A New & Improved Standard for Unlicensed Transmitters? - C63.10-2013 Review

Dan Crowder, TCB Supervisor

Today's Elite Expert is Dan Crowder, our Certification Department Supervisor and FCC/CE Mark Team Leader.  As a senior EMC Engineer actively involved in transmitter standards development--including ANSI C63.10 and ANSI C63.26, the TCB Council, and the IEEE EMC Society, Dan's seen his fair share of transmitter issues and solutions. Read below to see what he has for us this week.

C63.10-2013 was released back in September and has received quite a bit of praise – but it has some caused some controversy as well.

The purpose of C63.10 was to put all the test methods for unlicensed transmitters into one document. The first version of the standard was released in 2009 and included what was considered to be “non-confrontational” test methods. The standard was adopted by the FCC and Industry Canada for the testing of unlicensed transmitters. Four years later, version two has been released and includes the so called “confrontational” test methods.

The standard covers every type of transmitters that fall into the unlicensed category. The test methods have been gathered from a multitude of resources including the FCC, Industry Canada, manufactures, test laboratories and certification bodies from around the world.  Very detailed instructions have been provided for some very complicated transmitters including digital transmission systems that include transmitter power control and dynamic frequency selection. These procedures were only published in various FCC knowledge database documents that were sometimes tedious to dig up.

Another useful tool is a reference table included in Annex A. The table steps through the FCC Part 15 rules one by one and cross-references sub-clauses in the standard to point out specific tests that pertain to the specific rule part.

This standard along with C63.4 can be used as test methods for almost every unlicensed transmitter.

As a test laboratory, you should lookout for procedures that have not been adopted by the regulating bodies. One that stands out in my eyes is the formula for distance correction factor for frequencies below 30MHz.

Overall, C63.10-2013 is a huge improvement over any previous document or documents for test procedures for unlicensed transmitters.

Do you have any questions about transmitter standards, certification, or other related topics? Please share your comments or questions below and our expert, Dan Crowder, will get back to you.