Women Fights to have ham radio operations banned after potential interference with insulin pump.

A Marion County women in Florida is fighting to have David Birge , Wb9uyk stop using his ham radio equipment. She says her insulin pump has been providing the wrong dosage amounts lately so she had it replaced with another insulin pump. She is still having the same problem. From what I understand these devices have a base unit and a portable wireless unit that communicate wirelessly. They showed his station on the air, a beautiful NEW Yaesu 101DX with an Ameritron 811H. That system runs at less than half the legal limit!


Help me out with this. Doesn't her
wireless pump fall under FCC Rules Part 15 which says:

This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

The community hired an outside engineer firm that stated his VHF and UHF systems didn't interfere, but his HF gear may be the source of the problem. Is it possible this problem could be mitigated by some way other than banning David's use of ham radio? She claims with out this device "I will Die!" with out insulin , she will die, but not with out that device. there may be another insulin pump that has some better RF filtering or uses a different frequency pair that's not susceptible to RF interference. Someone knowledgeable needs to step up and help David. She claims "he can just quit his hobby" That's absurd! He seems heart broken when he describes how he must quit his favorite hobby he's enjoyed for half his life! Here is the youtube link below.



P.S. would it be wrong for me to make an offer on his Yaesu.....just kidding that's horrible!!

73's

Paul Zappulla
Ka4wht

 

Wonder if she is also allergic to WiFi?

Do ham radio transmitters fall under part 15 rules?

 

I blame it on DBI (Dove Bar Interference).

 

No , ham radio falls under Part 97. Her insulin pump is governed by Part 15.

 

yes. It would be expensive for the insulin pump manufacturer to modify its design for such a rare issue. I do find it interesting that a “hobby radio service” would be prioritized over a medical device. I learn something new everyday. Two sides to every issue.

 

why should he shut down? Why don't she just move.

 

As a diabetic, she knows that she could revert to testing and manual injections as needed. An insulin pump is little more than a quality of life device. It is an electronically controlled and monitored pump that can fail or push an incorrect/ill timed bolus dosing prior to need or after need. Likewise, the basal amount can be mis-administered, above the baseline or below.

She provides no real diagnostic information, other to claim her device is malfunctioning. She needs to explore the possibility of malfunction with her physician and the manufacturer, prior to making claims of RF interference coming from a known amateur radio operator.

This is, sadly, another reason to stay quiet about your hobbies in your immediate neighborhood.

 

Indeed - none of my antennae are visible outside the house and I never tell anyone that I'm a ham - what they don't know might hurt them, but not my problem!

Martin (G8FXC)

 

There's a bit of drama here.

Insulin pumps do not have to be wireless. The wireless pumps are relatively new.
If radio makes the pump erratic, then removing one radio is not going to correct
the problem.

 

does he keep a log of the time and frequency of his transmissions? compare them with the times her device malfunctions. to verify if in fact it was his signal and not lets say some other interference somewhere in the area she lives. maybe their is another person in the area with the same pump device and they are interfering with each other.

 

As an EE who has worked on many EMI issues, including with several medical device manufacturers, t find this disturbing on many levels. 1) has she worked with the insulin pump manufacturer to address this problem? While they had to pass strict EMI requirements (ISO 14708-4 and IEC 60601), these only require RF Immunity performance testing at 10V/m from 80 to 2700 MHz for home devices. I doubt he could hit 10 V/m from a few doors down on 20 meters, but who knows what the immunity level of her infusion pump is at 14 MHz? 2) the HOA and the local community do not have the legal standing to force this amateur off the air. The FCC has federal preemption to regulate all transmitters--of all classes (including medical devices)--in the USA. I believe this licensed amateur radio operator must have voluntarily went off the air. 3) The insulin pump was described as a wireless device. There are many choices of frequencies that could be used for the device to communicate with her external controller. Let's hope the manufacturer didn't foolishly pick something in the HF band--I highly doubt it because the antennas are very inefficient at such low frequencies. But whatever frequency they use for the receiver could easily be overloaded by a nearby transmitter--such as WiFi, BT, 5G, CB, ham, cell phone, RFID, or even your LED light bulbs--all of which transmit some level of RF at some frequencies. And, as hams, we all know that all of these devices cause interference. I can't question that this woman's infusion pump is subject to malfunction from RF interference--there is plenty of literature describing similar problems with many implantable medical devices that use an RF link. She SHOULD be talking with the device manufacturer because others users could experience similar dangerous conditions just driving by an AM broadcast station because of poor RF immunity. 4) And, for heavens sake, can we improve the immunity requirements to include the HF band? I've always been frustrated by this requirement--as a ham, I know there are many legal devices radiating below 80 MHz.

