[BC] Part 15 radio station

[Keith Hamilton]

[note: this is the last Part 15 post on the BC list. All followup 
will be redirected to the Alternate Frequency: 
www.radiolists.net  Thanks, Admin.]


This ground thing comes up every year or so, and seem to make the 
same circle. Just because the law is vague, and it is, doesn't mean 
that anybody's interpretation falling within that vague territory is 
gospel. It can be hard for some folks to deal with vague laws, people 
like things nailed down to a tee, and unfortunately in many 
government regulated areas, not just Part 15, there are vague laws to 
deal with. The ONLY opinion that matters in this area is the 
inspecting agent. There are 100's of thousands of Part 15.219 
transmitters out there, most of which are indoor units, sitting in 
closet or tables. Gravitating to the negative extreme of this vague 
law and requiring that they be mounted inches from dirt is 
ridiculous, especially since almost all of the units are not designed 
to be outdoors.
It seems apparent the main spirit of FCC part 15 is not to cause 
interference to a licensed station, read the Part 15 label that is 
attached to every certified device. When we went through 
certification we worked directly with the FCC certifying engineer, we 
went carefully over the manual with them, which included grounding 
and mounting recommendations. They required that some things 
important to the FCC be put into the manual, but nothing was related 
to grounding or mounting the unit. I would think that if the law 
required the unit to be mounted inches from dirt that would have been 
a critical item to be included into the installation manual. The 
Part15.219 law does not address the "what is ground" issue, it merely 
places a limit on the "ground lead" which generally from my 
understanding is the wire going to the ground. It is important to 
follow manufacturer's recommendations in grounding to avoid lighting 
related damage.

We deal with this issue on our Rangemaster website.



Keith Hamilton