A -- Request for Information and Request for Telemetry Roundtable Participants

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. The Government does not intend to award a contract or any other type of agreement on the basis of this synopsis or to otherwise pay for the information solicited under this synopsis. This is NOT a request for proposal or an invitation for bid. The intent of this request for information is to obtain market research. Responses will not be considered as proposals nor will any award be made as a result of this synopsis. The Government is interested in obtaining information from industry to identify organizations that are capable of providing technology for future flight test telemetry systems and who can participate in a discussion on the feasibility of meeting some future requirements. As air vehicle design has become more sophisticated, telemetry data transmission requirements have increased and continue to increase exponentially, which leads to a continuing need for more radio spectrum to support these requirements. However, many other services also need to use more spectrum and this has led to losses of spectrum dedicated for flight telemetry use in the U.S. and larger, even complete, loss of such spectrum elsewhere. In order to mitigate the effects of such spectrum losses and assure the availability of needed spectrum globally, Agenda Item 1.5 of the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference proposes to identify additional bands in the 3-30 GHz range for use by aeronautical telemetry for flight testing. Currently, three bands in the 4.4-6.7 GHz range are being considered under this agenda item. One of the major advantages of obtaining international spectrum allocations for aeronautical telemetry would be the ability to use the same technology everywhere and thus realize economy of scale and confidence that anyone could safely invest in the technology. However, current efforts are to identify bands as appropriate for use by aeronautical telemetry, to be shared with other applications without priority. Further, individual countries would be free to select the spectrum that would be used by telemetry and the use of regional designations has been discussed. Now in order to realize the full potential of this agenda item, it is desirable to be able to identify common technologies that could operate over the full frequency range that is under consideration. Availability of transmitter equipment and components that meet power and form factor requirements for telemetry equipment is particularly critical. We therefore need to see whether it is possible to implement common technologies over all the bands between 4.4 GHz and 6.7 GHz which are now under consideration. In order to determine whether common technologies are available, the Test and Evaluation (T&E) Science and Technology (S&T) program manager will host a roundtable discussion at the 2006 International Telemetering Conference (ITC) on October 24 in San Diego, California and is seeking to identify organizations that can contribute to this discussion. Organizations that are involved in technology development and/or production of transmitters, amplifiers, antennas, or other components that operate in these bands that wish to participate in this roundtable discussion are invited to respond to this request for information. Organizations may also submit a written response, if unable to attend ITC. Electronic responses are acceptable. Responses shall be due no later than November 15, 2006. Any company proprietary information contained in the response shall be separately marked. The information provided through the responses will be used to aid in requirements definition for future acquisitions. POINT OF CONTACT: Saul Ortigoza, 812TSS/ENTI, Edwards AFB, CA, +1 (555) 000-0000, contact@example.gov.