BCF Designs Ltd. TE6596/P EMC Compliance Filter Tester In today’s aerospace electromagnetic environment, the serviceability of components that contribute to the overall protection of equipment is critically important. Both HIRTA clearance for military aircraft, and compliance with the harmonized external environment for civil aircraft, must be maintained throughout the aircraft’s operational life. The TE6596/P provides the user with a powerful tool in the maintenance of aerospace EMC filters installed in most of today’s aircraft. Periodic testing of filters combined with other good EMC engineering practices should ensure that the effects of electromagnetic interference are kept to a minimum. This will consequently maintain the necessary clearances. Testing of electrical filters, particularly if they are installed in connectors, either integrated into black boxes or in looms has been difficult without dismantling the installation. The TE 6596/P filter test set overcomes this difficulty by allowing the maintenance engineer to test insertion loss from one side of the connector only. Maintenance of electrical filtering is just one part of the process of “compliance maintenance”, but an important one. Degradation of, or failure of, filtering components results in that equipment being more susceptible to the external electromagnetic environment in which it is operating.