Safety Notice
Dear Members and Associates
You all need to be careful when you set-up your radio installation at your home or in the field. There are two basic areas; Electrical safety (which includes the earthing system) and RF radiation safety.
1.0 Electrical Safety
To safeguard your life and that of others you must always have your electrical installation installed by and/or checked by a qualified electrician.
You are aware from your training that you NEVER install your antenna near overhead PUC mains feed cables so that in the case of a mechanical failure your antenna or mast/tower would touch those cables.
You should also use lightning protection systems to prevent any lightning strikes travelling back to your equipment and you in the 'shack'.
2.0 RF Safety
When you transmit RF energy from an antenna you need to be aware of the required exclusion zone dimensions and the measures you need to take to prevent other people from accidentally entering that zone whilst you are transmitting and cannot see the exclusion zone. The size of the exclusion zone depends on the amount of power being transmitted, the gain of the antenna and the frequency of the RF signal. This link below takes you to a very respectable source of information which you should take time to read and those documents that it refers to within the document.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/220798/emf-licence-condition-what-you-need-to-know-amateur-radio.pdf
If you have any questions or require advice on how to best build your shack there is a lot of useful information on the RSGB site on the link below
https://rsgb.org/main/get-started-in-amateur-radio/setting-up-your-shack/safety-in-the-shack/
You all need to be careful when you set-up your radio installation at your home or in the field. There are two basic areas; Electrical safety (which includes the earthing system) and RF radiation safety.
1.0 Electrical Safety
To safeguard your life and that of others you must always have your electrical installation installed by and/or checked by a qualified electrician.
You are aware from your training that you NEVER install your antenna near overhead PUC mains feed cables so that in the case of a mechanical failure your antenna or mast/tower would touch those cables.
You should also use lightning protection systems to prevent any lightning strikes travelling back to your equipment and you in the 'shack'.
2.0 RF Safety
When you transmit RF energy from an antenna you need to be aware of the required exclusion zone dimensions and the measures you need to take to prevent other people from accidentally entering that zone whilst you are transmitting and cannot see the exclusion zone. The size of the exclusion zone depends on the amount of power being transmitted, the gain of the antenna and the frequency of the RF signal. This link below takes you to a very respectable source of information which you should take time to read and those documents that it refers to within the document.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/220798/emf-licence-condition-what-you-need-to-know-amateur-radio.pdf
If you have any questions or require advice on how to best build your shack there is a lot of useful information on the RSGB site on the link below
https://rsgb.org/main/get-started-in-amateur-radio/setting-up-your-shack/safety-in-the-shack/