[RFI] Samsung oven RFI update

Wed May 6 13:07:40 EDT 2020

I do know that Paul Cianciolo has worked with a few hams on this issue. I am not sure if he made any headway on it with Samsung, but I will see him later this week and I can ask. He reads most of the posts here, but doesn't have time to respond to all of them.

I am not a lawyer either, but from an FCC perspective, hams are responsible only for interferece caused by spurious emissions and out-of-band emissions from their transmitters.  That's not to say that a neighbor would not initiate a lawsuit.   On the ARRL web page can be found information on federal pre-emption of state and local RFI issues, which could incude civil suit, but the nuances of law are such that a ham involved in that kind of dispute is going to need an attorney.

Under US law, there are no federal requirements for immunity, so the manufacturer is off the fedreal hook from an FCC perspective.  There may be other federal requirements for appliance safety, though.  Either way, they, too, would be on the hook for possible civil action should a fire result from the use of their product under any circumstances although federal pre-emption could apply there too. Again, more work for the attornies.

I do know that when Eaton was made aware that some of their AFCI breakers were tripping due to RF, they were very interested and put two engineeers on a plane from the west coast to witness ARRL's testing.  We accomodated them, of course. So manufacturers can be very interested in anything related to the safe use of their products.

Ed Hare, not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV.

________________________________
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+w1rfi=arrl.org at contesting.com> on behalf of Dave Cole <dave at nk7z.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 12:03 PM
To: rfi at contesting.com <rfi at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] Samsung oven RFI update

You might compose a short note to them, letting them know of the safety
issue, and your fear of a fire as a result of their failure to
sufficiently deal with the RFI issues they clearly have.

At a minimum, take copious notes, with everyone's name and times/dates,
and what was discussed.

The problem is, if I understand the rules correctly, YOU as the owner
are responsible, and must accept all interference caused to your device.

Maybe Ed H could chime in here, and help clarify that a bit. I am not a
lawyer, and not exposed to this as much as Ed is...

--
73, and thanks,
Dave (NK7Z)
https://www.nk7z.net
ARRL Volunteer Examiner
ARRL Technical Specialist
ARRL Asst. Director, NW Division, Technical Resources

On 5/6/20 8:37 AM, EDWARDS, EDDIE J via RFI wrote:
> I suggest you don't tell them about how you lock it as a work around solution.  Because there may be some other RF  out there that could trigger it too!  Ask them to fix the "susceptibility to RF signals" so that this never happens unexpectedly like when you're not home.
>
> This is a fire safety issue the manufacturer must fix or else replace with a new unit that is not "susceptible" to wireless signals as RF signals are everywhere and that's getting worse every day.
>
> 73, de ed -K0iL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RFI <rfi-bounces+eedwards=oppd.com at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Randy Diddel
> Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 9:32 AM
> To: rfi at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [RFI] Samsung oven RFI update
>
> I reached out to Samsung and logged a trouble ticket with them. The Chatbot/person on the other end had no idea what Amateur/Ham Radio was nor what RFI was either.  After explaining it to him he repeated his summary of what he thought my issue was, “So your oven is getting too hot?”
>
> A local repair company is going to come out and take a look. I at least have a ticket number for the incident logged with Samsung but zero confidence that they understand what the issue is or that they will be willing to do anything about it.
>
> The oven is new and under warranty but, well beyond the return date from Lowe’s.
>
> I continue to lock the oven from the panel and it does unlock occasionally. New behavior is that once locked, after I am done with operating on 40M, the panel is completely non-responsive and I have to pull the oven out and unplug the power to it and then plug it back in.
>
> I am going to order up some ferrite and try what others have done as well and just live with it. The XYL is not interested in trying another brand-she likes the continuity of the kitchen appliances all being the same brand and finish.
>
> 73
>
> K5RHD
>
> /randy
>
>
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