104 MARINE SCIENCE 
available some of their frequency assignments by, in effect, setting up 
a radio station which they control, but operated with funds from the 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Without this fortuitous assist- 
ance much of the present, farflung research of the Scripps Institution 
of Oceanography would be severely restricted or curtailed. Perhaps 
it should be pointed out that, due to the immediacy of the communica- 
tions requirements, it has not been proven possible to operate through 
commercial channels. 24 . sipabs 
I should also add at this point that in view of the Mohole project 
with which you are familiar, which is such an exciting project. and of 
such great scientific importance, this would be impossible even at the 
present stage without this gratuitous assistance of the radio communi- 
cations which we are now able to render. ary 
The Cuamrman. Your problem is before the Federal Communica- 
tions Commission there. 
Mr. Snoperass. This is perhaps true, Lagree. It happens, however, 
that the problems of the oceanographer and some of the others which 
fit into the marine sciences I think need to go as a whole, perhaps. 
The Cuarrman. Do you operate on FM? ney 
Mr. Snoperass. We have very little FM work at present. We would 
like to have it but we do not have the assignments for it. 
The Cuarrman. Aren’t there a lot of FM frequencies available? 
- Mr. Snoperass. I think when it comes to that, F.M. at present, of 
course, you have to remember is essentially high frequency and is line- 
of-sight communications. This does not operate for the farflung 
transmission problems. ) 
The CuHarrman. You have to be on AM ? 
Mr. Snoperass. At present this is true. I think this is just the na- 
ture of the assignments and the bands that are used. 
ee CuarrMan. Has anybody applied to the FCC and been turned 
down ? 
Mr. Snoperass. I think that there are others here who are better 
able to speak to this than myself. I think that has been a running 
problem almost for years in obtaining operating frequencies. 
The CuatrmMan. There is only so much to the spectrum, I under- 
stand that. 
Mr. Snoperass. This is correct. 
The CuHatrman. And the engineering problems of allowing fre- 
quencies too close together or where they interfere is a problem with 
the FCC. The FCC appears before this committee frequently, and 
they have enough FM channels to handle this matter. 
Mr. Snoperass. I think this is something, as I mention a little later, 
that can be taken care of. 
4 ae CuarrMAN. That is a matter that we can take up with the 
Mr. Snoperass. Expanding oceanographic programs are planned 
which will require the use of instrumented buoys and the transmission 
of information by means of radio telemetering both to ship- and 
shore-based stations. It appears to be almost impossible to plan any- 
thing like a serious program involving the use of remote buoys or 
ocean stations if we must count on presently available frequencies in 
the electromagnetic communications spectrum. ‘The difficulties are 
complicated by the fact that available frequencies are already largely 
