Google building secret transmitter at Spaceport America

Google is building a secret transmitter at Spaceport America and the reason none is aware of the reason for this.

TechWorm had earlier reported that Google was testing its 5G drones at its Spaceport America facility in the remote sands of New Mexico. However, it seemed Google was doing much more than that.

According to an FCC document unearthed by Brian Benchoff at Hackaday, the internet giant applied for an experimental radio licence for the New Mexico build.

Google had asked FCC to treat some information relating to radio experiments as confidential. However, Hackaday has not been able to decipher a number of things in the report.

These experiments involved highly directional and therefore high power transmissions at 2.5 GHz, 5.8 GHz, 24 GHz, 71-76 GHz, and 81-86 GHz, which would take place at Spaceport America, a 12,000 foot runway in the middle of New Mexico at times used by SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and now Google.

Benchoff pointed out that there was a transmitter in the 70-80 GHz band which was not regulated by FCC, and was normally used for high-bandwidth communications. The band was also used for high-bandwidth wireless routers.

However, the company's secret project had much more than what met the eye. A normal AM radio station needed 50 KW of power in watts, and could reach an estimated 38 states. Google's secret transmitter is 96.4 kilowatt indicating that it was for some specialised purpose.

An application filed with the FCC revealed Google's request to install a nearly 100kW radio transmitter at Spaceport America, the New Mexico-based hangar where it was running SkyBender, its secretive project which used drones to test millimeter-wave radio.

The document does not reveal much about what Google was doing in addition to conducting field tests in the 2.5 GHz band, 5.8 GHz band and 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz bands. It further confirmed that Google was testing millimeter-wave technology at Spaceport.