Guest Column

By Steven G. Ferguson   Editor’s note: The following item was sent to us by Steve Ferguson of Compliance Direction LLC. He presents various courses on EMI/EMC compliance including EMC for nuclear power facilities, architectural shielding, and MIL-STD-461 testing, all presented online and at customer facilities. You can find his blog here. As I wrote in a recent Interference Technology article, when MIL-STD-461 revision “G” was issued, I believed that the answer to many of my measurement equipment calibration issues had been solved.  Right there in the “Calibration of measuring equipment” paragraph the requirements clearly stated “After the initial calibration passive devices such as measurement system antennas, current probes, and LISNs, require no further calibration unless the device is repaired.  The measurement system integrity check in the procedures is sufficient not determine acceptability of passive devices.”  This change allowed me to take several items off the periodic calibration schedule saving a lot of money for this service at an accredited calibration laboratory. Now we did not need so many of the same item to support operations while an item was out for calibration. Click here for the rest of the story.