Radio and Communications Equipment

Radio and telecommunications terminal equipment which contain an intentional transmitter are an increasingly important part of home and work life.

Whether the radio component has been designed in-house or incorporates a pre-tested embedded wireless technology, some element of radio compliance testing may still be required in order to CE mark or apply other global marks to the product.

Radio Equipment Compliance

To place a radio product on the market, or put a radio product into service within the EU, manufacturers are required to CE Mark the product. To do so they must demonstrate compliance with the Radio Equipment Directive (RED) 2014/53/EU.

The RED superseded the Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (RTTE) Directive on the 13^th June 2017, with the effect that

• Radio equipment now needs to demonstrate compliance with the RED
• Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (TTE) has moved from the RTTE to the EMC Directive 2014/30/EU and Low Voltage Directive (LVD) 2014/35/EU

Testing

We have three UKAS accredited testing laboratories No. 1574, offering pre-compliance and compliance testing for a variety of radio and telecommunications devices for CE marking and other global compliance certifications.

A radio product typically gets assessed for technical requirements such as transmitter output power, frequency range, frequency stability, undesirable radiated and/or conducted emissions, adjacent channel power and power density. For CE marking radio products, this is in addition to the EMC and electrical safety requirements which are also mandated by the Radio Equipment Directive (RED).

Assessments to the relevant European harmonised standards will provide you with the presumption of conformity and allow you to confidently issue a Declaration of Conformity (DoC).

Please refer to our UKAS schedule for full details of specific standards we are accredited to and contact us for a full list of standards we can test to.

Radio

A key element of the Radio Equipment Directive is to ensure optimal use of the available radio spectrum. This is assessed by a series of radio performance tests in accordance with the harmonised ETSI standards.

At Eurofins York (formerly York EMC Services), we have a rapidly expanding portfolio of tests designed to address the needs of a wide range of manufacturers who are either using pre-existing radio modules or embedding discrete wireless circuits that they have designed themselves into their products.

EMC and Electrical Safety

The Radio Equipment Directive excludes Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (TTE) from its scope and it is now subject to the requirements of the EMC and Low Voltage (LV) Directives for CE marking. A product with a wireless interface is still subject to EMC and electrical safety requirements, but these are directly under the RED rather than the individual EMC and Low Voltage Directives.

Our test laboratories are able to test a wide range of TTE products for CE marking and other global compliance certifications such as FCC, as well as those containing a wireless interface, specifically Short Range Devices.

Advice and Guidance

We can advise manufacturers on managing their regulatory risk to ensure that they get their product to market quickly and efficiently, whilst protecting their brand reputation. In particular, we can provide guidance on

• Procurement strategies
• Families of similar products
• Use of pre-tested radio modules
• Risk assessments
• Technical documentation preparation
• Design
• UK Approved Body/NI Notified Body assessment of EMC Technical Documentation
• On-going compliance

Training

We offer scheduled training at various levels, from one-day Essentials courses through to five-day fundamentals helping manufacturers and their supply chains to achieve on-going compliance to a number of CE Marking Directives including the EMC, Low Voltage and Radio Equipment Directives.

We also offer Bespoke or in-house training courses including communications in the railway environment, mobile radio propagation, spectrum management issues, VSAT systems and RF and microwave circuit design. Please enquire at our York office for more information.