[RFI] Splatter from AM Radio Station WNTS Indianapolis

[Hare, Ed, W1RFI]

< Doesn't appear the ARRL is doing much either.>

ARRL staff are heavily involved in EMC at a number of levels.

o  I serve in the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors as its elected Vice President for Standards
o  I also serve on the "C63" EMC Committee, a US consensus committee that writes American standards that are often incorporated by reference into FCC rules. I chair its Subcommittee 5 on immunity
o  ARRL's EMC Committee has representatives from the automotive industry, broadcast industry, cable industry and power industry, bringing contacts between ARRL and major players in industry
o  ARRL is working closely with several manufacturers of solar equipment to help resolve interference problems well over and above the FCC limits
o  ARRL maintains an informal program with the FCC to help resolve and enforce FCC rules about harmful interference. (We are a bit behind on cases because we are running shorthanded, but catching up pretty quickly.)
o  ARRL has recently joined the AM Improvement Working Group of AM broadcasters, creating alliance with the broadcast industry to determine what can be done to identify noisy devices and try to reduce the growing noise levels
o ARRL has identified a number of devices, such as grow lights and battery chargers that it has tested and found to be as much as 58 dB over the FCC limits, and worked with manufacturers and importers to get them off the market after filing formal complaints
o ARRL staff serve on the US National Committee, contributing US documents to the ITU-R, effecting significant changes in otherwise harmful position papers
o ARRL staff liaison with various IARU societies and the IARU in its work before the ITU-R.
o ARRL staff and paid consultants have served on an IEEE industry committee that is nearly finished with its work on an industry standard on the resolution of power-line noise

Although FCC enforcement is not as robust as I think most of us would like, it is not really fair to say that it doesn't care about RFI issues.  At this point, ARRL has about 5000 cases in its database, a large number of which has involved communications from the FCC about the responsibilities of all of the parties to resolve EMI problems.  Although this has not resolved all cases, in a significant number of them, the communication from the FCC was enough to get the parties off of dead center and working towards resolution.

These are just a few off the top of my head of some of the things going on right now. If the IMD under discussion is causing harmful interference to amateur radio, ARRL staff will help document the interference levels, any possible rules violations and get the matter before the FCC so it can execute its part of the communication that often resolves cases more effectively than formal enforcement that would be handled by lawyers instead of technicians.  ARRL has also maintained contact with a number of other entities and manufacturers, to varying degrees of success, so it is really not correct to say that the League has not done much either. It has not resolved all cases, but amateur radio is better off from an EMC perspective from its involvement.

Ed Hare, W1RFI
ARRL Lab



-----Original Message-----
From: RFI <rfi-bounces+w1rfi=arrl.org at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Joe
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 1:44 PM
To: 'Gary Peterson' <kzerocx at rap.midco.net>; rfi at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RFI] Splatter from AM Radio Station WNTS Indianapolis

Doesn't appear the ARRL is doing much either.

Joe - W7RKN

-----Original Message-----
From: RFI [mailto:rfi-bounces+w7rkn.7=gmail.com at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Gary Peterson
Subject: [RFI] Splatter from AM Radio Station WNTS Indianapolis

Dave,

To answer your question...it doesn’t appear that the FCC cares about anything other than expanding broadband and gathering money from regulatory fees and spectrum auctions.  

Gary
KzeroCX  


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