General FAQs

Product Questions

Repeaters - FCC Licensing

Why do I need an FCC license to operate a GPS repeater?

The FCC requires commercial users (i.e. all non-Federal Government) within the U.S. to acquire and maintain a Part 5 experimental license to operate a GPS repeater kit. This is due to the potential for an improperly installed or improperly operated repeater kit to result in increased error in other GPS equipment in the vicinity.

GPS Source, Inc. can assist eligible customers in securing FCC authorization to operate GPS repeater kits. Please refer to our FCC Licensing Instructions which provides detailed directions for how to apply and be granted an experimental FCC license.

Do I need an experimental license if I operate my repeater in a shielded room or if I use a repeater hood?

The FCC has provided GPS Source with the following statement regarding the requirements for licensing of GPS repeater systems in shielded environments:

"We generally don't require experimental licenses for operation inside true RF shielded rooms or anechoic chambers."
Electronics Engineer
Federal Communications Commission
Experimental Licensing Branch

In the case of a GPS Hat system, the GPS hat itself is a metal enclosure that is placed over the application antenna, thus constituting a closed Faraday cage, or 'shielded room' around the antenna. Furthermore, the GPS hat system includes RF absorptive material inside of the hat, constituting an 'anechoic chamber'.

It is the understanding of GPS Source that the GPS Hat system meets the qualifications described by the FCC official above.

Measures have been taken to prevent RF energy from being radiated by the GPS Hat system (e.g. the hat has been designed to mount over the application antenna and has been coated with RF absorptive material), thus, any RF leakage from the system will be at extremely low levels and will be considered 'unintentional'. Unintentional radiation falls into a completely different regulatory category and signal level limits. The leakage levels from a GPS hat system are far, far below those levels set by the FCC for unintentional radiation.

GPS Source, Inc. can assist eligible customers in securing FCC authorization to operate GPS repeater kits.