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Article well-researched

We researched all types of RF radiation and found that some were harmful

Re: Utility regulator’s reading on smart meters (Campbell River Mirror, Sept. 25, 2013).

I totally agree with your well-researched article on RF watt hour meters.

While I am not an expert on meters, I have spent my entire working career in the radio communications sphere. I started in 1948 and eventually got posted to Washington, DC, where I served on the IRAC. We researched all types of RF radiation and found that some were harmful; like a 250,000 watt TV station on a mountain top with a nice parking lot for tourists within the primary field. Some eight-watt output handheld handy talkies were also too close to the eyeball when used, so we recommended having them on your belt with a remote mike. It worked.

Now the physics of RF radiation are that it only heats up a conductive body. The near field is reduced as the cube of the distance away. You double the distance and the intensity goes down by eight times.

A cell phone with its tiny transmitter will heat up the body about the same amount as a candle at arm’s length. Nobody is going to sleep on top of an RF watthour meter using it as a pillow. The problem is that everybody understands canles. Very few people understand radio frequency transmitters so they are fearful.

I found that the book, The Culture of Fear, by Barry Glassman, has a good explanation of how special interest groups control the stage and make money by instilling fear into the public. Another good book is The Signal and the Noise. Politicians make a lot of noise, like TV celebrities, advertising, etc. It’s very difficult to find the signal when it is obscured by noise. In the radio communications, we are very cognisant about selecting the desired signal from the noise.

Thanks for your article.

Bruce Jacobsen

Cortes Island