>The university research community is firmly against the idea, but
>their arguments concerning the need to "preserve the research
>environment" seem a bit nebulous to the Development Office. The
>campus is already awash in a gentle haze of RF pollution from cordless
>phones, computers, cell phones, and the like. How much more can be
>tolerated? Would commercial land mobile transmitters on campus add
>significantly to the problem or be unnoticed amidst everything else?
>
>The most important aspect of the problem is the commitment involved.
>Once a commercial transmitter is installed and operating, it's going
>to be very difficult to have it moved or turned off if RFI problems
>become apparent in the future.
Another precedent to be careful of is the power output. Low power
transmitters may not have much effect over that of existing RF
pollution, but then you start getting higher and higher power
transmitters. It's the high power transmitters that really can be a
problem, any shielding has to be that many dB better. Personally
setting up a mast-mounted TV amplifier for a house in a very rural
location (close TV stations were 100+ miles away) with a high power FM
transmitter only ~10 miles away showed a lot of interference before
turning on the available blocking circuits. The problem was so common
in the area that the FM station supplied (at some cost maybe) a filter
which I didn't get around to installing.
Michael Kluskens
Received on Wed Mar 03 1999 - 21:17:54 EST
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