The 50th meeting of CENELEC Technical Committee 210 (TC210) was held on 16-17 December 2014 in Brussels, chaired by John Davies of the United Kingdom, with Jathan Rayner of the United Kingdom as secretary. It was also attended by Dorota Papiewska and Javier Arregui from the European Commission (EC) and by electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) consultant Brian Jones. The meeting’s agenda was approved (doc. TC210/sec0840A/DA). The previous meeting’s minutes will be modified, with the explanation of comments from the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) on the representativeness of positions of some amateur radio associations.
Reference/alternative testing methods were discussed again and despite different margins regarding the limit they supposedly ensure the presumption of compliance with the directive. A decision was made to raise the matter to the level of the Special International Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) to eventually ascertain the limits of the measurement methods in question (disturbed power - radiated emission).
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) will have to be revised with respect to broadcasting receivers, whose characteristics are now under the scope of the Radio Equipment Directive (RED), with EMC aspects remaining under CENELEC. EN55020 Amendment A13 will be submitted to vote, as it only concerns radiated immunity, though already encompassing digital video broadcasting by cable (DVB-C) and by satellite (DVB-S). Working group 12 (WG12) will suspend its tuner selection task, which shifts to ETSI task group 17 on Electromagnetic Compatibility and Radio Spectrum Matters (TG17/ERM); this ETSI group is working with Technical Committee 209 (TC209) on antennas and amplifiers, respectively non-professional and professional. Common modifications to EN55035 will be prepared, covering EMC aspects relevant for the LTE of EN55020 and bearing in mind ETS 300 386 and ETS 301 489.
Standard EN50561-1 on in-house communications via power line transmission (PLC) will be subject to developments regarding the introduction of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology. As there is an EC mandate to fulfil, access with PLC technology (prEN50561-2), even though not used much in smart meters, machine-to-machine (M2M) and photovoltaic cell, etc, will continue to be developed in working group 11 (WG11). This technology is less competitive compared to radio when there is a need to apply filter, because the latter’s cost is on the same scale as PLC itself. Standard prEN50561-3 (PLC up to 87.5 MHz) had many comments during the inquiry phase, which are now under analysis, and it will soon be put to vote.
The EC holds that the 80/80 rule is regulatory, while CISPR holds the contrary and will do nothing to remove it because it grounds formulation of the CISPR limits. In the absence of this CISPR statistical approach, the requirement for all products to comply will lead to them all being tested individually - the only way to ensure conformity, which is obviously not practical. A group was set up to deal with this matter and present it at the next meeting of the working party on Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMCWP). The departure point will be the document TC210/Sec0843/INF, which grounds the position defended here and will be the basis for CENELEC’s argument with respect to the EC’s position in the document TC210/Sec0827/INF.
Plans call for the new list of harmonised electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards to be published early next year in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).
The next meeting will be held this coming 19-20 May in Dublin, with the next one on the following 8-9 December in Brussels.
