Occupational exposure of personnel operating military radio equipment: measurements and simulation

Abstract

Technical literature provides numerous studies concerning radiofrequency exposure measurements for various radio communication devices, but there are few studies related to exposure of personnel operating military radio equipment. In order to evaluate exposure and identify cases when safety requirements are not entirely met, both measurements and simulations are needed for accurate results. Moreover, given the technical characteristics of the radio devices used in the military, personnel mainly operate in the near-field region so both measurements and simulation becomes more complex. Measurements were made in situ using a broadband personal exposimeter equipped with two isotropic probes for both electric and magnetic components of the field. The experiment was designed for three different operating frequencies of the same radio equipment, while simulations were made in FEKO software using hybrid numerical methods to solve complex electromagnetic field problems. The paper aims to discuss the comparative results of the measurements and simulation, as well as comparing them to reference levels specified in military or civilian radiofrequency exposure standards.

• Action levels
• exposure limits
• measurement and simulation
• near-field region
• radiofrequency exposure
• safety requirements

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. Present work was supported by the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development POSDRU/159/1.5/S/137516 financed from the European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government. The opinions expressed in this article are the authors' own and do not reflect the view of the Romanian Ministry of National Defense or Technical University of Cluj Napoca. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.