Five Fundamental Factors for Choosing an EMF Meter

Want to make an informed decision when purchasing an EMF meter? Hold on tight as we unlock the mystery of selecting the right one! We go through the five crucial factors you need to consider to ensure your measurements are accurate and reliable. Overlook any of these, and you may end up with flawed readings that could potentially compromise your health.

Ever wondered how to determine the right EMF meter for measuring exposure levels? We reveal the factors that play a significant role, such as the type of EMF phenomenon, the required frequency range, and the desired level of accuracy. We also discuss the importance of sensitivity and third-party verification. Remember, you can't afford to be wrong about this - high accuracy is crucial for your well-being. 

Are you ready to take proactive steps towards a safer EMF environment? We talk about the importance of reducing personal EMF exposure and offer insights on how personalized coaching can make your journey more efficient. Imagine having tailored guidance to create a safer and healthier living space for you and your family. It's time to take control and safeguard your health from harmful electromagnetic radiation. Tune in, and let's embark on this journey together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Selecting the right EMF meter can be a daunting process. Let me guide you through the maze and help you eliminate the confusion. Before diving into price features or any other factors, there are five fundamental factors you must know about any EMF meter you're considering for purchase. Miss these and once the excitement of a new purchase wears off, you might realize your meter doesn't measure up, isn't capable of doing the job you need. So what are these crucial factors Coming?

Speaker 2: 0:58

up. Emf Remedy is dedicated to helping you understand which electromagnetic threats are present in your home and whether, in the context of your current home, when you're considering for purchase or building a new home with comprehensive protection designed in, EMF Remedy can help you reduce your family's exposure to harmful manmade electromagnetic radiation.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Hi, this is Keith Cutter with EMF Remedycom and you're listening to reversing electromagnetic poisoning, where we help you take control of the non-native EMF in your home. And guess what? We are thinking about renaming the podcast. I don't know if I'm thinking about this just because we're about to hit our one year anniversary with the podcast, or maybe it's something more than that. I would like your inputs and I'll tell you about an exciting new way we have of allowing you to provide inputs in a moment. But the reason I want inputs and in considering changing the name of the podcast is, you know, reversing electromagnetic poisoning was always meant to be very descriptive of what, in my opinion, we're going through. You know, the ancient Romans were all poisoning themselves with lead.

Speaker 1: 2:36

And if you haven't heard that episode, you might want to take a listen to the wine or sweet in old Rome. It makes the case that everyone who died in that age in Rome died with lead poisoning not necessarily from it, but with it, and the permanent intellectual disabilities and the sexual dysfunction and the many, many issues associated with lead poisoning were pervasive throughout the whole society. Because everyone men, women and children, all ages, all social classes drink the lead tainted wine. And we are doing something even worse. If you have cell phone coverage in your area or Wi-Fi coverage in your area, you are being exposed to harmful manmade electromagnetic radiation. And you guys know I agree with Dr Neil Cherry that the only known level of safe exposure to non-native EMF is zero, yes, zero. All of that argues for the position that we are all of us undergoing a type of poisoning, electromagnetic poisoning. So that was part of the thinking behind the naming of this podcast a year ago, reversing Electromagnetic Poisoning how to take control of the non-native EMF environment in your home. However, it doesn't roll off the tongue and it might be too scary for some people. I don't know. What do you guys think? Do you think it's too direct? Do you think it's too intimidating. You think we should do something shorter and sweeter, maybe something more accessible? I have something in mind. Maybe I'll mention it next week, but for now you can drop me a line through the website. Just go to our contact page at emfremedycom, or we've got something new. Go to the website, navigate to the podcast tab and you can leave a voicemail. You can leave me a voicemail and say hey, keith, I think it's a great idea. I think we should rename it and here's why. Or, keith, your idea is terrible. I like what we have. We're going to keep that. Tell me why. I want to hear why, and let me know. Do you want me to be able to play your comments on the air? Because it may be kind of fun to play some of those on the air. We'll just have to see how that goes, how many people want to respond, and if you want to ask a question, you're welcome to leave it there as well.

