My BF UV-5RE lights up a toy when keyed.

[JCNHB]

I took a video but the video won't upload. So I'll post a photo.

But by accident I discovered that my radio held within 4-5 inches of my son's light up toy makes it light up!

Man. Makes me have a better understanding of the kind of electricity that goes out when transmitting.

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[ResQguy]

And that is why we have permissible exposure limits. Remember these? Cell phone Accessories Faceplate Flashing antenna

 

[JCNHB]

Oh! Ok. I didn't know those things worked like that.

Well I'm not going to hold my HT so close any more when I speak.

Oddly, I didn't think exposure from my HT was a real issue...


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[Thayne]

It is good to be aware of what you have seen, but actually this mainly happens because of the poor manufacturing of the things your radio affects.
. If you hold it Close to a GFI receptacle and key it up it probably will trip it.
I used to set off car alarms just by driving thru a parking lot while keying up a Kenwood 450 MHZ mobile from at least 25 feet away.

 

[JCNHB]

Ok. I tried it on my Smith and Wesson flashlight and nothing happened.
So it's not actually powering the light. It's tripping the switch somehow.


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[r_eugene1]

Outside motion lights will come on also from the RF of a UHF transmitter. I keyed up my GMRS mobile (40 watts) while driving down the street at night and lit up about 4 or 5 of those lights on both sides of the street.

 

[Seriously_Tho]

That's hilarious

 

[MTS2000des]

the typical 4-6 watt portable VHF or UHF radio when transmitting can generate enough RF to disrupt many other electronic devices. It can disturb SCR based light dimmers, get into the audio amplifiers of sound systems, upset optical drives, you name it RF in the presence of something (especially if it is poorly shielded, which most cheap consumer stuff is against RF) can cause strange things to happen. It can even damage some things.

Pacemakers, for example, should not be in the near field (in other words, don't transmit with your HT using a body worn accessory with the antenna near your chest!) of a high powered RF device.

https://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Cond...erfere-with-Pacemakers_UCM_302013_Article.jsp

RF safety is not to be taken lightly. Not that you can kill yourself with 5 watts, but you should be aware that these power levels are much higher than what you might get off typical "license free" devices or cell phones.

Good source of information on RF Exposure for amateur radio operators:

RF Exposure

 

[902]

I would key up my 100 Watt UHF Syntor X9000 and leave a trail of car alarms. When Motorola came out with the T73 Spectra, I could light a fluorescent tube inside the passenger compartment. Guys didn't want to use those cars because of the "Uncle Fester." The high power Spectras would also change states on the DEK units from RF during transmit.

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[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Back in 1973 I was living in an apartment building in Des Plaines Illinois. I had a neighbor next door who would play really bad music really loud. His stereo was next to the wall between apartments. I found that I could transmit a 5W 2meter radio into my lamp cord and his stereo would start buzzing at 120% volume. I did this a few times and after that the volume never was turned up loud enough to bother me.

 

[902]

Back in 1973 I was living in an apartment building in Des Plaines Illinois. I had a neighbor next door who would play really bad music really loud. His stereo was next to the wall between apartments. I found that I could transmit a 5W 2meter radio into my lamp cord and his stereo would start buzzing at 120% volume. I did this a few times and after that the volume never was turned up loud enough to bother me.

When I lived in the Midwest, some undesirables were driving up and down the easement to a rental property someone owned behind mine. They had subwoofers that would shake the house and make my ears literally hurt. They refused to turn them down, so countermeasures were investigated - unfortunately with no success.

 

[Kingmobileaudio]

I wish my mono and 4 channel amps would block RF better

 

[mfn002]

This reminds me of something I saw on TV a few years ago. A paranormal investigation team was setting up gear in a room with a TV in it. When one of the investigators keyed up his radio (it looked like a VHF CP100) the TV turned on.

I don't know if this is RFI-related, but one day when I was little my house was very nearly struck by lightning. At the time, I had a toy police car with buttons on the back that triggered different sound effects. When the bolt hit, it set off the car.

 

[prcguy]

Some newer parking meters can be disrupted by transmitting in very close proximity with a 4w UHF handheld, which would be purely accidental of course. The meters go into a failure mode and just blink constantly. Please be careful as we don't want to read about all the parking meters in someones town all failing at once due to some long winded ham or GMRS operator talking too close to the meters.
prcguy