[TriLUG] Television & RF interference -- yes computer related -- I think

[R Radford]

> First thing you need to know is that at the request of the electronics
> industry, the Regan administration removed the requirement that consumer
> devices have RFI and TVI filters on them. As a result you'll see notices on
> consumer electronics saying "this device must accept all interference". This
> saves the industry about 50c/device and lets the consumer (you) handle the
> problem. The rest of the world didn't fall into line with the USA, at least
> initially, so the devices shipped elsewhere, still had the filters. I don't
> know what the situation is now. I expect Germany will still require them,
> even if no-one else does.

Hmmm, that is not how I interpreted the action, and also does not seem
to match up with what I read on the ARRL website.  In fact, the ARRL
was one of the big proponents of the bill that basically states that
as long as you are doing everything legal in your transmitter (ie: a
ham radio operator), it is not your responsibility if it causes
interference on another device. The FCC has the authority to
investigate and go after noisy transmitters, but if the transmitters
are operating within specification, there is no requirement that they
must stop or change if it interferes with your equipment.

This kinda makes sense to me as the old method would make each ham
radio operator responsible for tracking down and fixing interference
from their equipment, even if the fault was not in their equipment.

A little discussion about it here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=85072

And a good writeup on the ARRL site on their efforts to push the bill into law:

http://www.arrl.org/bill-becomes-a-law