Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Radio frequency range description list?

[Tom Rondeau]

On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 10:51 AM, Alexandru Csete <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi Andre,
>
> I think it would be a mistake to consider a no reply on this list as a
> general no to your question. Clearly, there must be such databases out
> there, otherwise maintaining things like the US Frequency Allocation
> Chart [1] or the ITU-RR [2] would be a nightmare. How you get the
> source of those publications I do not know. There are also smaller
> databases embedded in various SDR and other receiver software out
> there that could be a starting point.
>
> I foresee two significant challenges in implementing your idea:
> - Most of the spectrum is allocated for multiple uses
> - Allocations are in most cases made for specific uses but they do not
> necessarily imply a specific configuration
>
> I think it will be a big help for you to narrow down the scope as much
> as possible.
>
> [1] 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Frequency_Allocations_Chart_2011_-_The_Radio_Spectrum.pdf
> [2] http://www.itu.int/pub/R-REG-RR


The FCC is doing a much better job providing this kind of information,
too. See the Spectrum Dashboard:
http://reboot.fcc.gov/reform/systems/spectrum-dashboard

There are APIs for automating access to their databases. I've hacked
around with this some, both with PHP and Python (and simple wgets),
and it's not bad; usable at least. But translating the data here into
usable information is going to be a trick.

I have a feeling other regulators, like OFCOMM, specifically, have
similar databases available for access.

Also look at www.tvfool.com. It's specific to TV signals, but there
might be something the learn from it.

I think you should definitely pursue this project and see where you
get. As Alex said, there's overlapping services, geographical
differences, and, I'm sure, just random things in there that are going
to make it hard. Which is probably a large part of why no one has done
it before. But maybe it just needs a bit of hacker mentality.

Tom


> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 5:29 AM, Andre-John Mas <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> In the absence of any existing solution I am interested in trying to put
>> something together, possibly as a GitHub project?
>>
>> Although a Wiki could be used, my focus is on a solution that is machine
>> parsable, so any application could make use of it. I am not sure the best
>> file format to use, but currently three come to mind:
>>   - xml
>>   - json
>>   - csv
>>
>> From looking at some documents that list frequency allocations, I figure
>> that the files would be split into individual files, that cover the
>> allocation by ITU region, country and other group, with the footnotes being
>> in files separate to the allocation list, so that they could eventually be
>> localised if need be. Something like:
>>
>> frequency-allocations/
>>    itu_region1.txt
>>    itu_region2.txt
>>    eu.txt
>>    uk.txt
>>    us.txt
>> footnotes/
>>    ca.txt
>>    us.txt
>> rules/
>>    us.txt
>>
>>
>> The fields I am thinking of are, at this point
>>  - frequency range
>>  - footnotes
>>  - rules
>>  - service type
>>  - service category
>>  - data format
>>
>> This is a first stab, so any feedback would be useful. One thing that I seem
>> to be struggling with is how best to specify information that would make it
>> clear which data encoder/decoder to be using. For example, I can imagine an
>> application detecting that you have selected a frequency range that
>> corresponds to GPS and brings a view that shows the GPS data in a human
>> readable form or that you are in a range that represents broadcasts TV and
>> brings up a view that shows the broadcast data.
>>
>> It may also be useful to have a list of channels, according to service type?
>>
>> Please let me know what you think.
>>
>> Andre
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: address@hidden
>> To: address@hidden
>> Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 01:13:17 +0000
>> Subject: [Discuss-gnuradio] Radio frequency range description list?
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Has anyone created a machine parsable file that lists radio frequencies and
>> what is covered by that range?
>>
>> At the simplest level I am thinking of something that would include country
>> code, a frequency range and the identifier to what that range is, and
>> possibly a string indicating typical data encoding. The idea being when
>> using a UI, such as Gqrx you would be able to have a label identifying what
>> sort of data you should be seeing and in other cases use this information
>> for automatically loading the right configuration(s) for handling that
>> frequency range.
>>
>> Andre
>>
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