Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
March 24, 2014
DA 14-398
Small Entity Compliance Guide
Experimental Radio Service
Report and Order
FCC 13-15
ET Docket No. 10-236; ET Docket No. 06-155
Released:   January 31, 2013
This Guide is prepared in accordance with the requirements of Section 212 of 
the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.  It is intended 
to help small entities—small businesses, small organizations (non-profits), and 
small governmental jurisdictions—comply with the new rules adopted in the 
above-referenced FCC rulemaking docket(s).  This Guide is not intended to 
replace the rules and, therefore, final authority rests solely with the rules.  
Although we have attempted to cover all parts of the rules that might be 
especially important to small entities, the coverage may not be exhaustive.  This 
Guide may, perhaps, not apply in a particular situation based upon the 
circumstances, and the FCC retains the discretion to adopt approaches on a 
case-by-case basis that may differ from this Guide, where appropriate.  Any 
decisions regarding a particular small entity will be based on the statute and 
regulations.  
In any civil or administrative action against a small entity for a violation of 
rules, the content of the Small Entity Compliance Guide may be considered as 
evidence of the reasonableness or appropriateness of proposed fines, penalties or 
damages.  Interested parties are free to file comments regarding this Guide and 
the appropriateness of its application to a particular situation; the FCC will 
consider whether the recommendations or interpretations in the Guide are 
appropriate in that situation. The FCC may decide to revise this Guide without 
public notice to reflect changes in the FCC’s approach to implementing a rule, 
or to clarify or update the text of the Guide.  Direct your comments and 
recommendations, or calls for further assistance, to the FCC’s Consumer 
Center:
1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322)
TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322)
Fax: 1-866-418-0232
fccinfo@fcc.gov
2Experimental Radio Service
1. Objectives of the Proceeding
In the Report and Order (R&O) adopted January 31, 2013 in ET Dockets 06-155 and 10-236, the 
Commission amended its Part 5 rules governing the Experimental Radio Service (ERS) to provide 
increased opportunities for experimentation and innovation.  Under conventional experimental licenses 
issued pursuant to the previous rules, experimenters were limited to a single experiment or a series of 
closely related experiments. Licensees wishing to vary any of their authorized parameters were required 
to apply for new or modified licenses.  The R&O authorized the issuance of three new kinds of 
experimental licenses – program, medical testing and compliance testing experimental licenses – which
allow researchers and laboratories to conduct multiple non-related experiments under a single 
authorization over a longer period of time, thus eliminating regulatory delay and uncertainty.
The R&O also broadened opportunities for marketing by adopting a new subpart within the ERS rules 
that contains provisions for product development trials, as well as market trials.  Additionally, the R&O
revised and consolidated the Commission’s existing rules for broadcasting experiments in Parts 73 and 74 
into a new subpart within Part 5, and eliminated developmental licensing rules in several Commission 
rules parts so that all experimental authority will be under the Part 5 ERS rules, providing clear and 
consistent guidelines to applicants for all types of experimentation.  The R&O also promoted greater 
overall experimentation by streamlining ERS rules and procedures, and opened new opportunities for 
experimentation by making targeted modifications to those rules and procedures. Finally, the 
Commission modified the rules in Part 2 to clarify when operation or marketing of radio frequency (RF) 
devices is permitted prior to equipment certification, including the number of devices that can be 
imported for such purposes.
A copy of the R&O is available at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-13-15A1.pdf
(28 FCC Rcd 758 (2013))
2.  General Information
The Commission’s Part 5 ERS rules prescribe the manner in which the radio spectrum may be made 
available to a variety of entities to experiment with new radio technologies, equipment designs, 
characteristics of radio wave propagation, or service concepts related to the use of the radio spectrum.  To 
encourage innovation, the Part 5 rules provide flexibility regarding allowable frequency range, power, and 
emissions.  In exchange for this flexibility, experimental operations are not protected from harmful 
interference from allocated services, and ERS licensees must not cause harmful interference to stations of 
authorized services, including secondary services.
3.  New ERS Licenses
The three new types of experimental licenses authorized by the R&O will provide innovators in diverse 
fields of research greater flexibility of spectrum use, resulting in a corresponding degree of increased 
flexibility in initiating and modifying their experiments before needing to expand the initial FCC 
spectrum authorization.  In this way, the availability of these new types of licenses will promote creativity 
3and accelerate the introduction of new products to the marketplace.  Specifically, these new license types
are:
? Program license: This license will be available to experimenters that have demonstrated 
experience in RF technology and are associated with colleges, research laboratories, health care 
institutions, and manufacturers to conduct ongoing series of research experiments and tests.  
? Medical testing license: This license will be available to health care facilities with RF expertise 
to assess newly developed RF based medical devices for patient compatibility, electromagnetic 
compatibility and to conduct clinical trials at patients’ homes or in other geographic areas that are 
not within the health care licensee’s control. 
