Auction Tracking Tools

For most FCC auctions held prior to July 2005, the Auction Tracking Tools provide auction participants and other interested parties the ability to track and analyze FCC auctions as they progress. By sorting, filtering, and developing customized queries, you can track the specific activity of a particular bidder or market. You can also view summary data to track and analyze the general progress of an auction.

From Auction No. 20, through Auction No. 59, the FCC supplied a Microsoft Access based Auction Tracking Tool to assist bidders and the public with analyzing auction results. The files, one for each round, can be accessed from the table below by clicking on the appropriate auction "Results" link and selecting the "mdb" subdirectory. You can download the Auction Tracking Tool and a readme file.

For results of other auctions (along with other formats like .dbf, and .txt), links to the "Announcements", "Bidder Cross Reference", and "Market Data", go to the Round Results page.

Beginning with auction No. 4 through 19, the FCC provided a Microsoft Excel based Auction Tracking Tool (ATT) for analyzing the auction results. The appropriate ATT can be downloaded from the chart below. A readme file is available to provide assistance in installing the ATT. Please note, the correct ATT must be used with the auction it is designed for. The Auction Bidding System generated four files (six files for auctions prior to Auction No. 13) for each round of the auction for use in this tool. These Round Results files are available on the Round Results page.

At a minimum, you need the following:

• Microsoft Windows 95, 98 or NT.
• Up to 40-50 MB of available hard disk space. For the application itself, only 2-3 MB is necessary, but the auction database can grow quite large.
• 16 MB RAM and a Pentium-based processor are required. However, 32 MB RAM and a Pentium 166 or higher is strongly recommended.
• Some advanced features of the tool require Microsoft Excel 97, but most functions can be used without it.

The software for the Auction Tracking Tool is available as a self-extracting file. To download and install, do the following:

1. Read the instructions under Microsoft Access-based Tracking Tool, then find the auction you want in the Access-based Tools and click the Tracking Tool link.
2. When the File Download window appears, click the OK button.
3. When the Save As window appears, point the Save in field to the directory where you want to download the Auction Tracking Tool file. (For example, you could use C:\Temp.) Then click the Save button.
4. When the download operation has been completed, use Windows Explorer to display the contents of the download directory you specified. In this directory, locate the Auction Tracking Tool's file, and double-click it to start the installation.

The installation program puts an FCC Auction Tracking Tool entry on the Programs option of your Windows Start menu. It also places an icon labeled FCC Auction Tracking Tool vX.X.X on your desktop. To start the Auction Tracking Tool, you can either click the menu entry or double-click the icon.