Existence of FCC necessary

While I tend to agree with the Yuma Sun editorial of June 5 in which you suggest that the Federal Communications Commission should not have the authority to dictate what language may or may not be used on the air, I certainly disagree with the suggestion that the FCC should not exist.

Their primary job is to allocate and oversee the radio frequency spectrum - a limited resource extending from about 10 kilohertz to about 100 Gigahertz -among the various users in such a way as to ensure the users can "communicate" effectively with a minimum of interference with one another.

Their job is far more extensive and complex than just policing the public airwaves that bring radio and TV into your home.

They must coordinate and oversee emergency radio systems, microwave communications systems, telemetry systems, amateur radio users (ham operators), cell-phone systems, interference standards compliance by manufacturers of "non-communications" equipment (like your microwave oven, garage door openers, iPods, computers, etc. - all of which generate and transmit radio frequency energy) and tens of thousands of other devices that use segments of the radio spectrum.

They must ensure that new technical concepts - such as the infamous "broadband over power lines" Internet distribution - can be implemented without causing disruption to other legitimate spectrum users.

They must track down and silence people who periodically pop up causing deliberate interference to various licensed users. Their responsibilities are legion!

I am no great fan of the FCC (or, in radio parlance, Uncle Charlie). They are a government agency which should be led and directed by communications engineers who know what they are doing, but which has become a politically controlled unit which does not always make decisions in the best interest of the technology they are charged with overseeing.

However, in their absence the radio spectrum would degenerate into total chaos in short order.  I don't much like them, but I am sure glad they are there!

MICHAEL E. VOURNAZOS, Yuma