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About FCC Record
The FCC Record database contains PDF versions of all documents published in the official FCC reporter, the FCC Record . When complete, the archive will include all FCC Record PDFs from 1986 forward. The documents are presented exactly as they appear in the FCC Record, including FCC Record pagination throughout each PDF document.

While FCC Record PDF documents are not full text searchable, you may search by document title, document number, document date and FCC Record page number.

Word or phrase in document title
Use this field to narrow your search to PDFs of documents with certain words or phrases in their titles. You do not need to use any special punctuation or commands to search for a phrase. Simply enter the phrase the way it ordinarily appears. If a phrase contains a noise word, your search will skip over that word when searching for it. Use connector, wildcard and stemming tools to fine-tune your results.

Examples: Bell Telephone Company
  satellite or radio
  regulatory fees
  wireless and auction




Document Number
Use this field when you know the official FCC document number of the document, e.g., FCC 99-28, DA 03-3868. The document number is a unique identifier assigned to most documents issued by the FCC. It is located at the top of the document itself.

Document numbers with the prefix FCC indicate that the order was issued by the full Commission. Document numbers with the prefix DA (Delegated Authority) indicate that the order was issued by one of the agency's Bureaus or Offices. The two numbers before the hyphen indicate the year the order was adopted.

It is suggested that you include the FCC or DA prefix in your search. Otherwise, your search results might include two orders: one with the FCC prefix and one with the DA prefix.

Examples: FCC 99-306
  DA 03-107



Docket Number
Use this field to restrict your search to documents with a certain FCC docket number assigned to them, e.g., CC Docket No. 96-98, WT Docket No. 03-264. The two-letter prefix in the docket number indicates the FCC Bureau in charge of the proceeding. It is not necessary to include that prefix in your search.

Examples: 96-98
  03-264


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FCC Citation
Use this field if you know the official FCC Record citation of the document. If the page number in the chosen citation is not the first page of a document, you will be taken to the first page of the document in which the selected page number falls.

Examples of FCC citations: 13 FCC Rcd 5318
  18 FCC Rcd 21243



Date
This field allows you to search for a case by its date or to restrict your search results to a certain date range. Most FCC orders have both an "Adopted" date and a "Released" date listed under their caption. This field searches the "Released" date.

Using Connectors
Your search may consist of a group of words or phrases linked by connectors such as and and or  that indicate the relationship between them.

Examples: apple and pear « Both words must be present
  apple or pear « Either word can be present
  apple w/5 pear « Apple must occur within 5 words of pear
  apple not w/5 pear « Apple must not occur within 5 words of pear
  apple and not pear « Only apple must be present


If you use more than one connector, you should use parentheses to indicate precisely what you want to search for. For example, apple and pear or orange juice could mean (apple and pear) or orange, or it could mean apple and (pear or orange).

Noise words, such as if and the, are ignored in searches. » More about connectors   

Using Wildcards ( * and ?)
A search word can contain the wildcard characters * and ?. A ? in a word matches any single character, and a * matches any number of characters. The wildcard characters can be in any position in a word.

Examples: appl* « would match apple, application, etc.
  *cipl* « would match principle, participle, etc.
  appl? « would match apply and apple but not apples.
  apple not w/5 pear « Apple must not occur within 5 words of pear
  ap*ed « would match applied, approved, etc


Note that use of the * wildcard character near the beginning of a word may slow search performance.


Using Stemming
You may use the ~ character to extend or stem your search to cover grammatical variations on a word.

Examples: test~ « would also find testing
  apply~ « would also find applying, applies, and apply


» More search tips  

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