 

I saw an FT1200, not a 101. However, the lady told a lie and will not “Die” she can administer to insulin herself, surely? This seems grossly unfair on the Ham.

 

Hi John, good to see your contribution on this issue.

In another QRZ thread on this same story over in the Ham Radio Discussions forum its mentioned by @W6EM the insulin device may be a Medtronic unit.

If so, there is some interesting info online from Medtronic regarding CELL PHONE interference to some of their products. See chart and footnotes on this web page and in image below.

Seeing that my expectation is that this patients issues are from cell phone or possibly BT/WiFi QRM, not HF.

In that other thread I also mentioned that if this is indeed a Medtronic product, perhaps Steve @K0SF would be a good contact to obtain direction for assistance from them.

73, John, WØPV



Legend

x = Remove item when in the presence of this equipment.
checkmark = Continue to use normally.

Site Only = Customer able to keep site on their body.

1 = Common consumer electronic devices that transmit in the same frequency band used by the MMT-7703 MiniLink® transmitter may prevent your CGM monitor or insulin pump from receiving the glucose information sent by the transmitter. Most cellular (mobile) phones and 900 MHz cordless phones, when transmitting or receiving, may cause significant interruption of transmitter-receiver communication. It is likely that other devices operating in similar frequency ranges will have a similar effect. This interference, however, will not cause any incorrect data to be sent and will not cause any harm to your transmitter.

(These statements while perhaps true seem to potentially be a bit conflicting from a functional perspective, eh? - WØPV)

2 = Common consumer wireless devices that transmit in the same 916.5MHz/868.35MHz frequency band used by the MMT-7709 CGMS iPro Digital Recorder (DR) transmitter may prevent the DR transmitter from downloading appropriately to Solutions CGMS iPro through the MMT-7304NPRO/MMT-7304WPRO COMLINK iPro receiver. Most cellular (mobile) phones and 900 MHz cordless phones, when transmitting or receiving, may cause significant disruption to communication between the DR transmitter and the COMLINK iPro receiver. It is likely that other wireless devices co-existing in similar frequency ranges will have a similar effect. This interference, however, will not cause any incorrect data to be sent and will not cause any harm to your digital recorder.

! = Your continuous glucose monitor (CGM) system is safe for use on commercial airlines. If questioned by airline personnel about use of your Medical Portable Electric Device (M-PED), please show them your airport emergency card. If the airline flight crew still request that you turn off your personal CGM system, you must comply. The CGM transmitter is an M-PED with emission levels that meet RTCA/DO160D Section 21, Category M. Per FAA Advisory Circular #91-21.1B, dated 8/25/2006, any medical portable electronic device (M-PED) that meets RTCA/DO160D Section 21, Category M in any mode "may be used onboard the aircraft without any further testing by the operator."

 

This Ham surrendered to this womens phobia without a lawful order. Why ?
The EMI consultants report was not conclusive. In my opinion the EMI consultant did all parties a disservice by not testing the insulin devices immunity to RF and not testing the field intensity within her home when Mr Ham keys up on his favorite bands. A few hours of work by folks experienced in this arena could determine root cause. And the woman wants all radio transmissions within 300 feet of her home banned by law !

This is not a difficult thing to figure out.