Allow ESRI vector-based graphics to create polygons indicating areas of operation in Part 90.
Current Part 90 areas of operation are generally a point radius, countywide, statewide, nationwide, or "other" with a verbose description. This creates a number of spectrum reutilization issues where prospective licensees overstate their required areas of operation because their need does not fit into a cookie cutter. This creates overprotection and the inability to reuse the frequency efficiently. There are many small licensees who choose a 40 km radius, but on review, prove that such vast area takes them dramatically outside of their jurisdictional boundary or area of responsibility. Additionally, non-numeric values are not searchable terms in the current ULS database and easily missed. Why not change from the tabular-friendly format of the current ULS to storing areas of operation as vector-based graphics so that we can enter an ESRI or similar shapefile, along with some buffer value (i.e., 8 km) which would present searchable polygons in a server-side GIS engine, or export to future spectrum management utilities used by frequency coordination entities? Such utilities could compute a geographic center value to convert to a tabular format, or display inside a native viewer – or even function within heuristics-based resource selection applications to assist in selecting the best available resource while minimizing interference potential. This has the potential to minimize spectrum waste, greatly right-size portrayals of utilization and eliminate the "other" or tabular formats that cannot come up as searchable locations.
