The Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is requesting public comments on its plans to adopt updated versions of two key standards used to assess compliance with the FCC’s equipment authorization requirements.
According to a Public Notice issued by the OET on April 2nd, the OET is proposing to formally adopt as part of its equipment authorization rules ANSI C63.4a-2017, “American National Standard for Methods of Measurement of Radio-Noise Emissions from Low-Voltage Electrical and Electronic Equipment in the Range of 9 kHz to 40 GHz, Amendment 1: Test Site Validation.” The amendment, adopted by ANSI in late 2017, incorporates changes that “resolve certain normalized site attenuation issues” in the standard, as well as corrects, clarifies and modifies other parts.
The OET is also proposing to adopt as part of its rules the 2017 edition of ISO/IEC 17025, “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.” Also published in late 2017, the latest edition of ISO/IEC 17025 adds new definitions and replaces certain prescriptive requirements with performance-based alternatives, thereby providing greater flexibility in meeting the standards requirements.
Both the 2005 and 2017 editions of ISO/IUEC 17025 have been authorized by ISO for use during a three-year transition period that ends on November 30, 2020. Accordingly, the OET is recommending the same three-year transition period, allowing testing laboratories to demonstrate compliance with either edition of the standard.
The deadline for filing comments on the OET’s proposed modification of the FCC’s equipment authorization rules is 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register. Comments can be filed on-line at the Commission’s electronic filing system at www.fcc.gov/ecfs (reference Docket No 19-48).
The text of the OET’s Public Notice is available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-19-152A1.pdf.
