Treggers, Sorry so late on this, but was out of the office a couple of days. I was very surprised no one mentioned FCC site certification. When a lab site is certified the tol. is +-3db. With this in mind, it is inconceivable to accept a margin less than 6db if one expects to be able to duplicate compliance anywhere. This has always been my minimum. Granted, as others have mentioned, we do our best to isolate our UUT from the rest of the test setup as much as possible, replacing peripheral equipment with a noisy disposition with less offensive units.
It is also very beneficial to retest a unit once it is in production. These units have very little in common with the prototype original. Do not do this if your not willing to shake things up...it will just erode your spirit and integrity knowing management doesn't really care about the rules. Honestly, a few db either way isn't going bring the sniffer truck out and having test data will keep the fines small should there ever is any interference problems. It just gets back to the age old question of doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Honesty is always hardest when no one is watching. My $.02 Dave Spencer