? Compliance testing license: This license will provide Commission-recognized laboratories the 
flexibility to undertake RF product compliance testing under the Commission’s equipment 
authorization procedures. 
The R&O authorized the continuing issuance of conventional experimental licenses where appropriate, 
and mandated that some experiments – including those involving product development and market trials, 
those requiring non-disclosure of proprietary information, and those requiring environmental assessments 
or orbital debris mitigation plans – be conducted only under conventional licenses.   
4.  Requirements Applicable to Program and Medical Testing Licensees
All ERS licensees – whether holding the conventional or the new types of ERS licenses – are required to 
operate on a non-harmful interference basis to authorized services.  For each program and medical testing
ERS license, the R&O also requires the licensee to develop a specific plan to avoid harmful interference 
to critical services (i.e. commercial mobile radio services, emergency notifications, and public safety 
radio services).  Moreover, the R&O prohibited program and medical testing licensees from operating in 
certain “restricted” and “passive service” bands where safety-of-life services or services particularly 
sensitive to interference (such as the Radio Astronomy Service) operate.  Finally, the R&O created a new 
web-based registration system to track and manage experiments undertaken by program and medical 
testing licensees.  Plans for, and results from, program and medical testing experiments will be required to 
be posted by each licensee to the Commission’s program experimental registration website. Specifically, 
at least 10 days prior to commencement of any program or medical testing experiment, each licensee must 
provide in a website posting a narrative statement describing the experiment, including technical details
of the experiment and a contact point for additional information about the experiment as well as a “stop 
buzzer” contact. Within 30 days of completion of the experiment, each licensee must file a narrative 
statement describing the results of the experiment.  Additionally, each medical testing licensee must file a 
yearly report detailing the activity that has been performed under its license.
5.  Requirements Applicable to Compliance Testing Licensees
The limitations and reporting obligations that the R&O adopted for compliance testing licenses are 
designed to accommodate the purpose of such licenses – to enable FCC-approved laboratories to test 
various communications products for compliance with the Commission’s RF limits. Thus, the prohibition 
on operating in restricted and passive service bands, which applies to program and medical testing 
licenses, do not apply to compliance testing licenses because the Commission issues these licenses to test, 
inter alia, products designed to operate in these bands. Additionally, the R&O did not impose any 
4website notification and reporting requirements on compliance testing licensees, as there is no significant 
interference risk involved with testing laboratories certifying equipment for compliance with Commission 
rules, and test reporting is already required of them.  However, the R&O limited compliance testing 
eligibility to Commission-recognized testing laboratories, in order to provide assurance to the public of 
the competency of the entities that have been given the broad authority to engage in compliance testing
In addition, the authority to operate under a compliance testing license extends only to those testing 
activities necessary for product certification.  Compliance testing licensees are specifically not authorized 
to conduct product immunity testing, which often entails high-powered emissions over a very broad swath 
of spectrum, and so could pose a significant risk of interference to other systems, including Federal 
systems.  Accordingly, the R&O requires a conventional experimental license for immunity testing, to 
ensure that all necessary coordination is conducted and that all reasonable precautions against harmful 
interference are taken.  
6.  Innovation Zones
The R&O adopted rules that allow the Commission – on its own motion or in response to a public request 
– to designate a defined geographic area and frequency range(s) as an innovation zone for specific types 
of program experiments to provide opportunities to test potentially innovative wireless devices in real 
world operating environments.  Innovation zones will be announced via public notice and posted on the 
Commission’s program experimental registration website.  A program experimental licensee may conduct 
experiments in an innovation zone consistent with the specified boundary conditions without specific 
authorization from the Commission.  All licensees operating under this authority must comply with the 
requirements and limitations set forth for program licensees in this part, including providing notification 
of its intended operations on the program experimental registration website prior to operation.
7.  Product Development Trials and Market Trials 
The R&O adopted rules that differentiate between product development trials and market trials.  A 
product development trial will permit parties to evaluate product performance in the conceptual, 
developmental, and design stages, whereas a market trial will permit parties to evaluate product 
performance and customer acceptability prior to the production stage.  In a product development trial, 
licensees must own all of the equipment, must inform all participants of the nature of the trial, and must 
not market devices or offer services for hire.  Market trials, coming later in the development process, 
require that the licensee retain ownership of all equipment, but allow limited marketing of equipment.  To 
better ensure that an ERS licensee does not create a de facto service through the experimental licensing 
process, both product development and market trials will be authorized only under a conventional 
experimental license, wherein the scope of the experiment is limited. Product development trials include 
medical devices because such devices must not only be evaluated in the conceptual, developmental, and 
design stages, but also through extensive clinical trials.  Thus, developers of medical devices may seek to 
conduct clinical trials of such devices either under a medical testing license or as part of a product 
development trial.