Speaker 1: 5:45

So with that, by way of introduction, let's turn our attention to five fundamental factors. Do you like that alliteration? I kind of like it. Five fundamental factors you must understand when choosing an EMF meter. And I want to tell you, because this is a podcast, we get to spend a little bit more time. If this was YouTube, you already would have turned me off because I didn't get to the point in the first three nanoseconds.

Speaker 1: 6:20

So I'm going to tell you how I came up with this idea, and it has to do with paradigm or perspective. The way in which you see the world determines so much of the way that you interact with it, and over the course of time you can kind of forget what your paradigm is and you're just operating on it sort of by I don't know by instinct or by habit. So a few weeks back I bought a new microphone and when the microphone came in the mail, I did what anyone in my position would do I cast aside the technical documentation. I say this I once managed a very large group of technical writers and graphic designers who are very talented, and their job and my job at that time was to produce that technical documentation. So we hated it when people would cast it aside for a complex technical product because it would mean we'd get more support calls. Anyway, guess what I did? I cast the documentation aside. I hooked up the microphone and began using it and everything was okay.

Speaker 1: 7:38

I didn't actually really well, maybe I did need to refer to it once and as I glanced at it again, I saw something that you know we all have this sort of pattern recognition that we do. I recognize this pattern and On one hand, it kind of went into my brain and I ignored it because I've lived in this paradigm for so long, many decades, that I ingested the information and went forward. And then I thought for a moment about this podcast and about choosing an EMF meter and about doing a good job of choosing an EMF meter. And the little graphic that I saw when I was buying a microphone was a frequency response chart, and I've been looking at those since I was a teenager and I'm not near a teenager you can go to the website and see my old face If you'd like so it was a long time ago. I started looking at frequency response graphs for different applications and, of course, I went later and I worked for a company that was synonymous in certain industries with test and measurement and analytical equipment and that was all steeped in not only frequency response curves but accuracy and sensitivity and all of these kind of things that they form a paradigm, they form a way of thinking about things and that's kind of what we're going to be getting into today.

Speaker 1: 9:29

It's sort of the way somebody with a technical background looks at anything that proposes to give him information about the outside world. It doesn't matter if it's a thermometer or something more complicated than that, so let's get started Right. So the basics of EMF measurement. If you're concerned about non-native EMF for health reasons, you will want to know into what range, what category of exposure you're measuring. Right, the people who come to me for help in getting the non-native EMF under control in their homes are interested in either just reducing their exposure levels period, or they come to me and you know they're sort of communicating the idea Keith, I got to get to zero as soon as possible. Well, we can't make any progress along the way without knowing exactly where they are in the many different types of different types of electromagnetic fields. And then, once we apply our work, the various remediation factors, we can't get anywhere without being able to remeasure in saying, oh yeah, we accomplished the objective, we reduced the intensity, the field strength of that particular type of EMF.

Speaker 1: 11:10

And we've talked before on this podcast about there being different categories an ideal level of exposure, a slight level of exposure, an extreme level exposure, a severe level exposure. Where are you? Where are you now? Where do you want to be? Where do you need to be? And then, if you have a meter or a collection of meters to measure the different types of energies, the different types of non-native EMF, where do you want to be in each one of those? So that's what we're really trying to do when we buy an EMF meter. They're kind of fun because they're a new toy and everything, but it's got real work to do.

