Safe To Phone Home?

At the moment the media is full of claim and counter-claim about the safety of mobile phones. Off the record this may be, the background is set not by a journalist after an award but by the laws of physics.

In the summer of 1980, a confident candidate sat in a sultry St Helen's House in Derby to take his City & Guilds Certificate 5760. It was in two parts. The first made sure you knew all about the theory of owning a radio transmitter, the second made sure you were very aware of the safety aspect - your health and the health of others. Once you'd got a pass in both papers, you had your "ticket". You are now a Radio Ham, free to use a radio transmitter in your own home and, for a certain generation, slowly turn into Tony Hancock.

If you prepared to take a second exam and a practical test, you could get a licence to allow you to use transmitters that got you around the world. Why mention this now? For a few quid, you can pick up a mobile phone containing a radio transmitter and with no experience, licensing or training, you are "on the air." Sour grapes? The writer doing a six-week course attaining Credit Pass in two papers to clear him for radio transmitter use while anybody else can use a mobile phone?

Not really. In the training period, you learn things. You learn that a burn received from a transmitter does not heal. Radio Hams carry these with the same panache as cavalry officers. You learn that RF - radio energy - has the power to heat things. In an extreme case, it is used to smelt aluminium. You learn water has a natural frequency of 2.4GHz. If you put a glass of water near a transmitter on this frequency, it gets very hot. This is how microwave ovens work. The Orange and One-2-One networks work on 1.8GHz. With the brain consisting of over 80% water, it's too close for comfort. Cellnet and Vodafone work on half that frequency but at higher power. The jury is still out on that one.

The writer does not have a mobile for these reasons. Or perhaps he's still bitter. For those that have them, keep the calls short...

Bob Ellis - G8YQL