The following are some useful links to tools to help with EMC work
Paper on multiple sources (HB9AZO)
Heinrich Häberlin HB9AZO, of the IARU Regioin 1 EMC Committee, has looked into the theory which is behind the accumulation of noise. This is something most radio amateurs have experienced. In this article Henry enlightens us on the theory, with some examples of the impact in two different scenarios — a 2‑and 3‑dimentional model. His simulations are implemented in Excel. The paper has been one of several sent to CISPR on accumulation of noise. His paper is found here
Radio Frequency Interference Guide
A useful guide has been produced by the Ministry of Economic Development in New Zealand (Radio Spectrum Management department), the principles of which have broad applicability in support of identification and resolution of radio interference issues.
Calibration of field strength monitors
In cooperation between DARC and the national standards institute of Germany, an article on the calibration of field strength monitors has been published in the well known magazine “Advances in Radio Science”. It covers a detailed description of a possible calibration setup including uncertainty calculations. You can download abstract and full article here.
ICNIRPcalc
ICNIRPcalc allows you to calculate the distance people need to stay away from a given antenna, so European exposure limits are not exceeded. The new Version has German, English, French and Swedish language capabilities now and the antenna database has been enlarged. Download here.
QRM estimator
The QRM-Estimator is a small tool to calculate the field strength of a disturbace at a certain distance with respect to the measurement limits spelled out in ECC Recomendation 05(04). It can be used to estimate, if a disturbance from a wire line bould telecommunication application causes an interferance at the amateur’s receiving location, with respect to the limit. A version for Andoid tablet or phone can be downloaded by using the google play store and search for “QRMcalc”, or can be downloaded here.
Another program called RxInterferanceLevel estimates the signal level to be expected in your receiver near a disturbance source operating on the power line.
VDSL Interference
The number of instances of interference from VDSL has increased over the last couple of years in the UK. To help amateurs to detect interference from VDSLthe RSGB has drawn up a leaflet, the 15th in a series of EMC leaflets which the RSGB EMCC has produced.
Interference from solar PV optimisers
A report by HB9AZO of investigations in to interference from solar PV optimisers can be found here
Other reports (in German) on disturbances by optimisers are available here:
https://www.uska.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/HBradio‑3 – 2020_HB9AZO‑S.-48 – 50.cor_.pdf
LED lighting
More and more LED lights are entering the market and are being used by radio amateur and their neighbours. There is a limit to maximum disturbance voltage on the mains port defined in EN55015, which is equivalent to the protection of EN55022, however it is not fully implemented within the EU due to a transition period of the standard.
As consequence, we can observe some LED lights causing only little trouble, others however cause a great amount of harmful interference due to mains line radiation. As worst case, we identified some LED lights which could be as far as 40 — 60 dB over the limit on some frequencies. In the following paper you can monitor some measurements [1] we have done ourselves under non emc lab conditions, however there is also an ETSI paper available [2], which addresses the problem.
We suggest to monitor the development in your country closely and make your own measurements, if feasible.
[1]: Initial test results (2015)
[2]: ERMTG28(11)0095_LED_invistigation.pdf (for ETSI members only)
Noise reporter v 1.0
Anyone who wants to help sustainably stop the decay of the electromagnetic environment, must first consider the level of the electromagnetic interference in relation to the expected level. This is relatively simple using NoiseReporter, which is based on ITU‑R P.372 – 12 as a basis for intended radio reception.
The Essential Requirements as laid out in the EU directive for the immunity of equipment [1] need a measurable reference. Among the ITU Member States for that purpose the ITU‑R P.372 – 12 is known to quantify the man made noise expected in a given environment. [2]. In particular, the immunity tests in harmonised standards presume with their severities a given electromagnetic environment, which refer to the ITU‑R P.372 – 12 as reference.
If you wish to qualify your environment, try NoiseReporter and download here.
Note: This is Version 1.0 and first publication. It is likely, that there are bugs in the software. If you find a bug, please report with detailed description to the author.
Sources:
[1] Quotation from EMC-Directive 2014/30/EU: “Equipment shall be so designed and manufactured, having regard to the state of the art, as to ensure that: .…(b) it has a level of immunity to the electromagnetic disturbance to be expected in its intended use which allows it to operate without unacceptable degradation of its intended use.
[2] Recommendation ITU‑R P.372 – 12 (07÷2015) Radio noise