RCM is the single compliance mark for the Australian and New Zealand markets. It does not itself define what gets tested. Test scope comes from two sources: the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which covers radio, electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic energy exposure and telecom interfaces, and the Electrical Equipment Safety System run jointly by the states, which covers safety.
The legal basis is the Radiocommunications Act 1992 and the Telecommunications Act 1997. A product that uses the radio frequency spectrum, or connects to a public network, falls into mandatory scope. What gets tested then depends on three things: whether there is a wireless function, whether it connects to the mains, and which risk tier it lands in. There is no universal list. When scoping an RCM file, the approach is to tier the product against those three first and then map it onto standards.
Standards split by category. Multimedia and information technology equipment follows AS/NZS CISPR 32, appliances and power tools follow the AS/NZS CISPR 14 series, industrial and medical equipment follows CISPR 11, and lighting follows CISPR 15.
The core is radiated emissions and conducted emissions. Immunity is not a statutory ACMA requirement. Industrial equipment, medical equipment and high-power appliances are often asked to add electrostatic discharge, electrical fast transients and surge testing, but that generally comes from contractual terms rather than regulation, and portable consumer products are usually not involved.
The low-voltage battery tier is defined by voltage. The EESS scope runs from 50 V to 1000 V alternating current and 120 V to 1500 V direct current. A product running purely on batteries and not connected to the mains does not fall inside that window, so it is self-declared and does not enter EESS registration. The design dossier still has to be complete, though - a spot check that cannot be answered counts as a false declaration. One item that is easy to overlook: where the host runs on low-voltage batteries but ships with a mains charger or dock, the part with the mains plug goes separately as a high-risk item.
The medium-risk tier covers general appliances, lighting and IT peripherals. Safety and EMC reports are needed, and registration in EESS is completed by the Australian responsible supplier. There is no mandatory third-party safety certificate at this tier and no restriction on which laboratory is used; CNAS is itself an ILAC mutual recognition signatory, so its reports are usable, provided the accreditation scope covers the Australian and New Zealand standard itself - a report citing only a national standard does not count.
The high-risk tier covers controlled categories such as power adapters and chargers, energy storage batteries and heat-generating appliances. A recognised laboratory report is mandatory, along with a Certificate of Conformity issued by a Certifier. The issuing party is a state regulator, or a body accredited by JAS-ANZ and recognised by the regulator as having the authority to certify - it is not the laboratory. EESS registration is handled separately. Storage and high-power charging equipment also carries energy efficiency items, and because destructive testing consumes samples it is worth carrying a spare.
On versions, information technology and audio-visual equipment has moved to AS/NZS 62368.1, and the older 60950.1 and 60065 are no longer accepted for new projects; models already certified under the older versions keep their certificates until they expire. AS/NZS 62368.1:2026 was published in March 2026 and runs in parallel with the 2022 edition until March 2029. Appliances, luminaires, adapters and batteries each have their own part standards.
Anything with built-in RF transmission has to be tested, covering Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, ZigBee, LoRa, RFID and ultra-wideband. The standards split two ways. Short-range devices follow the AS/NZS 4268 series. Cellular terminals follow ACMA's mobile equipment air interface technical standard, under which AS/CA S042.4 accepts ETSI EN 301 908-2 and EN 301 908-13 reports, with FCC Part 22 for the 850 MHz band and radiated spurious emissions assessed under EN 301 908-1.
Test items include carrier frequency tolerance, equivalent isotropically radiated power limits, spurious emissions, sideband emissions and occupied bandwidth. The number of reports is often described incorrectly: several wireless technologies on the same sample can be combined into one report, but combining them does not mean the data can be merged - bands, limits and measurement data have to be set out as separate items.
For electromagnetic energy exposure, the basis is Schedule 4 of the Radiocommunications Equipment (General) Rules 2021, which cites ARPANSA's RPS S-1 and AS/NZS 2772.2. The threshold is expressed in power: where average output at the antenna port stays at or below the low-power exclusion value, which is 20 mW for the general public, no exposure assessment is required. Only where it exceeds that and the product is used within 20 cm of the body does SAR come in. Assessment can be by measurement or by calculation under AS/NZS 2772.2. This is a section that regularly gets left off the schedule.
Interface items depend on which network is being connected. Terminals connecting to PSTN or ISDN follow AS/CA S003. Voice equipment held to the ear, including VoIP phones, is tested for sound pressure limits under AS/CA S004. Purely wireless products are generally not involved.
The order is fixed. Supply method first, which sets the safety tier. Then the wireless function, which sets RF and electromagnetic energy exposure. Then the network connection, which sets the interface items. Where a product has all three, the modules interfere with one another and the schedule needs buffer.
Spelling out which items a given tier does not need is more useful than listing every item. The approach is to look at supply method and wireless function separately, then map each onto the relevant standard, which is how BlueAsia builds these scopes.
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