A large part of obtaining and holding an amateur radio license is related to preventing radio interference. In the past, this meant interference with analog TV broadcasts, but as more and more complex devices became commonplace in the home, it became more and more applicable.This caused a sensation in Marion County, Florida, where An amateur radio enthusiast in an elderly community shut it down after a potential connection between his radio station and another resident’s insulin pump. There is an ongoing legal challenge related to the complex building’s rules on transmitting antennas.
Any impact on the insulin pump is obviously a serious matter, and it sounds as if the radio amateur concerned did the right thing. But it is obvious that in this case, whether due to amateur radio transmission or not, serious problems have arisen, because the medical equipment produced by the manufacturer is very susceptible to the influence of the radio frequency field, which should be a concern for everyone. We hope that the FCC may be interested in this story and understand it in a fair way, because whether it is radio amateurs, insulin pumps or other problems, it will bring risks to anyone relying on such equipment.
Perhaps this may also be the case of ARRL, as we reported before in some form of radio survey.
[Main image source: MailariX, CC-BY-SA 4.0]