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From: stephen@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Steve Whitney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Talking about other computers here
Message-ID: <1990Dec3.173941.29280@cs.ucla.edu>
Date: 3 Dec 90 17:39:41 GMT
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In article <1990Dec3.153120.27313@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Christopher M Mauritz) writes:
>In article <1990Dec02.215601.7327@ecst.csuchico.edu> ekrimen@ecst.csuchico.edu (Ed Krimen) writes:
...
>>And the reason is FCC approval. :^D  Talk about deja vu.  From what I 
>>understand, they can't even get Class B.
>
>This is a load of crap.  Atari is always screaming about the FCC this,
>the FCC that....FCC guidelines are published and most other manufacturers
>seem to met them in a reasonable fashion.  Perhaps, people should start
>pointing the finger at the "engineers" who design Atari's products.
>This is what happens when you try to cut corners and then try to
>retro-fit the sheilding problem later on when you get busted.
>
>Regards,
>
>Chris

That's not entirely true.  This past summer, I worked for CalComp, and one
of my responsibilities was some EMI testing.  The VDE (German equivalent of
the FCC) and the FCC have very similar requirements for radio frequency
emissions testing (the levels are different, but so are the distances from
which they are measured).  The big difference is that the VDE is self-
ceritfying, that is, if a VDE certified testing lab says you pass the limits
with a certain margin, you can get automatic approval.  The FCC, on the other
hand, still requires that you submit results from a certified lab, but then
they make you fill out some paperwork which takes approximately 3 months to
process.  You don't know if they will decide to check your results until they
process the paper.  Then it can take an indefinite period of time for them
complete their own testing before giving you FCC certification.  It is entirely
possible that Atari didn't do anything at all wrong (or even questionable) this
time, but given their track record, the FCC decided they'd be a good company
to spot check.  It might also be that the lab they used is being spot-checked.

I believe that Atari met the FCC guidelines for the TT and was just waiting
for the paperwork which _should_ have come back before Comdex.  This is just a 
guess, though.  Undoubtedly, the TT is shipping in Germany and the rest of 
Europe because it has VDE approval.  Let's give Atari the benefit of the doubt
on this one.

		--Steve

-- 
Steve Whitney   "It's never _really_ the last minute"       (())_-_(())
UCLA Comp. Sci. Grad. Student                                | (* *) | 
Internet: stephen@cs.ucla.edu              UCLA Bruin-->    {  \_@_/  }
GEnie:    S.WHITNEY        (To Cal: We still have the axe!)   `-----'