I just returned from hiking a 7800 ft. mountain. As my friends and I neared the summit, we saw a sign warning us that there were high radio frequency emissions. A little farther on, there were more signs warning that the radio frequency emissions had been determined to greatly surpass the maximum amount humans should be subjected to. There were lots of huge, heavy-duty radio towers up there. Needless to say, we summited without our heads exploding or Katy Perry songs coming in through our fillings.
But really, what is the danger here? How long would we have had to stay up there in order to suffer ill effects? If one of us had been wearing a pacemaker (in which case, why would you embark on such a rigorous hike?), I could see the issue there, but the signs said “humans,” not “humans wearing pacemakers.”
I’d appreciate any enlightenment by the wiser heads here at SD. Thanks!!
You could get really warm really fast. MHz radio waves are down near microwaves in the electromagnetic spectrum. They don’t have enough energy to knock electrons loose; the worst they will do is be absorbed by your body and manifested as heat.
What it probably means is that you were hiking in California, which has determined everything and anything to be hazardous to human health. While there is a level of radio which is dangerous to humans, you wouldn’t be reaching that level unless you were climbing the towers and playing around with the dishes.
So how long would one have to be exposed to high RF for this warming to be noticeable? I was up there half an hour, and, while I don’t have testes (being a woman and all), my eyeballs were just fine. In fact, I had an eye doctor appointment this afternoon and got a good report. I didn’t feel any hotter up there, either, though the wind was blowing, so maybe I wouldn’t have noticed.
For the record, I’m not in California. And if I wake up a raging conservative, I’ll post in the Pit.
Radio waves can have an effect on people, but this is dependent on the frequency and the power output. After all, radio waves at a frequency of 2.45 GHz (Wikipedia cite) cook food in microwave ovens, as Mr. Moto noted above.
But even lower-frequency radio waves, such as those of a commercial radio station, can make a person feel odd, if the power output is high enough. As Wolfman Jack, who broadcast from a Mexican border blaster station at 250,000 watts of power noted (and see the bottom of this post for the source):
According to Wikipedia, the frequency of Wolfman’s station (XERF) is 1570 KHz nowadays (no idea what it was in Wolfman’s day, though it would have been among the AM frequencies of 530 KHz to about 1600 KHz), which is much less than the frequency of a microwave oven. Still, as Wolfman notes, at 250,000 watts of power, it did have an effect on people and animals nearby.
Now, with all that being said, what kind of danger was the OP in? I’d suggest very little, if any; especially if the OP did not report feeling hotter than normal, or other symptoms of a problem. From a common-sense point of view, if the area really was dangerous, there would be more protection than just a few signs–a fence, perhaps, keeping hikers out of the danger zone. And if the power output was strong enough, but the only effect was “a drug-free high” and the need for a heavy nap, then that’s not so bad. You’re just going to the top of the mountain; Wolfman worked in the environment every day.
My guess would be that the signs are there for liability purposes–if somebody does feel ill somehow, but went beyond the signs, they won’t be able to blame the operators of the towers. Source of the Wolfman Jack quotation above:
Wolfman Jack, Have Mercy: Confessions of the Original Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal, (New York: Warner Books, 1995), pp. 122-123.
