The sensitivity of a device to RF upset is determined by how strong the field
is in which it is immersed, how it responds to the field and its modulation,
and how efficient the device (or its connecting wires) is at extracting energy
from that field. An antenna distant enough that the victim device is in the
far field will usually be affected less than a closer one. Since the near
field's size is measured in wavelengths, not feet or meters, a lower frequency
places more victims inside it than a higher frequency does.
Ground Fault Interrupters are connected to what amounts to a pretty efficient
antenna anyway, so it's not a surprise they would be affected by an 80 meter
Amateur installation with a nearby dipole. Implanted defibrillator/pacemakers
have leads at most a meter long, an inefficient coupler at lower HF
frequencies, immersed in a resistive medium, human flesh which is an absorber
of RF at at the higher HF frequencies (remember 11 meter diathermy?). Between
short parallel leads and the presence of flesh, an implanted device is a rather
different proposition with regard to RF upset than a GFI.
That said, a manufacturer spends what is often a lot of money and effort
hardening his medical devices to RF. There are regulatory requirements he do
so; e.g.: EN/IEC 60601*, to which the FDA also subscribes. Because there is no
regulatory inducement for a manufacturer to go beyond these, and because it is
sometimes difficult merely to meet them, no manufacturer will warrant his
product safe except when he knows or can believe that it is -- and can expect
to escape liability if it isn't. There is a grey area; the real world is less
forgiving than the tests and (for example) the RF field in an ambulance may far
exceed the field 60601-1-2 requires. Other stresses may exist outside the
scope of the test; 60601-1-2 requires a sizable magnetic field but doesn't test
with a field of every frequency, and it has been found that European electric
trains, which run off 16.667 Hz AC, a significant frequency when evaluating
whether to defibrillate, can affect Automatic External Defi
brillators**. Nevertheless, standards do change, and only a couple of years
ago immunity requirements were tripled. (This caused a sudden increase in the
number of EMC engineers working on medical products.)
Modern implanted pacemaker/defibrillators are safer than older ones. For one
thing, they are now designed to return to a default constant pacing mode if RF
affects their sensors. Still, no one will certify a pacemaker safe for Amateur
Radio unless and until he has to, can do so at no cost, or has other
competitive reasons. Those of us who have made the attempt can possibly
inform the rest of us what the results were.
*See http://www.conformity.com/0503/0503basic.html and
http://www.conformity.com/A05/A05_F03.html
**see
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15294405&dopt=Abstract
Cortland
KA5S
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