 attack and they donʼt know which and it scares them incredibly. Well, children are now beginning to have these problems.”
Once you know what you’re dealing with, then you can take steps to reduce or eliminate their radiation load – I’ll get into all that in a separate article. For now, let’s just look at what RF meters are on the market, at what price, and what each of them do to measure wifi signal strength – so that you can find the right one for your needs and budget.
As a mom, you’ll likely want to test primarily for:
- Radiation from WiFi routers in your kids school – where is the safest place to sit in the classroom?
- Radiation from nearby cell towers to see what’s coming into your home and which rooms have the highest levels.
- Whether your neighbour’s WiFi (wireless internet) is coming into your house, which rooms are affected and how strong is it?
- Combined microwave radiation load in friend’s houses and after-school activities/sports from cordless phones, cell phone towers, wireless games (like PlayStation, Wii, X-box, etc.) and wireless internet.
The Main Differences Between Meters
The main distinctions between the different types of meters (and hence the price) usually boils down to 3 specifications:
- Is it a a Tri-Field meter, which means you can stand in one spot and the meter will measure ALL the radiation, coming from every direction, to that spot? Or, it is a Uni-Directional meter; which means it will only measure the radiation coming from the direction you are pointing the meter towards. So in order to measure all the radiation with a uni-directional meter, you have to rotate in a circle through 8 different positions to be able to measure accurately. This means you start by pointing the meter North. Then you rotate 15 degrees to your right and measure again, then 15 degrees again to your right (you are now facing East) and measure again, and so on, round the 8 different points of a complete circle. So while the uni-directional meters are a lot cheaper and useful for measuring devices (like a cellphone, Xbox, etc.), for measuring the total radiation load in a room, they can be very time-consuming.
- What’s the range of radiation the meter can measure? Again, the cheaper meters often only measure up to 3 GHz, so while they will pick up on most cellphones, many other types of radiation (from certain cordless phones, new generation cell phones, baby monitors, WiMax, etc.) will not be detected. To measure the current full spectrum of microwave radiation from all the different types of devices, you need a meter that goes up to 8 GHz.
- Can the meter also measure magnetic and electrical fields and how wide is the range? For people who are hypersensitive, they are affected not just by microwave RF radiation frequencies, but by electrical and magnetic fields as well.
If you can’t be bothered to read through the detailed meter descriptions below and you just want to know: What’s the cheapest, easiest meter that can measure pretty much everything? Then this Cornet 8 GHZ RF Meter (Uni-directional $179.90 + free shipping) will cover all your needs. This meter is much cheaper than the Tenmars below because it only measures radiation coming from one direction, whereas the Tenmars meter below measures radiation coming from all sides. This meter also only measures electrical and RF, wheras the Tri-Field measure magnetic fields as well. However, if price is key, then this is a very good choice, since it measures all RF devices (cell phones, cordless phone, WiFi, surveillance bugs, microwave ovens, etc.) from 1 MHz – 8 GHz. If you want the full-service radiation meter, so that you can measure everything in every situation, from one spot, then the Tenmars 8 GHZ RF Meter (3-directional, $345 + free shipping) is your best choice.
Here’s an In-Depth Description of the Various Radiation Meters and their Pros and Cons:
1. Simple Radiation Finder ($39.95) – this is your most basic digital RF meter. It will not tell you the exact level of radiation, but will simply light up a warning if the radiation falls at pre-determined c