IEEE 473: “Recommended Practice for an 2 Electromagnetic Site Survey (10 kHz to 3 40 GHz)”
IEEE 473 has a long history. First published in 1985 and adopted by ANSI in 1992, it went inactive for several years starting in 2006. The effort to renew it and bring it in line with current technology started in 2016, and under the leadership of working group chair Chad Kiger that effort is now wrapping up. The new version of the standard has gone through balloting, revisions, and a second round of balloting and should be published this year. You can download the 1985 version from the IEEE SA, and I’ll update this article with the 2025 link as soon as it’s available. The new version is closely related to ANSI C63.24 for on-site radiated immunity evaluations.
These are the main topics covered in the new version of the standard:
Survey planning
Survey procedures
Measurement equipment, including calibration
Measurement uncertainty and errors (pointing to CISPR 16-4-2 and ANSI C63.23)
Consideration of different measurement locations (ground based, shipborne, and aircraft)
Data handling
I particularly appreciate this line from Section 4: “The electromagnetic environment is a complex entity having five dimensions. These consist of time and frequency as well as the three space dimensions.” If you don’t have a solid understanding of these five dimensions of the electromagnetic environment, it will be difficult to make sense of any measurement data you take. This is much easier in the enclosed and controlled confines of an anechoic or reverb chamber, and more challenging out in the world where RF sources can move around, turn on and off, be intermittent, and potentially vary with atmospheric conditions.
TIP:
One point that is really well made in IEEE 473 is the difference between taking measurements in an open environment vs. within a building or other enclosed area. They each have their own challenges that should be well understood before starting on a measurement campaign.