Goodbye to Spectrum Direct - Hello Broken Spectrum Management System

[Jay911]

I could rarely get the searches to work when it was in 'beta' with just the >960 MHz data installed. When I could, it appeared there was cross-contamination of data either from field to field within a record or across records. You'd think they would have noticed that.

 

[Deziel0495]

Looks like almost everything is working again.

 

[Jay911]

Looks like almost everything is working again.

Accessible, but I'm not sure I'd call it working.

I did a geographic search of 25-1300 MHz at a radius of 15km around my firehall and got four licenses for 160.875, two for 452.925, two for 457.925, and a slew of cellular/mobile 700/800 freqs, plus 895/935 railroad telemetry freqs. Nothing for any of the known VHF/UHF licenses in my area - can't even find them with a direct frequency search or a direct name search.

The results page is ugly as sin too. For one brief moment I was able to find a page that gave me CSV output, which saved me doing copy-paste of the HTML output of 10 records at a time (19 pages of them), and there was also a PDF output available, but it listed records (rows) 6 columns at a time, then repeated the rows below that for 6 more columns, etc.

 

[Schumi1978]

Same result here, Jay. I did a frequency range search covering 30 - 1000 Mhz around a 20 km radius at the center of my old home town in Durham Region, selected all fields to be returned and received a "500 Server Error - The website encountered an error while retrieving https://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/frequencySearch/searchByGeographicArea. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly." response.

Then I narrowed the range to 450 - 460 Mhz and tried to return all fields knowing there was a local taxi company in town licensed in that range and it gave the same error. Only after doing a frequency range search to return only the default Tx/Rx fields did it come back with a response...but only listed 4 results for licenses to The Railway Association of Canada. Like you said the results page is ugly. The layout is horrible nor is it user friendly.

Then I attempted trying the single frequency search option to directly search on the frequency I know is licensed to the same taxi company and it returned a "No Results Found!" response.

Net, completely useless!

If only IC could have taken a page out of the FCC's license search system. I guess I've been spoiled down here after moving to the US because the FCC system is a billion times better than IC's current (and previous) systems.

 

[Jay911]

I've done some FCC searches recently to prepare for my trip to Dunedin for spring training later this month. I do enjoy some of the features like separation by class of service (i.e. public safety trunk vs commercial trunk - hell, even knowing that it's trunked alone is something I don't get here). The output could be easier to manipulate (or maybe I don't know how to utilize it fully) - with Spectrum Direct I could get an Excel spreadsheet that I had to do very little modification to, to make it useful for my needs. The FCC search is less useful for me since location info (particularly lat/long) and frequency info are on separate pages.

 

[Schumi1978]

I've done some FCC searches recently to prepare for my trip to Dunedin for spring training later this month. I do enjoy some of the features like separation by class of service (i.e. public safety trunk vs commercial trunk - hell, even knowing that it's trunked alone is something I don't get here). The output could be easier to manipulate (or maybe I don't know how to utilize it fully) - with Spectrum Direct I could get an Excel spreadsheet that I had to do very little modification to, to make it useful for my needs. The FCC search is less useful for me since location info (particularly lat/long) and frequency info are on separate pages.

Here's what I do...

Once you have the License you're interested in, use the RR fccCallsign page to display it in a more meaningful and usable way.

For example, looking at this License/Call Sign 'http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=2778650'

replace the XXXXXXX with the WQEG263 Call Sign in this URL ''http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=XXXXXXX''

which becomes ''http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQEG263''.

Then what I do is copy the results from the RR page and paste it into MS Excel. Add Data Filters to the columns in the two tables allowing you to filter/slice-and-dice the data however you want. So if I'm not interested in any mobile frequencies, etc., I can filter out based on Emission designation, Class, City, County, etc.

I can send you a spreadsheet to explain the above if you'd like.

My2c.

 

[Schumi1978]

Here's what I do...

Once you have the License you're interested in, use the RR fccCallsign page to display it in a more meaningful and usable way.

For example, looking at this License/Call Sign 'http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=2778650'

replace the XXXXXXX with the WQEG263 Call Sign in this URL ''http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=XXXXXXX''

which becomes ''http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQEG263''.

Then what I do is copy the results from the RR page and paste it into MS Excel. Add Data Filters to the columns in the two tables allowing you to filter/slice-and-dice the data however you want. So if I'm not interested in any mobile frequencies, etc., I can filter out based on Emission designation, Class, City, County, etc.

I can send you a spreadsheet to explain the above if you'd like.

My2c.

