Good to know - FCC regulations

[armdnrdy]

Mark brought up a good point.

If this is all about interference of some sort, then shouldn't there be a FCC zone ordinance/warning label regarding the distance that a particular device can be operated around ? whatever it might interfere with?

Instead of something that would make sense like a label....manufacturers have to dish out part of their profit to show that a device complies with the FCCs guidelines.

If a charge pump laden stompbox can interfere with the workings of sensitive medical devices...I think we're safe.
I am 51 years old and I can honestly say that I have never witnessed anyone playing an electric guitar through a pedal board in the emergency room of a hospital!

[armdnrdy]

I am an attorney. I can post the FCC regs the violated on here. I like how they are citing them with violation of law passed in 1932.

They are actually citing them with the amendments that have been passed in more recent times.

Section 302(b) of the Communications Act
of 1934, as amended (Act),1 and Sections 2.803, 2.1203, 2.1204, 2.1205, 15.19, and 15.105 of the
Commission's rules (Rules)2 pertaining to the marketing of digital radio frequency devices, such as bass
amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, bass pedals, digital delay and loop carriers, and vocal processors.


I don't believe that 1932 was a very "digital" year.  

[attyguitarplayer]

(a) Regulations The Commission may, consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity, make reasonable regulations.
(1) governing the interference potential of devices which in their operation are capable of emitting radio frequency energy by radiation, conduction, or other means in sufficient degree to cause harmful interference to radio communications; and
(2) establishing minimum performance standards for home electronic equipment and systems to reduce their susceptibility to interference from radio frequency energy. Such regulations shall be applicable to the manufacture, import, sale, offer for sale, or shipment of such devices and home electronic equipment and systems, and to the use of such devices.
(b) Restrictions No person shall manufacture, import, sell, offer for sale, or ship devices or home electronic equipment and systems, or use devices, which fail to comply with regulations promulgated pursuant to this section.
(c) Exceptions The provisions of this section shall not be applicable to carriers transporting such devices or home electronic equipment and systems without trading in them, to devices or home electronic equipment and systems manufactured solely for export, to the manufacture, assembly, or installation of devices or home electronic equipment and systems for its own use by a public utility engaged in providing electric service, or to devices or home electronic equipment and systems for use by the Government of the United States or any agency thereof. Devices and home electronic equipment and systems for use by the Government of the United States or any agency thereof shall be developed, procured, or otherwise acquired, including offshore procurement, under United States Government criteria, standards, or specifications designed to achieve the objectives of reducing interference to radio reception and to home electronic equipment and systems, taking into account the unique needs of national defense and security.
(d) Cellular telecommunication receivers
(1) Within 180 days after October 28, 1992, the Commission shall prescribe and make effective regulations denying equipment authorization (under part 15 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any other part of that title) for any scanning receiver that is capable of--(A) receiving transmissions in the frequencies allocated to the domestic cellular radio telecommunications service,(B) readily being altered by the user to receive transmissions in such frequencies, or(C) being equipped with decoders that convert digital cellular transmissions to analog voice audio.
(2) Beginning 1 year after the effective date of the regulations adopted pursuant to paragraph (1), no receiver having the capabilities described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph
(1), as such capabilities are defined in such regulations, shall be manufactured in the United States or imported for use in the United States.(e) Delegation of equipment testing and certification to private laboratoriesThe Commission may--(1) authorize the use of private organizations for testing and certifying the compliance of devices or home electronic equipment and systems with regulations promulgated under this section;(2) accept as prima facie evidence of such compliance the certification by any such organization; and(3) establish such qualifications and standards as it deems appropriate for such private organizations, testing, and certification.
(f) State and local enforcement of FCC regulations on use of citizens band radio equipment
(1) Except as provided in paragraph
(2), a State or local government may enact a statute or ordinance that prohibits a violation of the following regulations of the Commission under this section:
(A) A regulation that prohibits a use of citizens band radio equipment not authorized by the Commission.(B) A regulation that prohibits the unauthorized operation of citizens band radio equipment on a frequency between 24 MHz and 35 MHz.(2) A station that is licensed by the Commission pursuant to section 301 of this title in any radio service for the operation at issue shall not be subject to action by a State or local government under this subsection. A State or local government statute or ordinance enacted for purposes of this subsection shall identify the exemption available under this paragraph.(3) The Commission shall, to the extent practicable, provide technical guidance to State and local governments regarding the detection and determination of violations of the regulations specified in paragraph (1).(4)(A) In addition to any other remedy authorized by law, a person affected by the decision of a State or local government agency enforcing a statute or ordinance under paragraph (1) may submit to the Commission an appeal of the decision on the grounds that the State or local government, as the case may be, enacted a statute or ordinance outside the authority provided in this subsection.
(B) A person shall submit an appeal on a decision of a State or local government agency to the Commission under this paragraph, if at all, not later than 30 days after the date on which the decision by the State or local government agency becomes final, but prior to seeking judicial review of such decision.
(C) The Commission shall make a determination on an appeal submitted under subparagraph (B) not later than 180 days after its submittal.(D) If the Commission determines under subparagraph (C) that a State or local government agency has acted outside its authority in enforcing a statute or ordinance, the Commission shall preempt the decision enforcing the statute or ordinance.
(5) The enforcement of statute or ordinance that prohibits a violation of a regulation by a State or local government under paragraph (1) in a particular case shall not preclude the Commission from enforcing the regulation in that case concurrently.(6) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to diminish or otherwise affect the jurisdiction of the Commission under this section over devices capable of interfering with radio communications.(7) The enforcement of a statute or ordinance by a State or local government under paragraph (1) with regard to citizens band radio equipment on board a "commercial motor vehicle", as defined in section 31101 of Title 49, shall require probable cause to find that the commercial motor vehicle or the individual operating the vehicle is in violation of the regulations described in paragraph (1).

