Hackaday has uncovered some government documents pointing to a new Google experiment at Spaceport involving a 100KW radio transmitter. Taking its information from filed FCC documents, most of which had redacted information, Hackaday has discerned that Google is building a huge 100KW radio transmitter. Google asked the FCC to keep certain information about the project confidential so much of the document is redacted for privacy and secrecy reasons. What Hackaday was able to glean from the document is Google is working with the following bands with its new 100KW transmitter: 2.5 GHz, 5.8GHz, 24GHz, 71-76GHz, and 81-86GHz. The document also refers to an “experimental” radio call sign named, WI9XZE, that does not show in FCC records.
Of the few details listed in the documents, one thing does pop out as exceptionally odd: a 70-80 GHz transmitter with an effective radiated power (ERP) 96,411 W. That’s close enough to 100 kilowatts to call it as such. This is the maximum effective radiated power of the highest power FM stations in the US, but radio stations are omnidirectional, whereas Google is using very high gain antennas with a beam width of less than half a degree. The actual power output of this transmitter is a mere half watt.
So let the speculation begin on what Google is doing out at Spaceport with a 100KW radio transmitter. Could this be a part of Project Loon? Or maybe closer related to Project Skybender which hopes to beam 5G Internet access from solar powered drones? Whatever Google is doing they do not want too much of it to leak out to the public just yet. Gaining favor from the FCC to redact much of the license granted to them is a big indicator that they want to keep some things under wraps as much as they can.
What do you think Google is doing out at Spaceport with a 100KW transmitter? Comment below or on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
[button link=”http://hackaday.com/2016/03/02/google-is-building-a-100kw-radio-transmitter-at-a-spaceport-and-no-one-knows-why/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Hackaday[/button] [button link=”https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=173188&x=” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: FCC[/button]Last Updated on February 14, 2017.
