Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
While cell phones do not operate on the same frequency as the modems, they are capable of some high signal levels that could cause local inteference which could cause the radio modems trouble. It is one of the reasons that wireless communication is not allowed at the playing field.
From section 3.14.3 Pit and Competition Safety
Two-way radios: Not allowed in the Pit or near the playing field since they may interfere with robot operation and cause accidents.
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If our new radios continue to have problems, I plan to run a poor man's RS103 test (1 V/m, 30MHz-9GHz) in a 3m shielded room to see if I can cause the problem to crop up at a specific frequency range. I might be able to push the field strength with some hacking up to 5 V/m from 1-8GHz, which includes the cell phone band.
For the interested reader, RS-103 is part of a battery of tests performed under MIL-STD-461D (the new E is very similar) for military qualification of electronic products. Commercial products rarely need to meet a susceptibility requirement, other than the generic FCC Part 15 statement for intentional radiators that says they "must accept any interference caused by the legal operation of other radio services".
I suspect no one is really interested in EMI though
