Articles

Andrew Robbins
Marketing Representative
Product Safety Engineering, Inc.

Federal Communications CommissionEffective September 9th, 2002, the FCC adopted new conducted emissions requirements, which are harmonized with European standards, based on well-known CISPR limits. These new requirements became "available" for use as of September 9th, 2002 (not mandatory at this time). All products still being manufactured after July 11th, 2005, MUST demonstrate compliance with the new requirement. This rule change basically allows for a sort of transition period where the responsible party may choose to utilize either test limit.

As a test lab, it will be PSE's position to test domestic products to the new requirements. If a product fails to conform with the new requirements and would pass the old limits, the responsible party would be offered the choice of using the old requirements knowing the product would need to be re-tested after July 11th, 2005 if the product is still being manufactured.

Companies who have already tested a product to the old FCC rules should be aware that a re-test may be necessary if the product is still being manufactured after July 11th, 2005. It is also worth noting that the new FCC rules continue to require conducted emissions measurements to be made with the device powered at 110VAC/60Hz, no the European standard 220VAC/50Hz.