Actually I'll just attach the spreadsheet here in case others may want to have a look at it.

 

[cironside]

Industry Web Site

Just tried it today site came up but when looking up a singe freq comes back not found oh well it appears some one is trying to get it working

 

[Saint]

Single Search

Just tried it today site came up but when looking up a singe freq comes back not found oh well it appears some one is trying to get it working

Yea same with me, I get noting found, will have to wait till they get the bugs out.
Steve

 

[jmorgan123]

TAFL Search with Google Maps Output is up to date as of Feb 17 /16

Sorry my site is not clear on this.

TAFL data is as of 2015/12/23.
Spectrum license data is as of 2016/01/19.
2016/02/17 is the day I updated the site to use the new spectrum file format.

I do wish IC could get their act together on their feeds too.

 

[Schumi1978]

*Spectrum Management System Notes!

IC posted an update today. Basically the search results do not include frequencies <960 MHz. No ETA when all data will be available.

They note other issues as well.


Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[jslessor]

I only used the search feature whenever I went there. Once you find it, the "Search By Geographical Area" hardly works. It looks nice though, from what I could see.

They must be scrambling to get everything back in order.

 

[hfxChris]

*Spectrum Management System Notes!

IC posted an update today. Basically the search results do not include frequencies <960 MHz. No ETA when all data will be available.

They note other issues as well.

I can't seem to find that update, however I also can't seem to find any of the VHF frequencies I'm searching for, so I guess it's still the case.

Just for fun though I tried using the call sign search and entered VCS, which is Halifax Coast Guard, and their MF frequencies were returned.

 

[hfxChris]

Also when I visit the new site I get a message in the corner asking me to take part in their usability test. Just for fun I said OK and got... "This project is no longer open for responses."

Imagine that

 

[Jay911]

Also when I visit the new site I get a message in the corner asking me to take part in their usability test. Just for fun I said OK and got... "This project is no longer open for responses."

Imagine that

I never bothered to try the survey.

Motion to rename this the "Spectrum Manglement System".

 

[Schumi1978]

I can't seem to find that update, however I also can't seem to find any of the VHF frequencies I'm searching for, so I guess it's still the case.

It's right at the top of the Spectrum Management System Data Search page under " Spectrum Management System Notes!". http://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/sms-sgs-prod.nsf/eng/h_00010.html. I guess we're to keep a watch on this as to when there are announcements of bugs being fixed and new updates to the system..

Just for fun though I tried using the call sign search and entered VCS, which is Halifax Coast Guard, and their MF frequencies were returned.

I tried the Call Sign / Station Name search as well and was able to get some hits on frequencies licensed <960 MHz as well. So the message isn't exactly accurate...but then again, with the current state of the system, it appears not even they know what works and doesn't.

Also when I visit the new site I get a message in the corner asking me to take part in their usability test. Just for fun I said OK and got... "This project is no longer open for responses."

Imagine that

I never did the survey. Would have been pointless anyway. They probably realized every response would be "0 - Extremely Dissatisfied" and simply pulled the plug on it.

=========

Maybe we should all send an email to (i) the Minister responsible, (ii) through the forum on the Contact Us page and (iii) our local MPs and communicate our displeasure with the way GC is spending our tax dollars. On second thought, that would be as pointless as doing the survey too If this happened in the industry I work in, heads would roll.

 

[Schumi1978]

Motion to rename this the "Spectrum Manglement System".

I second the Motion.

 

[Deziel0495]

I am now able to get results < 960 MHz by searching by callsign. Every callsign I tried for 700 MHz sites has worked so far. Never tried anything lower than 700 MHz.

EDIT: Looks like "most" things are working. I was able to search by frequency, call sign, ect. All turned up exact results, even for VHF. I found this link, looks like an "alternate portal".... https://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/search/index

 

[Schumi1978]

I am now able to get results < 960 MHz by searching by callsign. Every callsign I tried for 700 MHz sites has worked so far. Never tried anything lower than 700 MHz.

EDIT: Looks like "most" things are working. I was able to search by frequency, call sign, ect. All turned up exact results, even for VHF. I found this link, looks like an "alternate portal".... https://sms-sgs.ic.gc.ca/search/index

Still a complete mess. Searching by a licensee's Call Sign who have licensed frequencies in the 452-457 MHz range returns the result I expect. Go back and search by one of the frequencies returned in the prior search and I get a "No Results Found!" returned.

So while all the data is there, the server side code that executes the queries against the db are sporadic.

 

[mikewazowski]

I tried a simple frequency search and a callsign search and got back zero results.

Still broken.