Hello,
As some of you know I work at JPS Communications in Raleigh, NC.
Recently the European Economic Community implemented a new standard for
electronic equipment. Any equipment sold in the EEC countries must pass this
test or it can be refused entrance to the country or confiscated from the
dealers.
You guys wouldn't believe the tests we had to go through just to get
the NIR 12 (a DSP audio processor) certified. There is absolutely no way
that most of the TVs, computer monitors or telephones sold in this country
would pass.
The tests involved the following:
Conducted Emissions: This tests for any radiated enegy that is conducted
back into the AC wall outlet.
Radiated Emissions: This is done at an open field test site or an anechoic
chamber and involves pointing a very wide bandwidth antenna at the unit and
sweeping just about from DC to daylight while checking a spectrum analyzer.
The unit is rotated and the antenna raised and lowered until the worst spot
is found. If this worst case spot is anywhere near the limit the test guys
mess with the cables and do their best to find a combination that will fail!
RF Immunity: The unit has an antenna pointed at it and and RF from HF to
Daylight is beamed at it in an attempt to get it to fail.
ESD Immunity: A handheld static discharge gun is zapped at 8Kv on every
chassis scew, knob, switch, input and output to try to break it.
Conducted Immunity: All input and output cables are put in a big inductive
clamp. Large voltage spikes are conducted into the unit.
All these tests must be conducted while the unit is doing whatever
it does. As I found out firsthand, the test setup used to simulate normal
operating can cause a lot more problems than the unit under test.
The bad thing about all this is that it is a one way street!
Something made in Europe that would not pass these tests can be shipped to
the U.S. I hate to even think about all the cheap electronic equipment from
the far east that will be dumped on our markets because it can't be sold in
Europe!
I wish the FCC guys would get some teeth in their enforcement. By
the way I think the EEC laws are a good thing. It sure will keep design
engineers on their toes!
73 DE KQ4QM (George)
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