Re: AM Station Interference with a Medical Device

["Peter Q. George" <radiojunkie3@yahoo.com>]

Hmmmm, good question:
    This is a tough situation.  I experienced a
similar situation at another AM'er station. Many years
ago, while working with another station, we were
notified that our AM signal was interfering with a
Medical Equipment company located within a few hundred
yards of our transmitting towers.  Legally, we had no
obligation to do anything about it as the site has
been operating for nearly 40 years and was totally
within spec. The Med. company had only been operating
for a year or so. HOWEVER, we did the RIGHT thing and
traced where the RF was getting into their equipment. 
For us, it was "airborne", not through the power
mains.  Our engineer used some "chicken wire" above
the ceiling area and was able to notch out the RF. 
RFI elimination is not an exact science.  Every
installation is a little different.  Eventhough we had
no real obligation do this, we wanted to be a good
neighbor and did what we could do to alleviate the
problem.  It worked.
   I would try to talk to the engineer on a one-to-one
basis and see if something can be done to alleviate
the problem.  Interference to, say for example, a
person's VCR is one thing, but when you're dealing
with human life... that's another.  Good luck and keep
us posted. 73.

Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts 



   
--- John from PMS <johnatpm@maine.rr.com> wrote:
> Pete:
> 
> I have been dealing with a hospital site that has
> major interference
> from an AM radio station. The station claims to be
> operating within
> legal limits, and probably are, but the station's
> 1600KHz broadcast is
> all over the power line. The power company is
> blowing it off as well.
> 
> Do you know where I can find information about this?
> I thought it was
> still the radio station's responsibility to address
> interference from
> their broadcast regardless of how it's getting into
> the building, but
> without some sort of document to verify this, we are
> up against a brick
> wall with these guys. The Ultrasound probe, used for
> diagnostics,
> operates at 1.6 MHz, the same frequency as the
> station, so the customer
> (a Cardiology Clinic) can't perform accurate scans.
> It appears that
> there is a faulty ground, or an unintentional
> antenna, somewhere in the
> power lines (residential), but we can't prove it. We
> do know the
> interference is conducted, not airborn.
> 
> I know that the FCC would not tolerate a "pirate"
> broadcaster who might
> cause this interference, but what occurs when a
> licensed facility is the
> noise maker? The radio station probably meets the
> terms of its license
> and FCC requirements such as spurious emissions and
> human safety with
> regard to accessible areas. 
> 
> The FCC has taken action in the past in favor of
> human health over
> communications, such as shutting down a legally
> operating HAM when there
> was the possibility that he was interfering with a
> neighbor's pacemaker.
> I think the power company is in the clear, as long
> as their supply of 60
> Hz meets the customer's needs.
> 
> Who owns the "fix"?  If it is the station's
> engineering staff, where is
> that documented?
> 
> Any thoughts/help you could send my way would be
> much appreciated. 
> 
>  
> 
> John
> 
> 


=====
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
                           "Scanning the bands since 1967"
radiojunkie1@yahoo.com
radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
***********************************************************

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