FCC Rule Change Focus on Vehicle and Airport Safety

English: Collision Warning with Brake Support (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

July 3, 2012, the FCC has amended Part 15 rules to enable enhanced vehicular radar technologies in the 76-77 GHz band, and to allow fixed radar applications at airports with an aim to improve safety for personnel and equipment.

The amendment includes a relaxation of limits for vehicular radar technologies, and is justified within the Report and Order, citing that maximum permissible limits for human exposure to RF electromagnetic fields had not been established at the time the rules were originally adopted (1995), and the original limits, intended to protect pedestrians in the proximity of stopped vehicles, are far more restrictive than the currently adopted RF exposure levels.

The modifications are applicable specifically to sections 15.35 and 15.253 of title 47 Part 15.

The amendment to section 15.35 eliminates the requirement that vehicular radars decrease power when the vehicle is not in motion. Furthermore this modification specifies a new relaxed emission limit for 76-77 GHz front, side, and rear illuminating vehicular radars. The FCC takes these actions in response to petitions filed by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and Era Systems Corporation (Era).

The modification of section 15.253 will allow fixed radar systems operating in the 76-77 GHz band to be installed at airport locations. These systems are used for foreign object debris (FOD) detection on runways as well as the ability to monitor aircraft and service vehicle traffic on the taxiways and other non-public ground locations.

The FCC justifies these modifications within the Report and Order claiming they “will provide more efficient use of the spectrum, and enable the automotive and aviation industries to develop enhanced safety measures for drivers and the general public”.

The 76-77 GHz band is considered Extremely High Frequency (EHF), and is within the “W band”, 75 GHz to 119 GHz. The EHF spectrum is what is commonly referred to as the millimeter wave spectrum, which is considered to begin at 30 GHz and end at 300 GHz.

The 76-77 GHz band is primarily allocated to the Radio Astronomy Service (RAS) and the Radiolocation service. Amateur and Space research (space-to-Earth) services utilize this band on a secondary basis.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Radio Frequencies (CORF) has raised concerns about increased interference potential to radio astronomy operations if the rules are adopted. NRAO argues that vehicular radars may interfere with radio astronomy receivers over distances up to approximately 60 miles. NRAO states that “destruction of radio astronomy receivers is a serious possibility” due to the high powered vehicular radars. The Automotive industry disagrees with the claims citing that they are speculative. The FCC notes that vehicular radar has been permitted in the 76-77 GHz band since 1995, and that an increase in potential interference as a result of the rule change is negligible.

Ref:

FCC Report and Order

NPRM ET Docket No. 11-90

Era Systems Corp. 2.803, 15.201, 15.253 waiver request and FCC response

How Important is enhanced Amateur Radio Communications?

An example of an Amateur Radio Station (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a public notice released Monday, The FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau seek comments on the importance of the enhanced Amateur Radio Communications service, also inquiring as to any impediments of the service , with an example being "the effects of unreasonable or unnecessary private land use restrictions on residential antenna installations"

This inquiry is a product of the mandated study on utilization of Amateur Radio in emergencies and Federal regulation of private land use restrictions on amateur antennas, included in the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012” signed into law February 22, 2012.

The study asks two distinct questions, “Importance of emergency Amateur Radio Service communications” and “Impediments to enhanced Amateur Radio Service communications.”

The report cites several recent examples from the American Radio Relay League on the importance of amateur radio operators during disaster, such as  when amateur radio operators provided storm observations and damage reports to the National Weather Service when winds and tornadoes moved through Arkansas and Alabama in January 2012, and provided communications to villages along the Bering Sea when a November 2011 severe winter storm knocked out power lines and communications.

The commenting period is only 45 days, ending on May 17th, 2012. commenting is open to interested parties via the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS). The report urges commenting parties to organize their comments using specific guidelines provided within the public notice.

 

 

Ref;

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0402/DA-12-523A1.pdf

http://www.arrl.org/news/payroll-tax-bill-includes-provision-for-amateur-radio-study

http://www.arrl.org/news/hams-in-arkansas-and-alabama-help-provide-assistance-to-nws-during-severe-sunday-storms

http://www.arrl.org/news/when-brutal-storm-slams-alaska-hams-provide-critical-communications

2011 market surveillance report EU –are tablet PCs a target for 2012?

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Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) of Germany, for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway has the responsibility to carry out the market surveillance under the EMC and R&TTE Directives.

The agency published a summary of the 2011 market surveillance campaign on its web site. The campaign’s primary focus in 2011 was with the EMC directive and in particular, LED lighting equipment. The report also combines results from the 2010 and 2011 campaigns to give a summary overall and to achieve a low error probability due to the larger sample size.

For some background on emissions concerning LED product, see July 2011 post “Radio interference from LED lighting”.

The surveillance looked at administrative conformity, such as marking, documentation and declarations, as well as the technical aspects of the directive namely compliance with the emissions and immunity requirements. A total of 168 products were sampled in 2011.

