Spectrum Allocation

Aviation, marine, trucking and emergency public agencies all use different portions of the spectrum, or airwaves, to communicate over wireless radio frequencies. The term spectrum refers to a range of frequencies or the portion of the radio waves allocated for particular applications such as satellites or cellular service. A frequency is the number of times each second that each radio wave completes a cycle. As mentioned in Chapter 1, each cycle looks like a resting letter S. A cycle is complete when a radio wave passes through the highest and lowest portions of the wave. The term hertz refers to one cycle of a radio wave.

The allocation of spectrum is administered on both an international and national level. The International ...

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