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Lawmakers urge FCC to waive UWB rules to allow ground-penetrating radar

WASHINGTON-A bipartisan group of members of the House Commerce Committee urged the Federal Communications Commission to waive the ultrawideband rules with respect to ground-penetrating radar.

“The new rules could have the effect of eliminating numerous existing businesses that employ ground-penetrating radar. In order to prevent this, we believe that the FCC should immediately provide a blanket waiver for the manufacture and operation of GPR equipment at the Class B emissions limit with no other restrictions. . High-resolution GPR systems are required to generate a frequency spectrum of sufficient bandwidth to achieve adequate range resolution and to emit sufficient power for ground penetration,” said the four Republicans, including Chairman Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, and four Democrats.

GPR technology is used to penetrate solid materials, and the members point out that it was used at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11 attacks.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell also heard about the attributes of GPR during the House appropriations hearing on the FCC budget earlier this year.

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