A significant part of obtaining and holding an amateur radio license relates to the prevention of radio interference. In the past, this meant interfering with analog TV shows, but as more sophisticated devices become commonplace in homes, this applies to much more. This hit the news in Marion County, Florida, where an amateur radio worker in the elderly community has shut down his radio station after a potential connection between it and another resident’s insulin pump. A legal challenge related to the rules of the transmitting antenna complex is currently underway.
It is obviously a serious event for the insulin pump to be affected by everything and it sounds as if the radio amateur has done the right thing. But it is clear that in this case something went wrong, whether due to amateur radio broadcasts or not, because for the manufacturer to produce a medical device so easily affected by radio frequency fields, everyone has to worry. We hope that the FCC can take an interest in this story and touch on it in an impartial way, because whether it’s the radio amateur, the insulin pump or something else, it’s a risk for anyone dependent on such a device.
Perhaps this may be the case with ARRL, as we have already reported they have some form when it comes to radio investigations.
[Main image source: MailariX, CC-BY-SA 4.0]