FCC

Just like the FAA takes their role as steward and regulatory body for the national airspace seriously, the FAA takes their role as steward and regulatory body for (among other things) radio spectrum seriously.   Snippet from the fcc.gov website page "what we do" : 

"The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the commission is the United States' primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation."

What is radio spectrum ?   In a nutshell, this is a finite resource , part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 1 Hz to 3,000 GHz (3 THz) .  It is managed in a hierarchical structure, starting globally with the ITU (international telecommunications union), divided into 3 regions and for the USA (residing in ITU region 2) , managed by the FCC.    

Why is this regulation important to us ?  Here is an example to consider.  Let's say in your car you tune in every day to a specific FM radio channel.  One day you go to tune into it,  but instead of hearing your favorite music or talk radio, you hear something else unexpected or some competing conversation , adding distortion or your ability to hear your expected program.  This could very well be a "pirate radio" station someone has setup to "air" what they wish on that particular channel.   And it is illegal.  Do a google search for "Radio Impacto 2" "pirate radio" and you will see a story for March 2023 in which a maximum fine by the FCC ($2 million USD) is being imposed for such an infraction of the law.

So how does our hobby intersect with the FCC ?   FPV quadcopters generally have two radio transmission systems.  First, our control channel between Radio Transmitter (Tx) and Receiver (Rx) is generally an FCC Part 15 compliant system.   Generally it is operating on 2.4Ghz and the Transmitter is Part 15 licensed/compliant.  How would one check for this ?  Look for a sticker on the back of your radio with the FCC ID.   Here is an example of my RadioMaster model T8 with FCC ID 2AV3G-T8 and a Spektrum model dx6i with FCC ID BRWDAMTX11

It is a bit of a convoluted process, but one can search for those FCC ID here and find the corresponding reports of Part 15 compliance.   

So that is all well and good.  But the challenge comes with the 2nd part of the FPV quadcopter operation; the video transmission system.  The typical VTX (video transmitter) operates in the 5.8Ghz bands, in the frequency range 5650Mhz to 5925Mhz.   The video transmitting devices are not part 15 compliant and the frequencies used by these devices are part of (allocated for use by) Amateur Radio (aka "HAM" radio).  This is where the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) and the HAM Radio Technician class license comes into play.   

Since the devices themselves do not / cannot hold a part 15 license/certification from the FCC, we as the operator of the unlicensed device, must hold a license to transmit on that HAM radio spectrum.   Thus, the Ham radio Technician class license covers our privilege/right to be able to transmit on those 5.8Ghz frequencies.

I strongly recommend that anyone interested in FPV quadcopters check out the arrl.org website, pick up a technician's class license manual, study the material and take the test at a location near you.  It is not difficult. All the potential pool of test questions and answers are IN the manual itself.  And there is useful information to be gained in the ham license instruction that is applicable to the fpv hobby (for example, information about antennas).  We want to be good stewards of the finite radio spectrum and the ARRL provides a reasonable method to obtain that so we are in good standing with the FCC as licensed radio operators.