Electromagnetic radiation detection meters
To hear and ‘see’ the EMF levels surrounding you, you can purchase a radio frequency meter such as an Acousticom 2. This will give you readings of the exposure levels in your home and street and enable you to pinpoint EMF hotspots.
This one shows a power density range of 0-6V/m (0.1W/m2) with a frequency range of 0.2-8 GHz which is sufficient for most uses. The other model Acoustimeter (shown below) also includes a power density scale in μW/m2 which can be useful as some guidance charts use only μW/m2.
The Acousticom can be purchased from emf-protection.co.uk or other options from here.
N.B. The above product links are options only rather than recommendations. Please do your own research. We hope to offer more guidance in purchasing and using meters at a later date.)
Detection range and power density
Range – mobile phones operate between approximately 0.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz (4G), 3.4 GHz (5G), modems on 2 channels currently 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
A meter with a range up to 8 GHz will detect radio frequency radiation which is currently being used. The mmWave 5G at 24 GHz, 60 GHz, 90 GHz is being trialled in some areas but is not what mobile phone 5G currently works with. There are no meters available at an affordable price that can pick up frequencies above 8GHz. This means that we, the general public, are unable to find out where 5G mmWave frequencies are being used and so cannot take measures to avoid being exposed to them.
Power level – home use meters like these go up to 6V/m because it is considered that any reading higher than that is unacceptable and so anything ‘in the red’ around 4-6 V/m is enough to demand attention.
The ICNIRP maximum safe exposure guideline, by contrast, is 56 V/m (10W/m2)! even though health effects are being reported as low as 0.06 V/m (10μW/m2). The EU parliament in 2001, however, recommended maximum public exposure levels of 0.2 V/m.
The German Building Biology Institute recommends no higher than 0.05 V/m (10 μW/m2) for only slight effects (though for electrosensitive people even less than this creates a problem), with severe effects set at 0.7 V/m (1000 μW/m2)
See also our Safe Levels page for more guidance and background.