LBA University® Offers First of its Kind OSHA Compliant Rooftop RF Safety Course
LBA University® rooftop safety course goes on line
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12 Comments on "LBA University® Offers Online Rooftop RF Safety Course"
please send info on the RF rooftop safetycourse
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The LBA University® Online Rooftop RF Safety Course is a informative presentation of Radio Frequency’s present in our workplaces. The roof top version of RF Safety Awareness highlights locations that radio waves could be present on the roofs as well as many other locations affecting the normal duties of our industry work forces. These hazards and the ability to recognize them is covered by the course. A introduction in PDF format of the contents of this course is available. If you would like to preview the course or get additional information please contact us directly and LBA Group will be glad to assist you. Thanks for your interest in our program.
Be safe,
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This is _ESPECIALLY_ important information for people in the Alternative/Solar Energy Industry.
Lawrence K4JRZ, may I repost this? de KB3EFS ln
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This very true. Both the Navy and Air Force have lock-out protocols for working around antennas. Accidently bumping into or cutting the cable to an energized 100w VHF antenna will definately ruin your day. And with a repeater or pager, you never know when it will be “Hot!” Micowave can cook a worker from the inside out if standing in the wave path for an extended time.
However, most are on masts or towers and should be above the usual rooftop work areas. Placards should be sufficient.
ln
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Dave, Thanks for your comments on solar power workers. Indeed, they have become frequent rooftop visitors, and the course would be very appropriate. Please feel free to repost the blog. de K4JRZ
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@Col Cheney N4AAK,
The bigger problem is the extreme proliferation of “Non-Ionizing Microwave Signals” (read above 300 MHz) that are usually mounted at body level along the edge of the building. The transmitters for those services are orders of magnitude more powerful than a household microwave oven which work at about the same frequencies. Getting those systems turned off for safety reasons is impossible.
I have run into situations where a buildings roof was so “HOT” in the RF sense that my RF exposure protective alarm was going off one to two floors down while still in the elevator which was a metal box (read shielded RF-Cage). I never made it to the roof area in those situations. I stayed in the penthouse lobby long enough to document the exposure readings, then I left the building. What happened next is a classified matter, do not ask, I am not telling.
73 de KB3EFS Dave ln
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And of course, there is the old story of the construction worker on a condo in Boca Raton, FL who was “cooked” when the building he was working on was raised into the downrange Microwave link from Cape Canaveral in the 60s.
At Dave: You got to wonder how the people in the building you mentioned, survived? I doubt that was disclosed to the tenants.
ln
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@Col Cheney N4AAK,
Sir, your need to know clearance is not high enough to allow further discussion of that/those building(s) or the tenants of said building(s).
Respectfully,
KB3EFS Dave
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David Aitcheson your need to know comment I assume would next be followed with the lame retort. I could tell you, but I would have to kill you.
I can assure you as an ex-member of the Defense Communications Agency’s Defense Satellite Communications System I had a higher clearance then you currently posses so please cut the crap. It would be best if you don’t know to just remain silent as much of what you said previously is incorrect. I will attempt to correct your mistakes,and cover the area of “Microwaves” without to much needless review. I suspect the story that the Lt. Col Cheney is sharing is just another of those wives tales that has little if any basis in truth as a Microwave Link would never have this kind of energy, but a RADAR might if you were standing directly at the focal point of the dish antenna. I say might as the FCC and NTIA always take these things into consideration when granting site permits called Construction Permits and/or temporary authority to operate. I am not saying this couldn’t have happened, but just that it is very unlikely. The mere presence of the tall tale is by itself enough to keep people away, and the warning signs also help. I have seen people stand in front of a Tropospheric Scatter antenna and photograph it and the warning sign without any knowledge if the site was actively transmitting or not so I am sure some accidents have happened. Strat-Comm used these extensively in Vietnam, and other places back before the advent of the Defense Satellite Communications System. The frequencies, and power levels were very different with Tropospheric Scatter using frequencies below 1GHz which is generally considered the correct boundary for Microwaves unlike the incorrect one used by David. The frequencies of 1 GHz and above tend to be line of sight and pass easily through all the layers of the atmosphere all the way up to 300GHz where it becomes opaque. The generally accepted term microwaves refers to SHF Frequencies from 3-30Ghz although with extensive software available today up to 100 GHz can be used for a very short distance. The power levels on most microwave is significantly lower than your Microwave Oven at home which usually outputs anywhere from 600-1500w of true power not EIRP which can be very misleading. So again sorry David you are wrong on this one as I have never seen anywhere near this kind of power from anything but a Ku-Band Satellite Terminal which was pointing up to a 45 degree angle, and was illegal for it to radiate any power below 7 degrees above the horizon as our station license demanded. I am a FCC GROL, and the lead engineer on that site, and yes we had a rad meter which never went off except if we had a waveguide leak, which brings me to the reason yours was probably going off in the elevator. I suspect you were in a building with a Distributed Antenna System where outside antennas were bringing in the 1.9Ghz of a Cellular Carrier, and distributing it inside the building via either “leaky coax” which was hidden above the acoustical ceiling or some form of patch antennas which can be made to look like smoke detectors but are actually omnidirectional antennas.
