The electromagnetic environment due to portable sources in a typical hospital room

In order to characterize the electromagnetic environment, due to portable sources, inside a typical Montreal area hospital room, fields were measured in the 148-174 MHz, 425-480 MHz and 825-850 MHz ranges over a period of 24 hours. Call durations in each frequency range remained below 8 seconds 50% of the time, while field levels were 63 dB/spl mu/V/m (1.4 V/m) or lower, 50% of the time. Similar field monitoring in high traffic areas, such as emergency, for longer periods of time, should enable the characterization of call profiles, thereby leading to improved susceptibility testing of medical equipment.