FCC License Search

📡 Turn public FCC license data into usable rows

Built for spectrum analysts, telecom teams, regulatory researchers, and sales operations, FCC License Search returns structured current licenses, recent ULS activity, or census geography for U.S. coordinates. Filter official identifiers, holders, locations, services, statuses, frequencies, and dates without supplying FCC credentials, then use the source links to review the public FCC pages.

• FCC license lookup — review the holder, status, dates, service, and frequencies for a known license.
• FCC ULS search — find current licenses by licensee, location, radio service, class, or status.
• FCC call sign search — match a complete call sign or search by partial text.
• FCC frequency search — find licenses within an inclusive MHz range or at one exact frequency.
• FCC licensee search — research licenses associated with a public organization or applicant name.
• FCC license activity tracker — collect recent grants, renewals, modifications, cancellations, or terminations.
• FCC census block lookup — resolve labeled coordinates to available block, tract, county, and state geography.

📋 What data is returned?

Every successful row has a resultType:

• license — FCC unique system identifier, ULS file number, call sign, licensee or applicant, FRN, radio service, class, status, relevant dates, public address, frequencies, and FCC source URL when available.
• activity — event type and date plus available license identifier, file number, call sign, licensee, FRN, service, class, status, dates, location, frequencies, and source URL.
• coordinate — submitted label and coordinates plus available census block, tract, county, state, FIPS values, and FCC reference URL.

Optional properties are omitted when the public source does not provide them. Invalid inputs, failed lookups, and searches with no matches do not create dataset rows.

🚀 How to run the Actor

1. Choose License search, Recent licensing activity, or Coordinate lookup under target.
2. Complete the options for that Target.
3. Set the corresponding maximum to control output volume.
4. Run the Actor and open the default dataset.
5. Export the rows or retrieve them through the Apify API.

A run handles one configured license search, one recent-activity query, or one list of coordinates. License searches can return up to 5,000 successful rows, activity searches up to 2,000, and coordinate lookup accepts up to 500 entries.

🎛️ Input

Field	Target	Description
target	All	Required: licenses, activity, or coordinates.
callSign, licenseeName	Licenses	Call sign or public holder/applicant name; matchType controls partial or exact matching.
city, state, zipCode	Licenses	Public location filters; state uses a two-letter U.S. state or territory code.
radioServiceCode, licenseClass	Licenses	FCC radio service or license class code or name.
licenseStatus	Licenses	Active (A), canceled (C), expired (E), or terminated (T).
frequencyFromMhz, frequencyToMhz	Licenses	Inclusive range; both are required, and equal values select one frequency.
maxItems	Licenses	Maximum successful, deduplicated licenses, from 1 to 5,000.
lookbackDays	Activity	Look back 1 to 365 days from the run date.
eventType	Activity	FCC event type or code; leave empty to include every event type in the period.
activityMaxItems	Activity	Maximum successful, deduplicated activity rows, from 1 to 2,000.
coordinates	Coordinates	Up to 500 latitude, longitude strings, optionally prefixed with `Label

A license search requires at least one criterion. Options belonging to inactive Targets are ignored.

{
  "target": "activity",
  "lookbackDays": 30,
  "eventType": "grant",
  "activityMaxItems": 100
}

📤 Output

Results are written to the default Apify dataset. Use the overview for quick review or export through the dataset interface and API.

{
  "resultType": "activity",
  "eventType": "grant",
  "eventDate": "2026-07-10",
  "uniqueSystemIdentifier": "1234567",
  "callSign": "W1AW",
  "licenseeName": "Example Radio Club",
  "radioServiceCode": "HA",
  "licenseStatus": "A",
  "frequenciesMhz": [14.25],
  "sourceUrl": "https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1234567"
}

💳 Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You are charged for each successful visible FCC license, licensing-activity, or coordinate-geography row returned. Empty searches, invalid coordinate entries, failed lookups, and operational messages are not charged as returned rows. Apify platform usage may also apply. If the run reaches your charge limit, rows already returned remain available and the Actor stops adding more.

🔌 Integrations

Export the default dataset in Apify-supported formats, retrieve rows through the Apify API, start repeat runs with schedules, or trigger workflows with webhooks. These options support spreadsheet, database, dashboard, and application workflows without changing the row schema.

❓ FAQ

Can I search one exact frequency?

Yes. Enter the same value for frequencyFromMhz and frequencyToMhz; both bounds are inclusive.

How is recent licensing activity selected?

Choose the activity Target, set lookbackDays, and optionally provide eventType. The Actor returns public ULS entries whose reported action date falls within that period and classifies available events as grant, renewal, modification, cancellation, or termination.

What happens when one coordinate is malformed or cannot be resolved?

It produces no dataset row. The Actor continues with the remaining coordinates, so other valid entries can still return data.

Why are some properties absent?

FCC public data does not always contain every optional value. The Actor keeps a successful row and omits unavailable properties rather than filling them with guesses.

Can I submit several separately filtered searches in one run?

No. Configure separate runs for separate license or activity queries. Coordinate lookup accepts a simple list of up to 500 coordinates.

Does coordinate lookup find nearby transmitters or model coverage?

No. It resolves a point to available census geography. It does not search nearby licenses or calculate propagation, interference, coverage, or spectrum availability.

Does this Actor file, renew, or modify licenses?

No. It reads public FCC data and does not perform authenticated FCC account workflows or alter FCC records.

How does this differ from building directly on FCC ULS data?

The Actor applies the supported filters, normalizes successful entries into a documented Apify dataset, and retains public FCC links for follow-up. Direct source work may be preferable when you need a complete archive mirror, unsupported FCC datasets, or custom parsing beyond this Actor's schema.

📝 Changelog

• 0.1: Initial release.

🆘 Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, open an Actor issue.

🔗 Related actors

• U.S. Census Geocoder — match U.S. addresses or coordinates to standardized addresses, TIGER/Line details, and optional Census geography identifiers.

Made with ❤️ by Maxime Dupré