8.  Evaluation Kits
Evaluation kits typically consist of a component that a manufacturer intends to offer for sale, mounted on 
a board, with or without an enclosure, in configurations that provide connections to a power supply, easy 
access to terminals, and sometimes supporting devices or other hardware.  In many instances, developers 
and system integrators seek to obtain evaluation kits from manufacturers to test and evaluate a component 
5that the manufacturer intends to offer for sale to facilitate the purchaser’s development of hardware and 
software for use with that component.  However, prior to the R&O, sales of these kits were not permitted 
before equipment authorization was granted for the component, and this restriction delayed the ability of 
manufacturers and system integrators to develop hardware and software for use with the component.  The 
R&O eliminated this restriction by permitting the sale of evaluation kits, provided that the buyer is 
notified of the authorization status of the component.  Additionally, the R&O set forth a definition of 
evaluation kits recommended by industry, except that the R&O modified the recommended definition to 
include software and reference system integrators and product developers, as well as component makers.  
9.  Importation Limits 
Prior to adoption of the R&O, Commission rules limited the number of RF devices that could be imported 
prior to their importation: 2000 devices for services in which a license is needed and 200 devices for all 
other services.  The R&O increased the importation limit for all devices – those that require a license and 
those that do not – to 4000 units.  
10.  Anechoic Chambers and Faraday Cages
An anechoic chamber is a room, insulated from exterior sources of noise, and designed to stop reflections 
of electromagnetic waves.  It is used to test and measure RF equipment, such as antennas or radars, or to 
conduct electromagnetic interference studies in isolation of external noise.  An anechoic chamber is also 
used to measure emissions from unintentional radiators, such as a radio receiver or laptop computer. A 
Faraday cage is an enclosure usually formed by a mesh of conducting material designed to block out 
external static and to keep RF fields generated within the cage from escaping. The R&O codified the 
Commission’s existing policy of allowing RF tests and experiments that are fully contained within an 
anechoic chamber or a Faraday cage without the need for obtaining an experimental license.  In doing so, 
the Commission observed in the R&O that all experimenters, even those operating in RF enclosed 
facilities, are required to comply with the general prohibition against causing harmful interference to 
other spectrum users.
11.  Special Temporary Authorization
The R&O clarified in Section 5.61(c) of the Commission’s rules that an extension of an STA may be 
granted, provided that an application for a conventional experimental license that is “consistent with the 
terms and conditions” of the prior-granted STA has been filed at least 15 days prior to expiration of that 
STA. The R&O also clarified that the parameters of the conventional license application do not need to 
mirror exactly the parameters of the STA. They may differ so long as any changes do not increase the 
interference potential of the equipment under test. 
12. Changes in Equipment and Emission Characteristics
The R&O modified Section 5.77(a) of the Commission’s rules to provide additional flexibility for 
licensees to make changes to equipment without prior Commission consent under certain conditions. 
Specifically, changes can be made to equipment provided that the ERP and directivity comply with the 
license and the regulations governing the license.  Pursuant to 5.77(b), the licensee is still required to 
supplement its application file with a description of any such changes and must file an application for 
modification if the changes are to become a permanent part of the license. 
613.  Commercial Off-The-Shelf Equipment
The Commission in the past has allowed ERS licensees to substitute one piece of commercial off-the-
shelf (COTS) equipment for another, provided the equipment change does not increase the risk of harmful 
interference to authorized spectrum users. The R&O clarified this policy by revising instructions to the 
ERS application form (Commission Form 442) to state that substituting one piece of COTS equipment for 
another without notifying the Commission is permitted, provided that such equipment substitution will 
not result in operations inconsistent with the terms of the authorization. However, if ERS licensees make 
any modifications to COTS equipment that would invalidate the equipment’s certification, they must first 
secure a modification to their experimental license to cover the change.  
14. Permanent Discontinuance of License 
Section 5.81 of the Commission’s rules requires licensees to notify the Commission if they permanently 
discontinue their experimental operations. However, some licensees simply allow their licenses to expire 
once they conclude their experiments. To ensure that licensees are fully aware of their obligation to notify 
the Commission if they cease experimental operations prior to their license expiration date, the R&O 
added clarifying language to explicitly state this obligation in Section 5.81 of the rules. Additionally, the 
R&O added language to Section 5.81 stating that licensees who fail to meet this obligation may be subject 
to disciplinary action, including monetary fines.
15. Links to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this Proceeding and to Part 5 Rules
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that preceded the R&O was released on November 30, 2010, and is 
available at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-10-197A1.pdf (25 FCC Rcd 16544
(2010))
Part 5 Rules are available at: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-
idx?c=ecfr&SID=d0682d11054f4998735216abb90d1d67&rgn=div5&view=text&node=47:1.0.1.1.6&idn
o=47