About RF Scout

RF Scout is a planning tool for location sound mixers and production audio teams. Tell it where you're shooting and it returns a band-by-band advisory — recommended, caution, or avoid — based on the broadcast and licensed emitters that the FCC says are near you.

Methodology

For each UHF TV channel (and a few other relevant bands), we compute a 0–1 risk score from three factors:

Type weight — a full-power DTV is weighted higher than a low-power TV or a single Part 74 microphone licensee.
Distance falloff — a simplified ERP / HAAT / distance² function. This is a sortable proxy, not a propagation prediction.
Frequency overlap — direct co-channel = full contribution, first-adjacent = ~35%, second-adjacent = ~10%.

Scores are mapped to labels: Recommended <0.20, Caution 0.20–0.55, Avoid ≥0.55. Some bands are always Avoid regardless of score: the 600 MHz band (reallocated to mobile carriers), TV channel 37 (radio astronomy).

Confidence labels

High — FCC data ≤14 days old and at least one strong contributor explains the score.
Medium — data is 14–60 days old, or contributors are mixed-type.
Low — sparse coverage, weak contributors only, or the area is at the edge of our data footprint.

Sources

FCC LMS — full-power and Class A DTV station engineering records (callsign, RF channel, ERP, HAAT, transmitter coordinates).
FCC CDBS — legacy cross-reference for FM/LPTV records.
FCC ULS — Part 74 wireless mic licensees, Part 22/27 commercial mobile carriers, and BAS.
FCC Spectrum Dashboard — band plan metadata.
NTIA Federal Spectrum Compendium — federal allocations referenced by band plan.

Current build: ingestion is via committed seed data of major-market full-power DTV stations. Automated weekly pulls from the FCC are planned. See /ingest in the repo for the pipeline.

Limitations

Not a measurement — we don't sense RF. Always scan with your own receivers on location.
Not a propagation model — terrain, buildings, time of day, and weather aren't modeled.
Not a coordination engine yet — we don't compute an intermod-free set of carriers within Recommended bands. That's v2.
US only at launch. Other regions (UK Ofcom, Canada ISED) on the v2 roadmap.

Roadmap

v1.1 — BAS, Part 22/27, FM in the score; weekly automated FCC ingest; freshness badges.
v1.2 — Coordination engine (intermod-free set picker for your gear).
v2.0 — Accounts, saved gigs, branded PDFs, crowdsourced scan overlays.
v2.x — International (UK, CA, EU), Part 74 white space DB registration helper.

Contact

Feedback, bug reports, ridiculous ideas: hello@rfscout.net.

Disclaimer. RF Scout is an informational planning tool. It estimates likely RF congestion at a location using public FCC and NTIA data, which may be incomplete or out of date. It does not measure RF in real time, does not predict propagation, and is not a substitute for a frequency scan with your own receivers at the location and time of operation. Wireless mic operation is governed by FCC rules (47 CFR Parts 15, 74, and others); users are responsible for operating within their license and applicable regulations. No warranty, express or implied, is provided. Use at your own risk.