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www.southgatearc.org
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New questions surrounding Israeli non-ionising radiation lawThe following item is from Amateur Radio Newsline Some questions are arising regarding last week's item regarding a new law in Israel that holds the potential of driving many high frequency stations off the air as of January 2007. The story originated with the Radio Society of Great Britain's GB2RS
News Service. It quoted an unnamed spokesman for Israel's ham radio community
as saying that the harsh new rules were pushed through by government following
public concern over the safety of mobile phone masts. The RSGB's source
added that it seems that all this has come about from the public near-hysteria
over the presence of cellular Shortly after our story went to air we received several communications from Israeli hams telling us that they had never heard of such a new law. We were also provided a link to an on-line statement made last spring and published in the on-line edition of the Israeli ham radio magazine Hagal International. It said -- and we quote: "The Ministry is involved with the Non- Ionized Radiation Law, and the Ministry is working towards a classification for radio amateurs that will provide an across-the-board exemption for our stations. The Ministry will continue to be of assistance to the amateurs in all that is necessary." We immediately dashed off notes to both the Israel Amateur Radio Club and to the RSGB asking clarification. In the meantime, we did a bit of on-line research and found the actual 24 page law referred to in the original story. It was signed into law last January by then Israeli Prime Minister Aerial Sharon. Like the RSGB said, it does cover all aspects of non-ionizing radiation and at the time it was released there were no exclusions for ham radio operations. That seems to include under 20 watt VHF stations mentioned last week. The only exclusions at all are for normal household appliances milliwatt transmitters limited to very specific frequency ranges. The crux of the new law is summed up in one paragraph issued by the Ministry
of the Environment to help explain it. It says that each individual base
station must comply with the professional requirements of the Ministry
and must not expose the public to radiation levels exceeding those determined
by the ministry under conditions of maximum Meantime, spokesman for the Israel Amateur Radio Club has told the ARRL that the organization is unaware of any licensing changes and has been unable to get the original RSGB story verified by Israeli licensing authorities. Some reference websites:
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