Speaker 1: 12:03

So let me give you an example. You might want to make sure your RF radiation exposure that's just one type of EMF you might want to make sure your RF radiation exposure is in the ideal range. Well, to be in the ideal range, you need less than one-tenth of a microwatt per square meter of field intensity, and you might want to make sure that before you rent the apartment, for example. Now how little radiation is that? That's one-tenth of one-millionth of one watt per square meter. It's a pretty tiny amount. I would argue even that level is too much. I'm with Neil Cherry, as I mentioned, and the appropriate level of exposure without harm is zero. So that's more than zero. It is the envy of anybody who lives in a city and, depending on the city you live in, you may not be able to accomplish that even within your sleep sanctuary, but that's another matter. So the meter you bought might read as low as 25 one-thousandths of one-millionth of a watt per square meter, or it might read as high as ten. So as low as 25 one-thousandths or as high as ten, while the actual field intensity is one-tenth of a microwatt per square meter.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Did you know this? Did you know that you can buy a meter and it can be giving you one reading on its face and the underlying, the actual field intensity, is much different than that? Were you aware of that? Is that okay? Because no matter what price features or other considerations, the bottom line is you wanna know what the levels are and what you're being exposed to, right? So you need to know these five things. So here they are.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Here are the five fundamental factors. I'm gonna tell all of them to you and then I'm gonna go through one at a time and explain them. Number one is the type of EMF phenomenon, whether, for example, it's an electric field, a magnetic field or RF radiation. Two is the required frequency range. Three is the desired level of accuracy. Four is the necessary sensitivity, and that is different than accuracy. And then five is the presence of third party verification or, as I like to think of it, who says? In other words, who says this thing is accurate, all right, so, first of all, what type of EMF phenomenon are you measuring? You probably know by now, but maybe we have a new listener this episode. An electric field is not a magnetic field, which is not a radio frequency field. And all three of these things electric fields, magnetic fields and radio frequency fields are of concern if you're trying to limit your exposure to harmful manmade electromagnetic radiation.

Speaker 1: 15:59

So the very first question is what type of phenomenon are you measuring? And please remember, with regard to radio frequency radiation or RF, it is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, but it is not the only thing that's important. It's not the only field worthy of examination. If the meter you're reading and this is a very important point if the meter you're considering purports to cover multiple phenomenon in other words, you're getting an all in one meter, for example, that says it's going to do electric, magnetic and RF, or you're getting one that says it's doing both electric and magnetic fields, for example you'll need to separately evaluate each of the four for each phenomenon. So this is critically important, and what I'm talking about each of the four is the next four factors that we're gonna be talking about. So you'll have to examine the electric field capability in terms of frequency range, accuracy, sensitivity and third party verification the same with magnetic fields, the same with RF. If you're looking at an all in one so critically important, please keep that in mind. The second factor is what is the required frequency range? So the frequency range of an EMF meter defines the range of electromagnetic frequencies it can detect.

Speaker 1: 18:00

Electromagnetic fields encompass a oh my gosh a very wide spectrum. When I was involved in radio, we would talk about the ideal receiver or the ideal transmitter having a frequency range of DC to daylight, and what that meant was a frequency range of zero, which would be direct current to daylight, which would be in the quintillion frequencies measured in quintillions, I think, that's numbers having 16 zeros after them. We're talking about tiny, tiny little waves and, by the way, it's absurd, there is nothing that can measure a range that large. In fact, the difficult truth of it all is that, even within a particular phenomenon like electric fields or RF, if you will to have any kind of hope for accuracy and sensitivity, you're going to have to limit yourself to a particular range, and so that's what choosing the required frequency range is all about.

Speaker 1: 19:31

Electromagnetic fields encompass a wide spectrum, from ELF for extreme low frequencies, to radio frequencies and above, so you need to consider the frequencies that you need to measure, as different applications may require different frequency ranges. So, for example, rf and microwave EMF meters are used to assess cell phone radiation, while ELF meters are used for power lines and household appliances. So choose an EMF meter with a frequency range that covers the spectrum of interests. Some meters are specialized for a particular range, others designed to cover a broader range, and, for example, if you're going to buy an RF meter, are you going to want one that's optimized to look at cell?

