I remember reading an article in QST about 25 years ago about a guy with a
pacemaker who fired up his HF rig and amplifier.  He became unconscious while
transmitting, but luckily he had a spring-loaded PTT button on his mike, so
when he passed out, he went off-air and recovered.

I assume that nowadays, the shilding on pacemakers is more robust than it was
then.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David W Wood" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2004 5:17 PM
Subject: Re: concerns when transmitting in a hospital


Hello

here in the U.K. all radio transmissions and cell phone usage is banned
in hospitals.  They can adversely affect some monitoring equipment.

As a physiotherapist, we are taught not to use short wave equipment on
patients with pacemakers.
As this struck me to be a bit silly as many hams using amps also have
pacemakers fitted, I contacted my good friend N4AR who is a heart
specialist.
Bill suggested that it was purely the manufacturers of the pacemakers
who were covering their own backs!

So i guess that the answer is still to use it till you are asked not to
do so, and yet be careful about it!

David


In message <[log in to unmask]>, Jeff Kenyon
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Hi everyone.  I volunteer at a Children's Hospital, and I always have my HT
>with me should something happen either there or weather wise, and I have
>tried getting to some repeaters in different parts of the hospital, and for
>the most part it works fine, though I don't know how strong I am into the
>repeaters when inside parts of the building.  I mainly transmit on 2-meters
>or 440 and have tried them both with no problem with some machines, and a
>few of the patients have been impressed even when I tell them all that I can
>do with ham radio.  Although nobody has complained I still am just wondering
>if anyone else has had other complaints when working from within a hospital?

--
David W Wood