TABLE OF CONTENTS Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a serious and increasing form of environmental pollution. Its effects range from minor annoyances due to crackles on broadcast reception, to potentially fatal accidents due to corruption of safety-critical control systems. Various forms of EMI may cause electrical and electronic malfunctions, can prevent the proper use of the radio frequency spectrum, can ignite flammable or other hazardous atmospheres, and may even have a direct effect on human tissue. As electronic systems penetrate more deeply into all aspects of society, so both the potential for interference effects and the potential for serious EMI-induced incidents increases.
Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), then, is the absence of effects due to EMI. The definition of EMC, as it appears in the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary [152], is:
The ability of a device, equipment or system to function satisfactorily in its electromagnetic environment without introducing intolerable electromagnetic disturbance to anything in that environment.
Some reported examples of electromagnetic incompatibility are:
in Norfolk, various makes of car would go crazy when they passed a particular air defence radar installation dashboard indicators dropping to zero or maximum, lights and engines cutting out;
on one type of car, the central door locking and electric sunroof would operate when the car s mobile transmitter was used;
new electronic push-button telephones installed near the Brookmans Park medium wave transmitter in North London were constantly afflicted with BBC radio programmes;
interference to aeronautical safety communications at a US airport was traced...