Speaker 1: 20:38

phone radiation or Wi-Fi, and if Wi-Fi, the lower Wi-Fi band of 2.4 gigahertz, the little bit higher Wi-Fi band of five, five and a half gigahertz, the implications of Wi-Fi even higher. Do you want to look at millimeter wave RF? So these are all very different places on the RF spectrum. Okay so, and with regard to electric fields, for example, you can get an electric field meter that just takes a look at the frequencies around the power line frequency of 60 Hertz and maybe goes up to 10, 20,000 kilohertz. All right, you know that's, if you know what that that's going to meet your needs, great. But for me I want to look at electric fields all the way up to a million Hertz, and on a separate podcast we'll get into what frequency ranges you might want in the different phenomenon. But for now, the second factor is what is the required frequency range? So, number one, you need to know the phenomenon that you're trying to measure. Number two, you need to know the frequency range over which you want to evaluate that phenomenon. Number three is the sensitivity how sensitive should the meter be? So here's an interesting fact my most accurate RF meter is not my most sensitive RF meter. I'll repeat that one more time. My most accurate RF meter is not my most sensitive RF meter. Interesting, right?

Speaker 1: 22:58

I need to give you a definition now for something called a noise floor. So the definition of noise floor. It refers to the minimum level of electromagnetic radiation that an EMF meter can detect and it's influenced by the intrinsic electronic noise of the meter's components. It represents the baseline or the background level of the meter's readings when no zero intentional signal is present. A lower noise floor indicates that the EMF meter can detect weaker signals, making it more sensitive and potentially more accurate in low radiation environments. Conversely, a higher noise floor may mask low level signals, making it challenging to differentiate them from the meter's inherent noise. So sensitivity is the ability of the EMF meter to detect and respond to even weak electromagnetic fields. In the example I gave you earlier in this episode we're looking for, for example, one tenth of one millionth of a watt of RF exposure for an ideal environment. So that's a pretty small phenomenon. I would say it's still too much, but that would be a goal of many people. So sensitivity is the ability of the EMF meter to detect and respond to even weak electromagnetic fields. It quantifies the smallest electromagnetic field strength that the instrument can reliably detect, all right.

Speaker 1: 25:05

So I mentioned that my most accurate RF meter is not my most sensitive RF meter. So I have an RF meter that has great accuracy but its noise floor is ridiculously high. It wasn't ridiculously high when they made it, it was groundbreaking, you know, earth shaking kind of wonderful thing. But now it's getting a little long on the tooth and I don't know when, if or if they're ever going to update it. But it's because of the noise floor, it's because it has great accuracy throughout the range I'm interested in looking at with that meter, except on the very low end.

Speaker 1: 25:52

It generates too much noise internally to get down to that level of one tenth of one millionth of a watt. So in many cases sensitivity is a crucial factor, especially if you're dealing with low-level electromagnetic fields or if you need to detect subtle changes in field strength. And I would say you do, because nobody is interested in EMF analysis and remediation absent from health effects and if my life experience is anything to go by, my just the tiniest whisper of this stuff is something we would all like to avoid. So getting high levels of sensitivity critical factor in my opinion, all right.

Speaker 1: 26:55

So EMF meters with high sensitivity often preferred when investigating potential health risks associated with electromagnetic radiation. Now number four, and this is separate from sensitivity, it is accuracy. How accurate does the measurement, does the meter work? That's not very good English, is it? How accurate is the meter you're considering for purchase? So accuracy in the context of EMF meters refers to how closely the instruments, measurements, align with the true strength of electromagnetic fields in the environment. Now remember, at the opening of this episode, I talked to you about buying a microphone and when I got back to looking at the documentation long after, by the way, beginning to use the microphone for a couple of weeks, but when I went back to it, I saw this frequency response curve and they all have kind of a similar shape to them. I can't this is a verbal medium, I can't really accurately explain it to you but there's this characteristic rise and then a plateau for a period of time and then a fall off and that plateau, that flat line in the graph. That's where you're having your greatest accuracy and it isn't perfect.