So in review no antennas on a building are outputing anything close to the power of you residential microwave oven, and probably not at that frequency of 2.4GHz which Wi-Fi works on, but in the milliwatt power range not megawatts as suggested.
&3′s
Elmer
KF5RUK
ln
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That being said I do think we need a training program on the hazards of RF period, and not just microwaves. The good news is most of this stuff is something that can be measured really easily, and usually you will feel a sensation on you skin well before the being baked from the insides out. The biggest hazard to these frequencies is the impact on your eyes as well as testicles being they are roughly the right diameter to absorb the specific frequencies between 3GHz and 100GHz that are so dangerous. No one thinks twice about the proximity of your VHF & UHF mobile antennas to your body when driving a vehicle so lets no scare people unnecessarily with all the being cooked from the insides out. The power limits the FCC dictates places the energy level well below the level we need to worry about radiation burns from being in the general area of an antenna. I do think if the club has a repeater on a roof top a FCC Database search should be done to determine what can be expected when working on the roof, and appropriate safety measures should be taken.
BTW Tropho-Scatter used 900MHz at many Kilowatts of power while all satellite communications uses at best about what a 2M rig puts out. This is public knowledge, but if you feel I violated national security go ahead and call the FBI they will laugh at you. They have far better things to do I am sure.
Elmer
KF5RUK Amateur Extra
PG 1022175 GROL
26Y20 Army MOS
ln
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The comment about calling the FBI was intended for David, and not you Lt. Col as you never suggested anything of that nature. I hope you didn’t take my debunking the Boca Raton story personally either as I have heard that story several times in many different cities as I worked in Telecommunications for 35 years, and been on lots of rooftops but according to the VA my eyes are about what you would expect for someone my age. The story does serve as an effective deterrent to the wrong people so maybe we will just let that one remain being told as it keeps the majority of the people away.Now if you were wanting to talk about someone climbing a commercial TV broadcast while still energized then I might expect some problems such as has been reported of increased dangers of blood clots. Microwaves tend to stay on the surface for all commercial microwave point to point radios which are 6Ghz and 11GHz, and some very limited 18Ghz stuff if you can live with the rain fade (this is about peak rain and rain drop size so some locations in the USA this is usable, but in the Gulf States it isn’t). I know there is commercially available radio above those frequencies at 24,60,80, and 90GHz but the range is so limited you would only use them if you absolutely couldn’t install fiber optic. When I say short range I am talk about 2km (yes KM and not miles). The attenuation curves when plotted are at 10GHz then again at 30GHz but about 10 times more attenuation by the atmosphere, and then again at 100Ghz that is even more attenuated that 30GHz by another factor of 10. The peaks correspond to the first being Rain at 10GHz as is the case with 18GHz as well, and 30GHz being water vapor (not rain just the humidity) the one at 100GHz is really impossible to do away with since it is from Oxygen. The free space loss on the microwave frequencies is so massive anything above 100Ghz all the way to 300GHz is merely experimental usage since it is very difficult to keep a radio link active for very long without very expensive technology.ElmerKF5RUK
ln
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Dave, I smell a troll. If the incident(s) you mention were so classified, you have already violated protocol by even mentioning them.
ln
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