Faraday Cage

 

A tin foil hat??

You are surrounded by EMF (Electro Magnetic Force) all of the time (radio, TV, cell phone signals at the very least), but most of it is measured in micro Volts/ per square meter.

Unless you are right under high voltage transmission lines, you should not have any worries.

In the last 15 or so years, even us ham radio operators have to calculate for EMF exposure from our own equipment and antenna systems.

A simple 120 volt AC/ 60 Hertz (cycles per second) is not considered a dangerous source of EMF. Think of all of the wiring carring AC Voltage/ Current inside your house walls, just not the breaker box across the room.

 

You are surrounded by EMF (Electro Magnetic Force) all of the time (radio, TV, cell phone signals at the very least), but most of it is measured in micro Volts/ per square meter.

Not to mention the enormous EMF of the earth itself...

 

Some time back I'd read up on the close proximity impacting the blood brain barrier and that young children are especially sensitive. (my preschooler sleeps about a foot away from the electrical box). Recall reading about constructing a very simple barrier just for the bed, basically. It addressed that the earth's EMF is 'locked up' and that humans didn't have an iota of the exposure they do today of dirty electricity, with cell phones, wireless, etc etc. Thank you each for the information. Maybe it'd be more worthwhile to worry about evicting the rodents I hear running around in the nights instead (!)

 

A tin foil hat??

You are surrounded by EMF (Electro Magnetic Force) all of the time (radio, TV, cell phone signals at the very least), ...

I can't get a cell signal in my house. I don't get ANY TV stations even with an outside antenna. I can pick up 2 radio stations, but they are very weak and drift in and out. Basically, I can't get any signal that doesn't come in on a cable.

Does that mean my house is a natural (albeit unintentional) faraday cage? I've always felt kind of safe that a lot of signals aren't running around in my home.

 

Merit - To me it sounds like you read a panic article that wasn't at all well researched. While I wouldn't sleep with a running microwave oven next to my head unless I was sure the seals were good, I wouldn't worry about plain old electrical wires. Wireless? No worries. You wouldn't believe all the junk floating around and much of it does, in fact, come from the earth or from the interaction of photons off our field.

Spinner, you probably do have other signals but they aren't in your pick up range as far as usable freqs. If not, then you must live in a true paradise. I'd love to be truly disconnected just for a few minutes.

 

rats and fear it's self can make you sick.
just start looking for a new place now.
we will pray for you.

 

I can't get a cell signal in my house. I don't get ANY TV stations even with an outside antenna. I can pick up 2 radio stations, but they are very weak and drift in and out. Basically, I can't get any signal that doesn't come in on a cable.

Does that mean my house is a natural (albeit unintentional) faraday cage? I've always felt kind of safe that a lot of signals aren't running around in my home.

Spinner - it may depend on your geographic location. Is your house located in a valley, canyon, ravine? A low lying area with high valley walls around it? Does your car radio outside the house, receive any FM radio stations? How about a boombox radio? Does it perform/ receive the same stations the same inside, as well as outside the building?

If so, then no wonder you are not getting any VHF/ UHF line of sight signals. That is what FM radio, TV, cell phone frequencies are.

One way to determine if your house is blocking RF, is to use a simple AM broadcast radio receiver. After dark, turn it on and scan the dial. You should hear several stations, since radiowave propogation and the 50 KW stations out there, produce signals even at the bottom of steep river canyons. I know from past experience of camping along rivers for work. If no signals are heard, then maybe your residence is a semi-faraday cage (maybe metal wall studs instead of 2X4's. metal siding, or even a mobile home.

Since the digital TV transfer last year, I lost my TV reception up here at 1,800 feet in elevation. That is due to being in the shadow of the hill, between the transmitter and my place.

Merit - here are a couple of links I quickly found concerning EMF exposure from ham radio equipment. One is a scientific study - the first. This describes what us amateur radio operators have to do, in order to comply with standard EMF exposure from our own equipment at frequencies far above the standard 60 cycles per second 120 Volts AC that you are worried about.

http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/woverbeck/csvhfc.htm

Then there is an unfounded statement posted on a forum by an uninformed person, from the earth-liberation-front fringe group, condemming ham radio EMF exposure... Oh he does rant about electric blankets, though..

http://www.groupsrv.com/science/about454864.html

Golly, I never thought of my ham radio gear as a 'threat' to my neighbors at any time!! Maybe if I used a parabolic dish antenna at frequencies above 10 GHz (Giga Hertz - in the microwave spectrum), with an output power of 100 watts running FM, and pointed it a neighbors house within 100 feet away, possibly!! Otherwise, I may have had a couple of complaints of my transmitted signal interfering with neighbor's telephones, when I lived in the city decades ago.

 

It makes me so happy when more knowledgeable people convince me I'm worrying for naught. Almost as happy as it makes me to have access to such people via a board such as this... Remmettn, it's chipmunks of all things! No need to move...house is too cute...but the chippies need to relocate.

 

I'd say EMF Protection worries are low on the list. If this is your only worry, read no more... lots of more deliciously wicked evil things to worry about... Iran touching off WWIII in the next 12 months, the volcano Katla letting loose ash, sending us into a micro-ice age, and the usual bugaboos... financial meltdown, the golden horde, global pandemics, etc.

Now if you had a micro superconducting supercollider in your basement, like I do, then you'd have something to worry about. I'm getting rich off of my tinfoil stock portfolio... I buy so much of the stuff... [okay, I'll quit now...]:TFH: