The USA FCC has been doing some sweeping changes in the Part 5 Experimental Radio Services. They issued Report & Order FCC-13-15 on 31 January 2013. This has ramifications for broadcasters, product developers and even compliance test labs! Among the interesting changes are:
. Some sections of Parts 73 & 74, covering broadcast experiments, have been moved to a new Subpart of Part 5. All experimental rules are now solely inside Part 5. . They now have something called Program Experimental Licenses for colleges, research labs, development engineers, medical researchers and manufacturers to experiment with radio devices. . They have set up a website where licensees must register their planned experiments prior to their "experiments." . A Licensee will also have to post "reports" about their experiments. . Another new Subpart in Part 5 deals with provisions for market trials and modifies when RRF devices may be "marketed" and/or "operated" prior to equipment certification. This also applies to importing devices into the USA. . They have established a "medical testing license," to permit "health care facilities" to conduct RF-related, uhh, something, maybe treatments or maybe medical data transmission. . They have defined something called an "Innovation Zone," where a Licensee can operate in addition to the Licensee's licensed region. And what that means could start several careers. . They have created a "Compliance Testing License." I think that means the FCC will give broad latitude to "FCC recognized" testing labs to operate (and maybe develop) experimental RF devices, with the ultimate goal of demonstrating their compliance with FCC R&R. . They mention an overall caveat about these experimental operations; ".harmful interference caused by an experimental licensee to any licensed service is unacceptable..." . And if one of these licensed services experiences interference, the licensee must have set up a "contact point" which will have the ability to act as a "Stop Buzzer" to immediately cease operation in the event of a complaint. You will have to take a look for yourself as to how this affects your existing operations, and whether it opens possibilities of new engineering services for you and your company. You also might want to put in a job requisition for another lawyer or two. Here's the FCC source (I didn't look through every file in this area, so who knows what else might be deep in the texts): http://transition.fcc.gov/Document_Indexes/Engineering_Technology/2013_index _OET_RO.html http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-13-15A1_Rcd.pdf Of course, this isn't official until it has been published in the Federal Register and incorporated into the eCFR, but it looks like the Part 5 at: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?sid=64f63e21c14d853c79afa96fd333ff3e <http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?sid=64f63e21c14d853c79afa96fd333ff3e&c =ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title47/47cfrv1_02.tpl> &c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title47/47cfrv1_02.tpl was last modified on 15 March 2013, so it should be all in there. Well, as I said, this has a lot of implications. Ed Price WB6WSN Chula Vista, CA USA - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