47 U.S.C.A. § 302a (West)

[attyguitarplayer]

I am an attorney. I can post the FCC regs the violated on here. I like how they are citing them with violation of law passed in 1932.

They are actually citing them with the amendments that have been passed in more recent times.

Section 302(b) of the Communications Act
of 1934, as amended (Act),1 and Sections 2.803, 2.1203, 2.1204, 2.1205, 15.19, and 15.105 of the
Commission's rules (Rules)2 pertaining to the marketing of digital radio frequency devices, such as bass
amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, bass pedals, digital delay and loop carriers, and vocal processors.


I don't believe that 1932 was a very "digital" year.  

Of course it not a very digital year. Here are the laws passed to amend that law.

(June 19, 1934, c. 652, Title III, § 302, as added Pub.L. 90-379, July 5, 1968, 82 Stat. 290; amended Pub. L. 97-259, Title I, § 108(a), Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1091; Pub.L. 102-556, Title IV, § 403(a), Oct. 28, 1992, 106 Stat. 4195; Pub.L. 104-104, Title IV, § 403(f), Feb. 8, 1996, 110 Stat. 131; Pub.L. 106-521, § 1, Nov. 22, 2000, 114 Stat. 2438.)

47 U.S.C.A. § 302a (West).

[Lurco]

History repeating? http://www.mi-pro.co.uk/news/read/behringer-s-music-group-files-us-suit-against-peavey-2 Beh-revenge?

[Blitz Krieg]

I'm just curious about why 9khz.  Why there and not, say, 8khz, or 20khz?  Anyone have any technical insight as to the origins of that boundary/threshold?  Is there any sort of more recent technology operatng in that zone whose functioning might possibly be interfered with?  For example, any health devices, pumps, electrical stimulators, etc. whose functioning can be interfered with?

What device did they decide they don't care about?

[Lurco]

AM-radio channel bandwidth spacing: 9kHz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting

[craigmillard]

Is there anything like this for the UK or EU market?
Id imagine there is but whenever i try and find any regs on manufacturing pedals nothing comes up as its all low voltage..

There must be somehting for smps's as well!

