waveguide probe. Our predictions and low power testing indicate we will be producing field strengths greater than 500mV/m at one mile, but less than 1V/m. The field strength should drop below 10uV/m at 30 miles. A STA is necessary due to the field strengths to be measured. A daytime frequency study was made for 1340KHz omnidirectional for the desired location. No interference should be caused for same channel as well as adjacent channels. Our 0.1 mil contour will be greater than 100 miles from any other same/adjacent channels 0.1 mil contour." "Omega Wave is a startup technology company focused in the fields of medium wave, low wave, and VLF communications. Omega Wave will be recording precise field strength measurements at the requested frequency using medium frequency spectrum analyzers and calibrated antennas. The purpose of the test is to determine the efficiency of design of the prototype and validate the science of the terrestrial EM surface wave for use in signaling. Importantly, Omega Wave believes such testing will be non-radiating – which will limit the interference effects to any other party in the spectrum bands under test. The system under test will be used to demonstrate the science and applications of exciting the Sommerfeld Pole to produce surface waves and is a precursor to a larger demonstration of this new signaling technology. The STA is needed to tune and test the demonstration apparatus." apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo…

"Varda Space Industries, Inc. (“Varda”), in accordance with Part 5 of the Federal Communications Commission’s (“Commission”) rules, hereby files this application requesting Special Temporary Authority for Varda’s WSERIES9 Non-Geostationary Orbit (“NGSO”) satellite for its mission to manufacture pharmaceuticals in low Earth orbit, scheduled to launch no earlier than October 2026. Consistent with the information required by the Commission’s Rules, Varda has also provided a completed Technical Narrative, Orbital Debris Assessment Report (“ODAR”) and International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) supporting documents. Varda specifically seeks authorization for use of the Space Operations Service’s 2025 MHz to 2110 MHz and 2200 MHz to 2290 MHz Band, as well as the Earth Exploration Satellite Service’s 8025-8400 MHz Band and the Mobile-Satellite Service’s 1610 to 1626.5 MHz Band on an experimental basis." apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo… apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm….

The Legacy of Oliver Lodge: Liverpool's Wireless Pioneer, from @AetherCzar. "The Heaviside-Lodge equal electric-magnetic energy principle has the potential to correct a longstanding mistake in quantum mechanics and reconnect it to electromagnetism." aetherczar.substack.com/p/the-legacy-o…

DHS, DOD & DOT have published a best practices guide for airport #GPS disruption resiliency — because a ground-level outage can halt more flights than interference affecting aircraft in the air. 🔗 rntfnd.org/2026/03/31/gps… #PNT #CriticalInfrastructure #Aviation

The #LEOPNT market jumped from 9 to 14 constellations in one year — but only Iridium is fully operational. RNTF corporate member FrontierSI's 2025 State of the Market Report tracks who's building, and why. 🔗 rntfnd.org/2026/03/30/leo… #GNSS #PNT #Resilience

"Consider the basics: transfers settle in 1–12 seconds instead of 3–5 days. Costs drop from $50 international wire fees to under 10 cents. Transactions are transparent and secure on a shared ledger rather than opaque within bank systems."

"Caterpillar, Inc. ('CAT' or 'Applicant') requests authority to operate an experimental station in the Experimental Radio Service in the 1 – 2.7 GHz band at Washington, Illinois." "This Experimental Radio Service license application will support CAT’s ongoing electromagnetic ('EMC') immunity testing of its products." "While it would be ideal for CAT to be able to test its devices in a shielded enclosure, this is not practical due to the size and weight of some of CAT’s products." apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo… apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm….

NTT DOCOMO and SK Telecom publish a white paper on requirements for the evolution of vRAN and the path to AI-RAN. "vRAN has reached a pivotal turning point where it needs to demonstrate its economic efficiency and differentiated value in commercial networks." docomo.ne.jp/english/info/m…

"Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation ("NGSC") hereby requests experimental STA for the period beginning May 1, 2026 through October 28, 2026 to demonstrate over the horizon radar capability for cooperative research and development with the Department of War, Missile Defense Agency. The purpose of the experimental operations is to demonstrate simulated returns of a mobile source for a cooperative demonstration. The proposed testing will be conducted over several HF Frequencies ranging from 3.3 MHz to 29.97 MHz, and will be ground based mobile . . .." apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo… apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm….

Kuiper Systems: "Amazon Leo seeks authority to use a custom SATCOM user terminal to demonstrate satellite broadband communication user links in Northridge, CA. Amazon seeks to commence testing as soon as possible, by April 15, 2026. The custom SATCOM terminal comprises a standalone Ka-band phased array antenna manufactured by Get SAT connected to an Amazon Leo-developed Merlin ASIC modem chip and radiofrequency transceiver support circuitry on a printed circuit board card (“Amazon Leo Modem Module” or “ALMM”). Amazon seeks to test two Get SAT antennas with the characteristics described in this application connected to an ALMM on the custom SATCOM user terminal. The ALMM provides modulation and demodulation of the Amazon Leo waveform akin to functionality found in Amazon Leo’s first-party user terminals." apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/repo… apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.htm….

Reverse Engineering a LORA RA-02 / Semtech SX 1278 Module youtu.be/82CE98USlU8?si… via @YouTube

Israel radio news: In Feb, a court blocked government's move to close the IDF Radio (Galei Zahal). After Iran war began, Galei Zahal resumed airing on AM transmitters (945 & 1287) which had gone off air in July 2025. Here's a card that Galei Zahal sent me more than 45 years ago!

"In my after-dinner speech, I provide a brief biographical overview of Lodge before focusing on three key ideas Lodge published - ideas that not only influenced the course of wireless history, but also might help us reconcile quantum mechanics with electromagnetism."