Amateur Radio RF Safety Calculator

This is a main beam power density estimation program intended for use as part of a routine evaluation of RF safety compliance with FCC regulations. Amateur Radio operators licensed by the Federal Communications Commission of the United States of America are required to do a "routine evaluation" of the strength of the RF fields around their stations, subject to certain exemptions. These rules can be found in the FCC's ET Docket No. 93-62. More information can be found at the ARRLWeb's RF Safety page.

This program uses the formulas given in FCC OET Bulletin No. 65 to estimate power density in the main lobe of an antenna, with use of the EPA-recommended ground reflection factor as an option. This program is intended for approximate far-field calculations. It may overestimate the actual field strength of high-gain antennas in the near field (within several wavelengths of the antenna.) However, it may also underestimate the strength of fields that may be encountered in hot spots in the near field. No computer program can predict where wiring or reflective objects may create hot spots in your particular installation.

This is a World Wide Web front end for a public domain C program written by Ken Harker WM5R using the cgic library. This program has been derived directly from a public domain BASIC program written and published by Wayne Overbeck N6NB in the January, 1997 issue of CQ VHF, p. 33.