FCC test lab upgrades

[Gregg Lengling]

FCC Touts New RF Measuring Facility
By Leslie Stimson (Radio World July 1, 2004)

Columbia, Md.  The FCC's new RF Anechoic Measurement Chamber is open for business.
   The facility and its instrumentation cost approximately three-quarters of a million dollars.  "Anechoic" means neither having nor producing echoes.  The facility helps the technical staff conduct more-sophisticated and repeatable testing to measure RF emitted by devices regulated by the agency.
   Previously, many of these test were done outdoors, where it's difficult to compensate for RF in the environment, said Edmond Thomas, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and Dr. Rashmi Doshi, chief of the FCC's lab division.
   Chairman Michael Powell said as he unveiled the chamber, "We're not just talking about broadcast RF anymore."  He listed devices for new technologies tested at the lab, including WiFi, ultra wideband, broadband over power lines, GPS, cell phones, communications radios and wall- and ground-penetrating radars and wireless meter readers.
   The anechoic chamber uses ferrite tiles and carbon-impregnated foam to absorb higher frequencies.
   "We realized we were losing pace" with the testing capabilities needed for newer devices, the chairman said.
   The agency needed measurement tools to measure RF output of devices at increasingly lower power levels.  And it needed a better way to verify claims made by manufacturers about whether devices fall within allowable RF limits.
   Without such tools, Powell said, "We're at the mercy of companies who can make data look a certain way.  ... You better have something, otherwise you're just an agency listening to lawyers."
   The new chamber is part of the commission's "Excellence in Engineering" Program, intended to enhance its technical and engineering expertise.
   Powell said technical staff at the commission has increased about 15 per cent since the program began in 2001.  There are 327 engineers at the commission.  There has been a net gain of 69 full-time engineering positions compared to 2001, a 27 per cent increase in those positions.
   Overall expenditures for technical equipment for the OET have increased from an annual average of less than $50,000 over the last 20 years to more than $750,000 annually, the commission said.
   Including part-time staff, about 40 employees work at the lab in Columbia, said Doshi.  The annual budget for the Columbia facility is around $750,000.
   The lab housing the anechoic chamber was built in 1974, but the entire Columbia lab facility dates from the post-World War II era.  The FCC Enforcement Bureau also has a satellite interference detection station at the site.
   The FCC also shares lab facilities with the National Telecommunications Administration (NTIA), which operates a laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.