A curious case of radio amateurs and insulin pumps
2021-08-30
source:hackaday.com
This caused a sensation in Marion County, Florida, when an amateur radio enthusiast in the elderly community shut down his radio station after a potential connection between his radio station and the insulin pump of another resident. There is an ongoing legal challenge related to the complex building’s rules on transmitting antennas.
Any impact on the insulin pump is obviously a serious matter, and it sounds as if the radio amateur concerned did the right thing. But it is obvious that in this case, whether due to amateur radio transmission or not, serious problems have arisen, because the medical equipment produced by the manufacturer is easily affected by the radio frequency field, which should be a concern for everyone.
A ham radio operator who owns a YouTube channel interviewed the ham band David Burch and reportedly caused interference on his station. It contains many useful details that have been overlooked in media reports.
In the interview, Birge said that he had removed the antenna and stopped transmission about 6 months ago. The lady reported that the interference stopped around them.
However, he said that he secretly resumed transmission for one month, while the woman said without knowing that she had not received any interference during these six months, including the month he secretly transmitted.
Birge also stated that before removing his antenna, he suggested to do a double-blind test, in which a woman would report an instance of interference, and he would report it during transmission, and a third party would compare the two to see if the instance of interference was comparable to Birge’s. The transmission matches, but she is not willing to cooperate with him at all.
In my opinion, this woman either dislikes Birge's (visible) antennas, even if they are allowed by the HOA. It is difficult to change the rules after the fact to ban antennas, especially because federally-issued licenses cannot easily be replaced by state or local laws. HOA can pass a rule, but anyone who has an antenna installed may have to be allowed in with his grandfather. However, a medical claim that “that person’s equipment may cause a medical emergency to me” can bypass many other obstacles.
If the ham equipment operates in a legal manner and interferes with the medical equipment, it is a big problem for the designer of the equipment, or cuts the budget afterwards... or it may have nothing to do with HAM—just like that old TV every time It will cause some very serious problems when opened, please report here.
Either way, it is still bad for medical equipment-if your smart watch/mobile phone/wifi network/remote control toy etc. cannot withstand unaffected large interference, medical equipment can really withstand anything about it Remotely reasonable things, it can be exposed and still run completely safely, or at least fail "safely"...
And it seems likely to be the case-I find it hard to believe that a long-lived HAM will produce any meaningful unintentional output, or unintentionally output at the wrong frequency, etc., and will not quickly realize that one New hobbies may be possible because they may not have noticed or tracked all the equipment and experience needed to track where it came from, but newbies as a hobby may insist on using off-the-shelf, or the well-proven design from the beginning of the question does not seem to be It's too possible...
The whole thing can be easily solved with some simple tests. I think many political parties have a vested interest in this and want to test it. HOA should hope to pass the test as a simple solution to this problem. Insulin pump manufacturers should conduct tests to prove that their equipment is not susceptible to such (permitted by law) transmission, or identify the problem and fix it. The FCC and FDA should be interested separately and should be interested together, too, because legally permitted transmissions should not cause problems with medical devices.
ARRL is a national association that supports amateur radio enthusiasts. It should hope to show that amateur radio can solve problems rather than create problems, and show that amateur radio enthusiasts cooperate with neighbors and others to create better for amateurs and everyone else. world.
This caused a sensation in Marion County, Florida, when an amateur radio enthusiast in the elderly community shut down his radio station after a potential connection between his radio station and the insulin pump of another resident. There is an ongoing legal challenge related to the complex building’s rules on transmitting antennas.
Any impact on the insulin pump is obviously a serious matter, and it sounds as if the radio amateur concerned did the right thing. But it is obvious that in this case, whether due to amateur radio transmission or not, serious problems have arisen, because the medical equipment produced by the manufacturer is easily affected by the radio frequency field, which should be a concern for everyone.
A ham radio operator who owns a YouTube channel interviewed the ham band David Burch and reportedly caused interference on his station. It contains many useful details that have been overlooked in media reports.
In the interview, Birge said that he had removed the antenna and stopped transmission about 6 months ago. The lady reported that the interference stopped around them.
However, he said that he secretly resumed transmission for one month, while the woman said without knowing that she had not received any interference during these six months, including the month he secretly transmitted.
Birge also stated that before removing his antenna, he suggested to do a double-blind test, in which a woman would report an instance of interference, and he would report it during transmission, and a third party would compare the two to see if the instance of interference was comparable to Birge’s. The transmission matches, but she is not willing to cooperate with him at all.
In my opinion, this woman either dislikes Birge's (visible) antennas, even if they are allowed by the HOA. It is difficult to change the rules after the fact to ban antennas, especially because federally-issued licenses cannot easily be replaced by state or local laws. HOA can pass a rule, but anyone who has an antenna installed may have to be allowed in with his grandfather. However, a medical claim that “that person’s equipment may cause a medical emergency to me” can bypass many other obstacles.
If the ham equipment operates in a legal manner and interferes with the medical equipment, it is a big problem for the designer of the equipment, or cuts the budget afterwards... or it may have nothing to do with HAM—just like that old TV every time It will cause some very serious problems when opened, please report here.
Either way, it is still bad for medical equipment-if your smart watch/mobile phone/wifi network/remote control toy etc. cannot withstand unaffected large interference, medical equipment can really withstand anything about it Remotely reasonable things, it can be exposed and still run completely safely, or at least fail "safely"...
And it seems likely to be the case-I find it hard to believe that a long-lived HAM will produce any meaningful unintentional output, or unintentionally output at the wrong frequency, etc., and will not quickly realize that one New hobbies may be possible because they may not have noticed or tracked all the equipment and experience needed to track where it came from, but newbies as a hobby may insist on using off-the-shelf, or the well-proven design from the beginning of the question does not seem to be It's too possible...
The whole thing can be easily solved with some simple tests. I think many political parties have a vested interest in this and want to test it. HOA should hope to pass the test as a simple solution to this problem. Insulin pump manufacturers should conduct tests to prove that their equipment is not susceptible to such (permitted by law) transmission, or identify the problem and fix it. The FCC and FDA should be interested separately and should be interested together, too, because legally permitted transmissions should not cause problems with medical devices.

ARRL is a national association that supports amateur radio enthusiasts. It should hope to show that amateur radio can solve problems rather than create problems, and show that amateur radio enthusiasts cooperate with neighbors and others to create better for amateurs and everyone else. world.
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