DSDPlus USA License Data

[texas1313]

I've been using DSDPlus Fast Lane for several years, and it's been working great. I'm using the latest version (2.523).

The notes.txt file states "For each DSD+ Fast Lane release, up to date FCC data is used to create FMP/FMP24/FMPA/FMPP-compatible CSV files", and " Per-state files are here: https://www.dsdplus.com/dsdplusuploads/FastLane/States.zip."

The 2.523 update came out late in January 2025, so I'm guessing that FCC data would have been updated then.

However, it appears that some of the frequencies/licenses showing in the FMP24 windows expired years ago (like NEXTEL), and many of those have since been licensed to other users, and are not showing up in that FCC data file, and DSD is displaying outdated license data.

Again today, I downloaded the State file for Texas (https://www.dsdplus.com/dsdplusuploads/FastLane/States.zip) and opened it to view several frequencies of interest. and verified that it lists licenses that expired last year (or longer), and more recent licenses are not listed.

I went to the FCC ULS website and requested a query file, but that format was very different from what DSDPlus uses.

Is there any way to download a current FCC database for the area(s) I'm interested in?

Thanks

 

[dkcorlfla]

I've been using DSDPlus Fast Lane for several years, and it's been working great. I'm using the latest version (2.523).

The notes.txt file states "For each DSD+ Fast Lane release, up to date FCC data is used to create FMP/FMP24/FMPA/FMPP-compatible CSV files", and " Per-state files are here: https://www.dsdplus.com/dsdplusuploads/FastLane/States.zip."

The 2.523 update came out late in January 2025, so I'm guessing that FCC data would have been updated then.

However, it appears that some of the frequencies/licenses showing in the FMP24 windows expired years ago (like NEXTEL), and many of those have since been licensed to other users, and are not showing up in that FCC data file, and DSD is displaying outdated license data.

Again today, I downloaded the State file for Texas (https://www.dsdplus.com/dsdplusuploads/FastLane/States.zip) and opened it to view several frequencies of interest. and verified that it lists licenses that expired last year (or longer), and more recent licenses are not listed.

I went to the FCC ULS website and requested a query file, but that format was very different from what DSDPlus uses.

Is there any way to download a current FCC database for the area(s) I'm interested in?

Thanks

What format did the FCC ULS system provide? Any options? Can it be converted to the .CVS format?

 

[dave3825]

If you can get the dump converted to csv, you may be able to rearrange the columns to the format they are in the DSDPlus files.

 

[texas1313]

I did an FCC ULS query for an entire county, and then submitted a "Query Search" request, which emails a link to the zipped file download once it's ready.

The file the FCC sent was a Text file with a "|" delimiter, so I imported it into Excel and saved it as a CVS format.

However, what the FCC sends has each line starting with 2 letters (e.g, HD, FR, etc), and the DSDPlus CSV file starts with the frequency.

I suppose I could try rearranging the columns, and perhaps only using the lines with the information I need.

The FCC file has the lat/long (deg/min/sec) in separate tabs (e.g., 29 / 41 / 44 / N and 98 / 21 / 10 /W) and the DSDPlus CSV has the location in decimal format in 2 tabs (e.g., 29.5123, -98.2125), so that would take some additional converting.

That would take some time, and something I'll try to research more during the next long weekend.

The FCC site states "The Federal Communications Commission (the Commission) makes remote software available for public use" so I may research that to see if it would help.

The Digital Frequency Search site does have a cool feature to download all the digital (P25, DMR, NXDN) license frequencies that can be used in the DSDPlus scan file, which is super handy for scanning, but it doesn't include any of the older analog frequencies, and doesn't contain the data FMP wants.

 

[dave3825]

Looks like it was last downloaded 1 12 2025. Not sure the filtering done when pulled. Either way just because a license says expired does not mean freqs are no longer in use. Have a few things by me still using freqs with expired status.

 

[mcjones2013]

I use this site for downloading license data into DSDPlus: FMP Frequency File

The second option in 7-Zip format with emission designators excluded is what I use.

You don't have to do this, but I do some extra work in Notepad++ to remove anything that isn't FB2, FB4, FB6, FB7 or FB8.

 

[texas1313]

Thank you! That worked great!

I read the thru the instructions and downloaded the nationwide file (without emission designators). and was up and running in a few minutes.

My DSD is now showing the recently added licenses, as well as analog and digital systems.

I was kicking myself that I had not noticed that tab on the Digital Frequency Search site, and then noticed it was listed as an "archived" page, and the website owner has a statement "Note: Due to the large file size of this data and the increased database and server load to provide the search information, this webpage is being offered on a temporary basis and all or part of the information on this page might not remain freely available." I'll start donating to that site if I use it more frequently.

I still want to spend some time doing some more research on the FCC ULS site to see if I can import directly from the FCC and produce a similar output. It's been many years since I used to subscribe to a service that provided a database every month.

Thanks again!

 

[RaleighGuy]

The FCC site states "The Federal Communications Commission (the Commission) makes remote software available for public use" so I may research that to see if it would help.

I believe that statement refers to the various database search functions it allows the public use, not an actual software you can download or install.

 

[texas1313]

Perhaps. This is what is stated on the FCC site: Use the Query Download feature to save the results of your license search in a pipe-delimited text (*.txt) file. You can import this file into spreadsheet software such as Excel. Please provide your email address, then click the "Download" button. You will be informed by email when your results are ready for download. The text file you will download consists of multiple record types. The content of each record type is pipe-delimited (a "|" character separates each field). Please refer to ULS Databases for complete information on the file format, and to access complete Database Downloads. The processing time will depend on the number of your search results - more results will need more processing time and the resulting files will be very large. Contact tech support if you have questions. The Federal Communications Commission (the Commission) makes remote software available for public use. --------------------------- I did a database query for a single county, and the file they sent me to download was not in a format I could use for DSD. There are other instructions on the links on that page, so I'll just need to spend some time looking into the file format. Somehow the DSDPlus and Digital Frequency Search folks are converting the FCC data into the DSD FMP format. If I get a chance, I'll call the FCC Tech Support tomorrow.