[Ice-9]

In the Uk we have quite a high unemployment issue which I'm sure the rest of the world does as well, the UK government encourages people to go self employed (mostly just to fiddle there figures). So you decide to do something like build pedals for a living and we all know that's not going to pay your bills properly, you maybe sell 4-5 pedals a week if your lucky.

So

First of all in Europe we have RoHs to comply with if you want to sell anything. which IS rules gone mad.
Then the FCC thing, if you try and sell in the USA,  I imagine to have a pedal tested for FCC certification would cost more than a 'One man pedal building small business' would turn over a year.

What annoys me is that people try to better themselves by trying to work a small business in something they enjoy doing, but too many stupid hurdles are thrown up in front of you. The normal man/woman just gets kicked down all the time.

I am all for rules on quality and safety but the trouble is that someone comes up with a good idea like RoHs and then some other do-gooder arrives and totally bastardizes the idea behind it and makes the whole thing unworkable for the little business man.

[GibsonGM]

The rules for actual safety were established long ago. This has nothing to do with anything more than slamming the door on others who may be on their way up, and/or getting control of a pie that is worth BIG money.   You are a power player, or you are not.  If not, you are going to be stepped on.   You don't always know WHY something happens, but there IS a money trail, if one could find it.

Wondering about 'oh, why are they doing this?' won't get you anywhere.  Nor will appeals, etc.  Nobody is 'misguided', they know exactly what is going on.  This is how the world always was...we DID have a limited gov. in the US, but in the last decades have been convinced we need more "oversight" of our lives and hence, voted our personal power over to the 'greater good'. This is the DIRECT result of the massive empowerment of bureaucracies that we asked for - no, that we demanded.   
So, I hope we all enjoy it!

Net Neutrality is SURE to even the playing field and give us ALL equal access to the internet, remember!     Maybe one day we'll think before we blindly accept the pretty words of a paid professional liar politician.    The same thing is happening in literally dozens of areas of our lives, but not too many are actively aware of it.

Sorry, rant mode off now!  These things are close to me given that where I live, they're blowing the tops off of mountains and destroying watersheds and endangered birds in order to be green (and make bazillions of dollars)   

[R.G.]

The initial reasoning behind the safety standards and FCC electromagnetic compatibility standards is solid - don't make and sell stuff that either harms people directly (safety) or messes with stuff they have (radios, etc.). The RFI standards are quoted with distance measurements in the case of radiated noise, in that there are graphs of maximum permitted radio emission intensity specified for the all frequencies from low RF up to high GHz, with antennae at specified distances.

The intent is GOOD - don't have somebody's (for instance) chorus pedal making your (for instance) cell phone go insane is a reasonable scenario. Or don't let someone's digital delay in the apartment above you keep every TV in the building from receiving.

Consistent, equal treatment of everyone under the law is good. If the laws are bad, the idea is that people will vote for representatives that will repeal them. Well, in theory anyway. If people voted.

Selective enforcement is the work of the devil; well, OK, the work of an incipient police state. What scares me is a situation where you get news reports like this:

EPA under fire for allegedly obstructing investigations

Internal memos reveal EPA secretly worked to kill Alaska mine project

The Environmental Protection Agency may have intentionally delayed issuing a regulation limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants so the rule would not be finalized until after the midterm elections

The "John Doe" investigation into conservatives [in Wisconsin] is dead. At least for now... Judge Rudolph Randa on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction to stop the politically charged probe

Those are from *today*. They don't even touch the IRS targeting program and the ongoing train wreck on Benghazi.
We have a situation where the USA government can decide how to selectively apply laws and regulations for whatever personal or political agenda they like and mostly get away with it. This is just the stuff that has become public. We don't know what else is hiding under there, but it's very unlikely that this is all the ugly things hiding under the rock.

Although any specific incident of selective or politically motivated enforcement is bad, the worse thing is that people are not stupid; they see that laws are not being applied fairly and the general respect for law is eroded. That is a disaster for a society. Laws and regulations ought to be universally and uniformly applied. Anything else just reduces the society to seeing how much they can get away with. And reduces bureaucrats to tinhorn dictators carving out their fiefdom.