On the administrative side, the surveillance found that 76.8% of the samples were compliant with the CE marking requirements, while only 39.9% were compliant with the Declaration of Conformity (DoC) requirements.

For the technical assessment, 61.5% of product complied with the radio emissions requirement, and 91.3% were found immune to specific interference phenomenon, out of 46 products tested overall.

In total, only 17.3% of LED lighting equipment was found to be fully compliant.

For the “reactive market surveillance”, the overall rate of non-compliance for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) was 38.9%. For radio and telephone terminal equipment (R&TTE) a majority, 65.5%, was found non-compliant according to the report, but most concerning was that 75.6% of the R&TTE products checked were non-compliant with the safety and health measurement requirements.

The 2011 surveillance resulted in 90 EMC sales bans, 177 R&TTE sales bans, 353 “memoranda of understanding” between the two directives, and total revenues of €1,046,000

The report details some objectives for 2012 indicating supporting the revision of the EMC and R&TTE directives and transposition into national law, including harmonizing product assessment for market surveillance, and increasing cooperation with European market surveillance and customs authorities as well as adapting the national database for market surveillance results, to the European ICSMS database.

Two product group targets were mentioned for 2012, one a coordinated German/Dutch campaign targeting tablet PCs focused on the R&TTE directive, and another targeting “Ready-made connecting devices”, or laptop power supplies.

 

ref;

Market surveillance statistics 2011

New EMC Directive

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I thought I would include this in my Q&A series.  I have been receiving these questions often,

“Do you expect that a new EMC directive will be coming ?”

and

“What impact may it have on my current test plan or program ?” 

The answer  to part one is yes, and it could be very soon. As part of  the “Goods package”, the current EMC directive, 204/108/EC, is being amended in what is called an alignment with the New Legislative Framework of the European Union (or NLF). The EMC directive is part of what is called an “Alignment Package”. Eight other directives will also be processed in this alignment.

On the second question, the first thing to note is that the new approach directives are not technical in nature, but rather legal documents. Think of them as the “Law” of the land on the topics they cover. How you comply with the laws are another matter. The technical aspects are primarily addressed by Harmonised Standards or “EN” specifications. So, the EMC technical requirements, i.e. your testing, should not be impacted by this amendment to the EMC directive. While it is expected that the scope of the EMC directive will remain essentially the same, anytime that a directive comes up for amendment, interested parties look at it as an opportunity to address issues they may want included, see for example my post on cables being proposed: http://www.emcrules.com/2011/12/ready-made-connecting-devices-cables.html

The areas that would see significant change are;

• your documents (Declaration of Conformity) will change.
• A new directive number may require documents be modified, such as test reports, however there should be a reasonable transition period.
• Traceability requirements and product labeling, with specific identifying information on each product.
• Economic operators must keep records of supplier and distributor (already required for consumer goods)
• New supply chain duties, harmonized across the EU.
• Enforcement authority will be able to target more directly those infringing due to supply chain reporting requirements.
• Expectation is that Post market surveillance activities could increase substantially (this is one of the main points of the “Goods Package”)

If not already, please subscribe to updates of the EMCrules blog. The blog is helpful in providing timely information on rule changes, and other topical news, that may affect our broad clientele. Comments are welcome.

 

ref;

EMC directive at EUR-Lex -  32004L0108

/* COM/2011/0763 final */  (Alignment of ten technical harmonisation directives to Decision No 768/2008/EC)

Marketing of products - CE conformity marking

New Legislative Framework (NLF) Alignment Package

Proposals to Align Nine Directives with the New Legislative Framework – Published by BIS Department for Business Innovation & Skills

Single market for goods New Legislative Framework

Industry Canada publishes new / updated Radio standards

On January 28th Industry Canada published the following radio standards; (Link to IC web site)

• Radio Standards Specification RSS-111, Issue 4: Broadband Public Safety Equipment Operating in the Band 4940-4990 MHz, which sets out the requirements for certification of radio transmitters and receivers in the band 4940-4990 MHz for public safety applications;

• Radio Standards Specification RSS-182, Issue 5: Maritime Radio Transmitters and Receivers in the Band 156-162.5 MHz, which sets out the requirements for certification of radio transmitters and receivers in the maritime service in the band 156-162.5 MHz; and

• Radio Standards Specification RSS-288, Issue 1: Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), which sets out the requirements for certification of the shipborne radiocommunication equipment that meets the requirements of the GMDSS.

 

In addition Industry Canada announced changes to RSS-Gen and RSS-310 , effective immediately , via notice NOTICE 2012-DRS0126. These changes modify section 2.2 of RSS-Gen covering Receivers, and noted that section 3.1 from RSS-310 is no longer required.

RSS-Gen section ‘ 2.2 Receivers ’ clarifies that ;

“Only radiocommunication receivers operating in stand-alone mode within the band 30 MHz to 960 MHz and scanner receivers are subject to Industry Canada requirements”

and

“All other receivers are excluded from any Industry Canada certification, testing, labeling and reporting requirements.”