Crawling around the net with Mike Graham, NE1V

RF EXPOSURE

Because of the importance of the recent FCC regulations regarding RF Exposure, fearless leader John Gaffey, WS1E, put on a presentation at our last club meeting regarding the rulings, their impact upon us individually, and information regarding performing an assessment. It is important to realize that each of us will be required to determine if our own station requires an evaluation, and then perform and document that evaluation to have on record "just in case". While it is unlikely that the majority of us will ever be required to show evaluation documentation, the outside chance of that occurrence strongly suggests going through the evaluation as insurance.

To assist club members in locating RF Evaluation resources, I did some surfing on the Web. The first and 'key' stop is the RF Exposure Regulation News page of the ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/news/rfsafety/.

The page is broken down into four major sections; Late Breaking News, Overview of FCC RF Exposure Regulations, ARRL Actions, and Resources. In the area of Late Breaking News, recent changes in the regulations are to be found in ARRL Bulletin #49 dated August 29, 1997: http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/1997-arlb049.html

Also refer to "What's New About the FCC's RF-Exposure Regulations?" by Ed Hare, W1RFI in the Oct., '97 QST: http://www.arrl.org/news/rfsafety/qst9710.html. That article contains a table similar to the one presented by John at the club meeting, which defines the power thresholds for routine evaluation of amateur radio stations.

Throughout the ARRL RF-Exposure section you will find numerous links to FCC-related pages, including OET Bulletin 65, "Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields". Unfortunately, the links to the FCC Sites were inoperable at the time of this writing, so I am unable to give you the Web Site addresses. However, they should be available to you. At the end of the ARRL RF Exposure Web Page is a list of resources. Among them are listed four separate computer programs for performing evaluations, one of which John previewed at the meeting. It may be worthwhile to give these programs a try.

Also do not forget that the club's Technical Resources Committee is available to assist you in preparing for your own evaluation. For additional assistance, drop me an e-mail at: ne1v@worldnet.att.net

73…..de NE1V.

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