David Case, NCE
RAC Chairman
It seems that wireless issues are the hot topic. Wherever you look, everyone is using wireless or so it seems. I saw this first hand during a recent visit to my old alma mater, Purdue, where I had a chance to talk to the students there on several issues involving wireless and compliance issues. The interest in wireless is starting to boom! I also noted the greatly increased attendance at a recent wireless symposium I attended that was sponsored by a couple of the trade magazines.
While most of the students I talked to were learning the basics of wireless and appeared interested in the compliance issues, most of the symposium attendees I spoke with were not overly concerned about any of the regulatory issues. Most were not overly concerned unless a serious problem showed up. However, when I raised issues like proposed FCC, Canadian and European rule changes, the ever increasing problems with installing towers due to local zoning ordinances and of course the growing concern of RF safety, they suddenly grew interested.
Since I suspect very few of these people ever attend the IEEE International Symposium on EMC, how can we get the required information to these people, the system installers and the system integrators who put the wireless systems together and who are responsible for making the systems comply? Short of kidnapping them and dragging them to the EMC symposium, we must find a way to provide the needed information to those working in wireless.
As chairman of the Representative Advisory Committee (RAC), I have initiated steps to make inroads into these uncharted waters. At this year’s IEEE International Symposium on EMC in Seattle, RAC will be hosting a special session on EMC and Wireless Compliance issues on Tuesday morning, August 3. I have talked to the organizers of the previously mentioned wireless symposium and have offered to present something similar at this symposium.
The RAC chairman also plans to start making contact with several of their committees to better coordinate information between the EMC Society and various interested wireless groups. RAC is also busy in expanding its membership of other technical societies and is actively pursuing new members. Dave Millard has been appointed the RAC Representative to the Energy Committee.
The various groups that make up the membership of RAC have also been busy. Following are some interesting reports from a few of these groups.
COMAR has a web page where you can check membership of the committee and status of their activities. See:
https://homepage.seas.upenn.edu/~kfoster/members.htm (members)
https://homepage.seas.upenn.edu/~kfoster/comar.htm (homepage)
The last COMAR Meeting was held November 14, 1998 at the Holiday Inn Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. Items reviewed included the history of IEEE’s development of a review procedure for approval of Technical Information State- ments (TIS) by IEEE (above COMAR). A draft procedure was circulated at the June meeting. The IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) took up the final version recently, and we hope that it will be approved. The policy is appended to the meeting minutes and simply requires us to submit our TISs to the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) Administrative Committee for review and approval. The process is intended mainly to protect IEEE from liabilities. The last two TISs, one of these being the Heat Sealer TIS, have been submitted and approved using this procedure. The Heat Sealer TIS has been edited by G. Lapin and is presently in press, expecting to come out in spring in the EMBS magazine. COMAR published a Technical Information Statement in the January/February issue of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology magazine. The TIS addressed: “Human Exposure to Electric and Magnetic Fields from RF Sealers and Dielectric Heaters.” Howard Bassen of the FDA discussed hazardous RFI. Anti-theft and metal detector devices, which are ubiquitous in airports and stores, emit magnetic fields around 1.6G peak, with different modulations and frequencies. Concern is with interaction with pacemakers and other active implanted medical devices.
The ECAB held its last meeting in Brussels on March 4th. The group drafted five Technical Guidance Notes for review by the main committee on:
There were also discussions on Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) and it seems likely this will have to wait for the meetings in Washington at the end of April to progress the appointment of Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB).
The meeting concluded with a farewell to Elena Santiago who has completed her assignment to the Commission and is returning to Spain. Her replacement is Alejandro Ulzurrun. The next meeting is in Spain on October 1.
The last meeting was held on January 27, 1999. The major objective of the meeting was to plan the Workshop to be held as required by the US-EU MRA. The date of the EU Workshop is April 27, 1999.
Texas Governor George W. Bush presents the NARTE National Service
Award to Ray Thrower.
(Left to right) Mrs. Frankie Thrower, NARTE President Ray D. Thrower, Governor George W.
Bush,
Mrs. Brenda Berger, and NARTE Director Steve Berger. Mr. Berger is an active member of the
EMC Society.
A meeting was also held with representatives from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Chinese Taipei. As a result of the recent APEC MRA activity, there will be an exchange of letters between the US and Taipei which will bring the terms of the MRA into force. NIST will act as the government body which will designate US based laboratories for testing to Chinese Taipei EMC and Telecom requirements.
As a result of the FCC Docket No. 98-68, which was approved on December 17, 1998, the FCC is in the process of creating Telecommunications Certification Bodies (TCB). Don Heirman and Bill Hurst are Co-Chairmen of a TCB Working Group to provide input to the FCC. The schedule calls for TCBs to be in operation by January 2000. The FCC plans to release a Public Notice listing the criteria for TCB designation by June 1999. The working group is meeting on a regular basis to help prepare these criteria.
NARTE will be participating in the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on EMC once again offering the EMC Engineer and Technician Test as well as offering the pre-exam workshop.
John Holmberg will be stepping down as Executive Director on June 30. Russ Carstensen will be replacing him as Executive Director. Susan Stillwell will serve as operations director for the organization.
NARTE is adding endorsements to the EMC certification program for those working in accredited EMC test labs. Current certified engineers and technicians can get endorsements for compliance testing to FCC Part 15, FCC Part 68, ANSI C63.4, Mil-Stds, or CISPR, based upon the NVLAP, A2LA or equivalent accreditation of the test lab.
For those engineers and technicians at the test labs who do not hold NARTE certification, or lack the number of years to qualify, they are eligible to be certified as NARTE Lab Engineers or Technicians. NARTE will have a one-year grandfather period for this starting on July 1, 1999 and ending June 30, 2000. Contact NARTE via the web at www.narte.org.
NARTE is also working on a certification for wireless system installers and hopes to offer that later this year.
The last meeting was held in Washington DC on February 9, 1999. Currently USCEL has 50 members in the organization. The topics at this meeting ranged from the MRAs to lab accreditations. The proposed round robin testing is going forward and will include up to 20 labs in the first go around. Both NVLAP and A2LA will receive anonymous copies of the data. Technical Guide Notes 18 and 19 were adopted by USCEL and are available to non-members for a cost of $10 each. The next USCEL meeting will be in Seattle at the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on EMC on August 2 at 7:00 pm.