Sec. 22.813  Technical channel pair assignment criteria.

    The rules in this section establish technical assignment criteria 
for the channel pairs listed in Sec. 22.805. These criteria are intended 
to provide substantial service volumes over areas that have significant 
local and regional general aviation activity, while maintaining the 
continuous nationwide in-route coverage of the original geographical 
layout.
    (a) Distance separation for co-channel ground stations. The FCC may 
grant an application requesting assignment of a communication channel 
pair to a proposed ground transmitter only if the proposed antenna 
location is at least 800 kilometers (497 miles) from the antenna 
location of the nearest co-channel ground transmitter in the United 
States, its territories and possessions; and 1000 kilometers (621 miles) 
from the antenna location of the nearest co-channel ground transmitter 
in Canada.
    (b) Dispersion. The FCC may grant an application requesting 
assignment of a communication channel pair to a proposed ground 
transmitter only if there are no more than five different communication 
channel pairs already assigned to ground transmitters with antenna 
locations within a 320 kilometer (199 mile) radius of the proposed 
antenna location.