Speaker 1: 28:37

It may cross the line, so to speak, in a few places where the actual frequency, in the sense of that microphone of sound, which is an acoustic phenomenon, it's not an EMF phenomenon but it is based on vibration like EMF. Or with regard to an EMF meter, you have a meter that's assessing a field that exists in an area at a point in time, and you may have a portion of that frequency range in which that meter has perfect accuracy. The deviation is plus or minus zero dB. Usually the accuracy is quoted in decibels. We'll speak about that in a topic, so we're not going to get too far into that in this episode.

Speaker 1: 29:37

But other than crossing that line or matching that line for a small journey along the frequency range. Normally any kind of test or measurement device has a range of accuracy and it's either above or below the actual field strength. And that's certainly true in all of the EMF meters that I'm familiar with. And the question about accuracy is plus or minus how much, All right. So accuracy in the context of EMF meters refers to how closely the instrument's measurement align with true strength of the electromagnetic field in the environment. The EMF meters. They're used to measure the intensity of electromagnetic radiation, which can vary significantly depending on the source and the location. And when I say location, wow, it can change a lot in a little bit. In other words, if I'm measuring an RF source and it's a very high frequency, I move it a few inches, I might get an entirely different reading.

Speaker 1: 30:58

So the measurement of electromagnetic fields are true for that moment, in that place, that moment in time in that exact place where you are, and much like the saying that it's impossible to step into the same river twice because the river is ever changing similar phenomenon with regard to EMF assessment. So high accuracy is crucial to ensure that your measurements are reliable and precise. Ideally, I would encourage people to look for EMF meters that are calibrated to recognize standards and have a low margin of error. Now, the calibrated meters are very expensive and I don't know, I might say just for people who are like me, whose lives have been altered by EMF and we really need the most accurate gear, and for those who do this for a living, like I do, who need to have meters that can be calibrated from a reputable calibration lab. So let me give you an example.

Speaker 1: 32:20

I mentioned earlier that you might wanna make sure your RF radiation exposure is in the ideal range, which is, by the way, less than 1, 1⁄10 of 1 millionth of a watt per square meter, before you rent the apartment. This is your hypothetical situation. Now, the meter you bought might read as low as 25 1000s that would be 0.025, or it may read as high as 10, while the actual field intensity is 1, 1⁄10 of a millionth of a watt per square meter. The difference between those is a meter that is reading six decibels or 60 decibel, plus or minus 60 dBm versus 60 dBm. Huge, huge difference between 25, 1000s or the number 10. And when you get to the higher numbers, oh man, those are really divergent. So you've got to know where are you? Are you at? Plus or minus three dB, plus or minus six dB? Where are you? And I mentioned dB. It's an advanced topic, it's logarithmic in nature. I'm not gonna get too much into it, but I'm gonna give you one little anchor here. Okay, plus or minus three dB implies that the actual value, the actual field strength, can be overstated by 200%. And you say, keith, wow, it's only plus or minus three, and you just said it's overstated by 200%. Oh, that's the logarithmic nature, and it can be understated by one half. Now, plus or minus six dB implies that the displayed value can be overstated by you ready for this 400%, or understated by three quarters, all right. So those huge changes, depending on how many dB in the formula of this meter is accurate to plus or minus three dB versus six dB, for example, over and it's always over a particular frequency range. Frequency range, all right. Number five, and this is the most important. This is the who says right.

Speaker 1: 35:33

The preceding four factors are of no use whatsoever without the last piece, which is who says who is affirming the phenomenon, the frequency range, the accuracy and the sensitivity? Is it someone? Is it no one? Is it a party with motivated self-interest, or is it a disinterested third party? Who, I would say?

