FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE              News Media Contact: David Fiske or
March 22, 1999                        Rosemary Kimball at (202) 418-0500

Report No. CI 99-15          COMPLIANCE AND INFORMATION ACTION
 
  FCC HANDLED OVER 1200 INTERFERENCE COMPLAINTS FROM FEDERAL,
     STATE, AND LOCAL PUBLIC SAFETY AND EMERGENCY OFFICIALS

     The FCC said today that its Compliance and Information Bureau responded to over
1,200 calls during the past year from local, state, and federal public safety and emergency
officials seeking assistance on radio frequency problems, many involved with life-threatening
emergency situations.

      The Compliance and Information Bureau provides around the clock assistance to public
safety and emergency organizations that are experiencing communications problems. The
bureau will alert and dispatch local FCC field office agents to locate and resolve the
interference problems, giving priority to emergency situations involving potential harm to life
and property.
                                                                                                       
     Categories of calls to the FCC's Compliance and Information Bureau include the
following:

     State and Local Public Safety Emergency Services:  Local law enforcement, fire and
other public safety entities made 674 requests for assistance. In some instances, police
communication channels were being jammed by unknown sources of interference that
prevented dispatchers from communicating with officers.  In some instances, police officials
complained of intruders on police communication frequencies masquerading as official police
dispatchers, causing law enforcement units to be directed to fictitious emergency locations.      

     U.S. Coast Guard:  The U.S. Coast Guard sought assistance almost 400 times.  In
some instances the FCC used its direction finding network to help the Coast Guard locate lost
or disoriented boaters who needed Coast Guard assistance.  One particular "lost" vessel
radioed that an individual on the vessel had a heart attack and needed immediate medical
attention.  Information from our direction finding capabilities allowed the Coast Guard to
locate the vessel, and then transport the heart attack victim for immediate medical attention,
thus saving his life.  Many of the Coast Guard contacts concerned interference to ship distress
frequencies severe enough to prevent real distress calls from vessels getting through. 
Sometimes individuals deliberately broadcast false distress calls that had resulted in costly and
time-consuming Coast Guard air and sea searches for non-existent vessels.  The Coast Guard
asked the FCC to use its electronic direction-finding capabilities to locate individuals who had
broadcast false distress calls 

     Federal Aviation Administration:  The FAA requested assistance 75 times to address
such matters as unknown sources of interference on air traffic control frequencies and locating
and silencing unauthorized transmissions on frequencies used for aircraft radar identification
systems.  In a few cases, individuals were intentionally jamming communications between the
tower and aircraft, thereby jeopardizing the safety of landing or departing aircraft.

     Satellite Search and Rescue System Operators:  The Department of Defense and the
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, operators of the U.S. satellite search and
rescue system, asked for FCC assistance 60 times.  Search and rescue satellites would receive
unknown signals which could mask true distress signals coming from emergency radio beacons
carried by most aircraft and many marine vessels.  The satellite system rescue operators
needed FCC help in detecting the sources of these unknown signals and deactivating them.  In
the majority of these cases the FCC found that emergency beacons had malfunctioned and
were erroneously sending distress signals.

                            - FCC - 
                                

Compliance and Information Bureau Contact :  Pamera Hairston (202) 418-1100