In what seems like a backing of a NAB initiative, National Public Radio (NPR) has written a request to the FCC to recall FM modulators used to play iPods, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, through car stereos, because the modulators are interfering with public radio's broadcasts.

An NPR field study found that nearly 40% of the devices sold have signal strengths that exceed FCC limits. A similar study conducted by the NAB put the figure closer to 75% of all FM modulator devices.

These FM modulators "have contributed to ... unacceptable degradation of the audio quality of public radio stations," said NPR's chief executive officer, Ken Stern, in an October 12th letter to the FCC Chairman.

"Left unaddressed," he continued, "these modulators pose a significant threat to the provision of public radio's free, over-the-air public and community service."

A copy of the letter was obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

In the letter, Stern urged the FCC to look beyond satellite radio (genius!) and conduct a "thorough technical review" of the most popular FM modulators on the market, and to pursue a recall of all those found in violation of FCC rules. It's funny that the NAB has not voiced this thought, and only chooses to go after satellite radio.

There's no question that some devices (satellite radio or not) are exceeding emission levels. There's also no question that XM and SIRIUS have done everything they can to fix the situation. The one thing that I do question about NPR's request here is... why now?

[The Baltimore Sun via Radio & Records]
Thanks realwx!

The NAB President/CEO David Rehr sent two letters to the FCC on Monday calling for probes into XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

In his first letter (PDF), Rehr asked the FCC to "immediately commence a full investigation into both the actual and reported operations of Sirius and XM's terrestrial repeater networks."

XM and Sirius recently asked for a window of time to continue operating terrestrial repeaters that did not meet FCC regulations, allowing them time to correct the issue. "These latest disclosures reveal a persistent corporate (if not industry) circumvention of the FCC's regulations," Rehr wrote.

In his second letter (PDF), Rehr said that XM and Sirius currently have a "privileged regulatory position" because of "the expanding delivery of complimentary satellite radio services to nonsubscribers."

Rehr brought up the recent XM deal with Acura as well as Sirius' free online trial of Howard Stern. He adds that "drawing a regulatory distinction between satellite and traditional broadcast radio simply because satellite radio content is available on a subscription basis may no longer be justified." 

[via FMQB]

XM Satellite Radio's response to this is, "NAB's sole interest here is in trying to hamper competing services that offer consumers compelling choices that terrestrial radio can’t provide."

You can say that again. I thought satellite radio wasn't a threat? 

This is encouraging news, the Delphi SkyFi3 has received FCC certification. It's encouraging because this is a key season for XM, and they need to make sure that all FCC certications go through as quickly as possible.

Something interesting to note though - the certification wasn't done by XM. It was certified by Delphi (note the "L2C" as opposed to XM's "RS2" in the first three characters of the FCC ID). I wonder if XM is following in Sirius' footsteps, and allowing the manufacturers handle FCC certifications? This did seem to help Sirius when the FCC was doing investigations around Father's Day.

[FCC Filing via Satellite Radio TechWorld] 

Sirius has filed a special temporary authority request with the FCC to turn back on 11 repeaters that were operating or built differently than the original specification.

The locations of 10 of the repeaters were slightly different than the original STA's terms (within 10 miles, and roughly half of them within 2 miles). Also, 10 out of the 11 were operating at or below the authorized power-levels and Sirius is not aware of any interference. Other out-of-spec issues include beamwidth, orientation, sectorization, or height.

Either way, their off now. Sirius is sorry, and they would really really like them turned back on. Pretty please FCC?

[FCC Filing (PDF) via Satellite Radio TechWorld] 

With the FCC's crack down on FM modulators exceeding emission levels a new alternative needed to be created that satisfies two major criteria: 1) the FM signal can't "bleed" to other vehicles and 2) it needs to provide the best user experience possible. None of these factors are negociable.

Enter the next-generation of FM Transmitters for satellite radio. Both XM and SIRIUS have very similar approaches: localize the transmission as close as possible to the car's pre-existing antenna.

The next obvious approach is to hard-wire the satellite radio directly to the headunit, but that's asking a bit much from the consumer. That's not to say that running wires all over your car should be considered an easy task for most consumers, but this is a good compromise. The Big Box Retailers with installation services are going to be loving this by the way, because these extra FM wires are going to entice the consumer to go with a professional installation (which provides an upsell opportunity to go with the hard-wire approach).

But enough with this palaver, on with the modulators...

Here you'll see the most common locations of a vehicle's FM antenna. External locations include numbers 1-4 (front fender, rear fender, front roof-top and rear roof-top - these can be either the retractable or fixed "aerial" antennas, or those fancy "shark-fin" ones you see). Internal locations include numbers 5-7 (which are the inside-glass versions that look like a window defroster - #7 specifically shows how some SUVs/Mini-vans will be located in on the side-windows).

The separation between Internal and External are important, because this is where XM's and SIRIUS' approaches with their FM Coupler and FM Extender differ. See a whole lot more on this after the jump...

The WiMAX industry supposedly lashed out at XM over their terrestrial repeater towers that were operating over limit or outside of authority.

“The revelation by XM certainly supports a full enforcement investigation before the FCC grants any additional STAs,” said Paul Sinderbrand, outside counsel to the Wireless Communications Association International.

XM is not aware of any WiMAX facilities in any of the cities involved in the matter. XM said they "are working with the FCC to address this matter expeditiously."

[RCR Wireless News] 

According to Satellite Radio TechWorld, XM Satellite Radio has reduced the power levels of 210 repeater towers that were emitting above authorized levels, bringing them into compliance.

Nineteen repeater towers were being operated without authority, fifteen of those have been subsequently shut off. A filing with the FCC requests the authority to turn back on eight of the fifteen repeaters that were shut off.

More information on this to follow. My only hopes is that this action (which began on Sept 23rd) was something that XM did on their own.

[FCC Filing via Satellite Radio TechWorld]