Re:
Actually the engineering in the USA is much more difficult, because the CE rules are joke, and a bad one at that.
EC requires that you live with whatever envirornment you are in. You are free to Electromagnetically pollute that envirornment, and everyone else has to live with it. If you cause interference with the TV next door, obviously the TV next door in not in compliance with the EC directives.
If you think about that for a moment, you realize it is not a practical approach. How you design for EMI/RFI that you have never seen before? In effect EC rules are really non-rules.
The Germans recognized that problem years ago, and the German Standards for VDE A and VDE B correspond well to FCC B and FCC A respectively. I.E. if you are FCC B compliant, odds are you are going to be VDE A compliant as well. Our FCC A report was done by a range that was also VDE approved, and a result we got VDE B and FCC A in one trip.
While FCC A is just good engineering practices, compliance for FCC B has to be designed in from the outset. Either FCC A or FCC B is almost certain to be CE compliant, however there is no assurance at all the CE compliance will be VDE, or FCC compliant. FCC rules severely limit radiated and conducted EMI/RFI. So if your equipment messes up the TV next door, you are probably the one out of compliance.
For FCC B, you have to go out on a Test Range, and the FCC licensed Test range has to submit a formal report that you are in compliance with FCC the Class B standard. At that point the FCC will issue you a compliance number. If you are subsequently found not to be in compliance, the FCC fines both you AND the test range.
The result if most Test ranges require that you not merely pass the B standard, you pass it by a wide margin, so no matter how badly you mess up the assembly, it is still likely to comply.
FCC A is self certifying, you go to an FCC certified range, and get a report certifying FCC Class A compliance, and just keep it in your files. From personal experience, FCC Class A compliance requires not much more then just very good engineering practices. However I am amazed at how many supposedly FCC A products do not pass. You into that problem when you are trying to test your equipment on the test range, and discover you cannot pass, because some other equipment you need doesn't. I have never seen a Class A CRT that actually met the standard.
This is one of the problems the Kumkang light probably has.
The ballasts and igniters used in cars are exempt from Part 15 controls, however and hand held flashlight probably isn't, so odds are the current Kumkang design cannot pass the FCC testing.