Speaker 1: 36:07

Third party verification for validating the performance of EMF meters is critical because by going with a third party, that means the developer develops a meter and after the development is complete, they send that meter or samples of that meter to a third party, which means not them Test company who does this for a living. So ostensibly they know how to test RF meters over a particular frequency range and then they'll produce a report saying that, well, your frequency range is thus and over that frequency range you have an accuracy of plus or minus XDB and, by the way, you have a sensitivity, of sensitivity of you know one, one thousandth, or you have a sensitivity of 10, you know as the lowest number you can read, and on and on. Third party verification involves independent testing and assessment by experts or organizations that are not affiliated with the manufacture of the instrument. This independence helps ensure that the evaluation is unbiased and free from conflicts of interest. Manufacturers might have incentive to exaggerate or misrepresent the performance of their products. Is that? Is that obvious? So third party verification provides an objective evaluation. That's why having a third party do it is is an important thing. In some cases, third party verification serves as a form of, you could say, consumer protection. It ensures that consumers purchasing the instruments get what they pay for and they can rely on the instrument's performance.

Speaker 1: 38:23

Ok, so that was a lot. I hope you guys are still with me. If not, listen to it again. It may take a while to absorb all of this. And you know, like, like I said, I just this is all. Man. This has been the pond I've been swimming in since I was a teenager, looking at different instruments and different technologies and whatnot. And just I realized that I've been doing this podcast for a year and I've been assuming a certain level of well, I've been making assumptions and not all of those assumptions are valid and I don't want to leave anybody behind, I'll just say it that way.

Speaker 1: 39:10

So there's much more to be said about meter selection. There really is, you know. Do you want a maximum value hold. Do you want an audio function? Do you want you know what? And ease of use factors, and how are the things powered and what's the durability and reliability of them, and yeah, you could go on and on, but there's a foundation. None of that matters. Without these five factors, none of that matters. So I wanted to get this foundation in there.

Speaker 1: 39:45

And I really want to encourage you to evaluate Any and all future investments in EMF meters by starting with these factors. Like I say, perhaps I'll do another episode on other selection criteria, but these five are the most important in my opinion. So I want to summarize where we've been, the key takeaways. You need to know something Somebody's proposing to sell to you as a way of assessing EMF phenomenon. You need to know what the phenomenon is Electric field, magnetic field, radio frequency field by the way, dirty electricity is a whole other matter. We haven't been talking about that at all this session. So you need to know which EMF phenomenon is the best. You need to know which EMF phenomenon you're evaluating Electric, magnetic, radio frequency. You need to know the frequency range over which you want to evaluate that phenomenon. You need to know the level of accuracy, that's, the plus or minus how many dB, for example. You need to know the sensitivity. This meter won't go any lower than 10. No matter where I am, if I put it inside a Faraday cage, it still measures 10. Now that would be your sensitivity. Or this meter? Wow, it goes down to. It measures down to one, one thousandth of one, like 0.001. And whether third party verification has been done. I would say all of these are paramount when choosing an EMF meter. So can you see now why? These are the five fundamental factors. So I want to encourage you to prioritize these questions in your selection and not to compromise on the essential criteria. We can get to the other factors later.

Speaker 1: 41:54

I may do a follow-up episode, we'll see. So we'll leave it there for now, and I want to thank you for spending your time with us today for delving into the nuances of EMF meters. It is always about clarity and understanding, isn't it? If today's episode was helpful, could you please leave a review on Apple podcast? It truly makes a difference and, if you're able, consider supporting our work financially, it ensures we can keep sharing these insights. You can support us through our website, emfremedycom. There's a tab called support or donation. I think it's called donation.

Speaker 1: 42:50

So we've got more to discuss in our next episode. I'm looking forward to it. Until then, I encourage you to take proactive steps in reducing personal exposure. Lowering exposures isn't just beneficial for you, but for your loved ones as well. Remember, every small action counts toward a healthier EMF environment. If you're seeking personalized guidance, I do offer one-on-one coaching tailored to your needs, with direct coaching, by the way, not only will you be better equipped, but you'll also reach your goals faster. The journey to a safer EMF environment can be more efficient with some guidance. Feel free to reach out through the website for more details. Keith Cutter, emfremedycom. See you next time.