This paper deals with the characterization and construction of a rotating brushless PM exciter intended for synchronous generator excitation purposes. Traditionally, PM exciters are used as pre-exciters in synchronous generator excitations systems. In order to reduce the number of components and to increase the step time response of the system, a PM exciter is designed as an outer pole PM machine, with permanent magnets on the stator and armature windings on the rotor. The exciter was constructed electrically and mechanically to be fitted into an in-house synchronous generator test setup. A finite element model of the exciter was validated with no-load measurements of voltages and magnetic flux densities. The exciter was then characterized with unsaturated and saturated parameters.