[Mark Hammer]

Mark brought up a good point.

If this is all about interference of some sort, then shouldn't there be a FCC zone ordinance/warning label regarding the distance that a particular device can be operated around ? whatever it might interfere with?

Instead of something that would make sense like a label....manufacturers have to dish out part of their profit to show that a device complies with the FCCs guidelines.

If a charge pump laden stompbox can interfere with the workings of sensitive medical devices...I think we're safe.
I am 51 years old and I can honestly say that I have never witnessed anyone playing an electric guitar through a pedal board in the emergency room of a hospital!

You reminded me of the scene in This Is Spinal Tap, where they're playing a gig on an air force base, and the control-tower communications starts coming through Nigel Tufnel's wireless receiver and out of his Marshall stack.

[italianguy63]

R.G.  

Our government although well intentioned (I do believe that), has just gotten too big, and over-regulated to the point of trying to save us from ourselves.  Yeah, there are bad people doing bad things-- but that is true EVERYWHERE, it is not limited to the goverment of the USA.  I don't think it is an intentional sinister agency.

We have to go back towards smaller government, and UN-regulation.  But, in a world of entitlements, and government to be everything-for-everybody... we have created a society of sue-happy victims and a regulating body trying to manage it.

Our individual freedoms are daily being eroded, and I don't believe that what our Founding Fathers envisioned.  No longer are we "the home of the free."

I hope we can pull it back from going over the edge... I feel bad for my kids.  I think it may be too late.

MC

[modsquad]

Mark, I hope you meant unregulation and not UN regulation.  That sure wouldn't fix things...

[italianguy63]

LOL - The "UN" 

I like money!

MC

[GibsonGM]

+1,000   

Guess we got a little bit "OT", huh?  Ha ha!

[Mark Hammer]

Listen, folks, Joe Gagan justifiably took me to task some time back for being inappropriately political.  So, I will suggest here that we all heed Joe's advice, and ixnay on the omment-cay.

My original point in raising the topic was not to instigate folks into railing about "big government" or whatever, but to broach the topic of how FCC regulations regarding digital technology had kinda sorta snuck up on us while we were thinking of ourselves as separate from all of that.  I imagine a lot of folks don't even bother with UL certification.  FCC clearance is yet one more wrinkle that people making the transition from dorm room hobby to business tend not to think about.  And if MIke Matthews neglected it, it can happen to any of us.

So, keep abreast of what your legal responsibilities are, and know your regulations.  End of story.

[italianguy63]

Sorry,  I'm old and crotchity.  I get biatchy sometimes.  I apologize.

MC

[Mark Hammer]

Hey, I invented crotchety, buddy.     No apologies required.  We just need to stick to the topic.

[PRR]

It is implausible that Mike Matthews never heard of the FCC. He read Carl & Jerry along with the rest of us. Every boy with a CK722 lived in fear the FCC would knock at his door.

In fact you had to do something extraordinary to raise the FCC's attention.

Like make millions of little buzz-boxes.

The FCC has done valuable service in keeping the airwaves free of interference so they may be used for the good of society. In early years they shut-down spark-gap rigs and coordinated diathermy machines, two prolifically polluting technologies. In the 1930s when US broadcasters wanted to flood the world, the FCC sat with other nations and worked out a wiser plan.

Mike may have been in denial of his FCC responsibilities. And of course he does not personally manage every product, and his underlings may truly have been ignorant (the training plan suggests this was an issue). However some other pedal makers, especially the large Japanese companies, can be quite obsessive about regulatory compliance. As you can tell by the stickers. He (and his company) coulda, shoulda, got a clue a lot sooner.

Oh... 9KHz is the lower end of a radionavigation band. 3KHz is on the chart, but presently "unallocated". Chart Obviously you do not want an oil or ore freighter homing-in on your stompbox; the captain would be annoyed.

Yes, audio sibilants go well past 9KHz, and we put them on wires. I think the distinction is that we don't sibilate steady all the time. Also most audio has to be protected (shielded) against external interference, so is less likely to cause interference.