Fcc Tower Light Monitoring Requirements

These regulatory processes ensure that appropriate measures are taken to protect environmental and historic resources.

Fcc tower light monitoring requirements.

In addition the federal communications commission governs monitoring requirements for airport obstruction lights. This option is now available to any owner. A new tower construction requires approval from the state or local governing authority for the proposed site. Earlier this week the fcc s enforcement bureau released an order approving a consent decree with scripps broadcasting where scripps agreed to pay a penalty of 1 130 000 for perceived violations of the fcc s rules requiring tower light monitoring for towers used by a number of tv stations that it had recently purchased.

In a recent decision the fcc s enforcement bureau ruled that a tower owner should pay a fine for a single day where the required tower lights were not operational and where no required monitoring of the tower to discover such outage was taking place. You must observe tower lights at least once every 24 hours either visually or through an automatic indicator. By eliminating a requirement that tower owners conduct quarterly physical checks of the monitoring systems at all of their towers the fcc will save antenna structure owners millions of dollars annually said wtb representative michael smith. The fcc s rules governing antenna tower lighting and painting requirements are based upon the advisory recommendations of the faa which are set forth in two faa advisory.

The information below provides guidance on faa lighting requirements per faa ac 70 7460 1l obstruction marking and lighting with change 2. The fcc has been given the authority by congress to require the painting and or illumination of antenna towers when it determines that such towers may otherwise constitute a menace to air navigation. The fcc decided to exempt antenna structure owners using qualifying noc based monitoring systems from the part 17 quarterly tower inspection obligation. Building a new tower or collocating an antenna on an existing structure requires compliance with the commission s rules for environmental review.

Examples of fcc rules in regard to tower light regulations. Previously the fcc had granted some owners a waiver allowing noc based monitoring in lieu of the quarterly inspections.