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Home→F2→Electromagnetic spectrum: RF, microwaves, cellular, WiFi, 4G, 5G and infrared

Electromagnetic spectrum: RF, microwaves, cellular, WiFi, 4G, 5G and infrared

Canadian Liberty Posted on by

Version: 1.1 November 25, 2019

Contrary to what I was thinking (here), microwaves are not a separate subject from the frequencies being used with cellular and WiFi technology, so this post focuses on getting a clearer picture of where everything fits within the electromagnetic spectrum.

I mentioned about how microwave towers have been used for a long time as part of Canada’s communications backbone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNCP_Telecommunications) and this article explains more about that technology:

Microwave Transmission: http://ecomputernotes.com/computernetworkingnotes/communication-networks/microwave-transmission

  • Microwave frequency ranges are in the GigaHertz (GHz) range and the wavelength in the millimeter (mm) range.
  • High frequency signals are “susceptible to attenuation” and need to be “amplified or repeated after a particular distance”.
  • To increase the signal strength and transmission distance, the radio beam from the transmit antenna is focused by a concave metal dish on the receiving antenna.
  • Point-to-point transmission, not broadcast. Each antenna must be within line of sight. The curvature of the earth and haze, etc. limits the distance of “microwave hops.” For higher frequencies, or for digital rather than analog signals, the distance between towers has to be shorter.

So, it’s the same issue with more recent and advanced cellular technology. The higher the frequency, the closer the towers have to be. With 5G cellular towers, the towers have to be very close together, closer to us and more numerous (https://canadianliberty.com/5g-overview/). (Questions: Who pays for them to be built? How much energy do they use?)

I don’t think Captain Kirk had to saturate each planet with high frequency radio towers to make his communicators work, but maybe they left that part out.

So, let’s start with an overview of the electromagnetic spectrum:

Frequency and Wavelength Calculation
https://www.ahsystems.com/EMC-formulas-equations/frequency-wavelength-calculator.php
This calculator uses the formula:
Frequency (cycles per second / Hz) = C (speed of light: 299,792,458 meters/second) / Wavelength (meters)

In other words, Frequency is 300,000,000 divided by Wavelength and Wavelength is 300,000,000 divided by Frequency.

Electromagnetic Spectrum

This is a very good post with a lot of interesting details on each section of the spectrum: https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-physics/the-electromagnetic-spectrum/ (original link: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-physics/chapter/the-electromagnetic-spectrum/)-spectrum/

Scroll down a bit under the Radio Waves section to see a diagram of the full Electromagnetic Spectrum.

From left to right, frequency increases, and wavelength decreases.

Radio waves are on the left end. Microwaves are a sub-section of radio waves–the highest frequency radio waves. The Infrared range overlaps with microwaves. Then comes Visible light (from red to violet). Then there is Ultraviolet. X rays comes next, overlapping with Ultraviolet. Last, on the right, are Gamma rays, overlapping with the X ray range.

Section by section:

Radio Waves:

Wavelengths between 1 mm and 100 km (requencies between 300 GHz and 3 KHz). Different types of signals are modulated in different ways. For example, AM is a fixed frequency where the amplitude is modulated. FM has its basic frequency modulated while the amplitude is constant. TV channels are VHF or UHF.

Microwaves: a sub-range within the radio waves section: wavelengths ranging from one meter to one millimeter (frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz).

Three microwave ranges:

Infrared Waves:

Infrared (IR) light is EM radiation with wavelengths longer than those of visible light from 0.74 µm to 1 mm (300 GHz to 1 THz)

Infrared light includes most of the thermal radiation emitted by objects near room temperature. . . .

The infrared portion of the spectrum can be divided into three regions in wavelength:
far-infrared, from 300 GHz (1 mm) to 30 THz (10 μm);
mid-infrared, from 30 to 120 THz (10 to 2.5 μm); and
near-infrared, from 120 to 400 THz (2,500 to 750 nm).

Infrared radiation is popularly known as “heat radiation,” but light and electromagnetic waves of any frequency will heat surfaces that absorb them. . . .

Note what is said about the heating effect of electromagnetic waves in general of any frequency–not just infrared.

. . .Infrared light from the Sun only accounts for 49% of the heating of the Earth, with the rest being caused by visible light that is absorbed then re-radiated at longer wavelengths. . .

Visible Light:

Visible light is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye, ranging from roughly 390 to 750 nm.

violet (380-450 nm), blue (450-495 nm), green (495-570 nm), yellow (570-590 nm), orange (590-620 nm), and red (620 to 750 nm)

The optical window:

allows visible light to heat the surface. The surface of the planet then emits energy primarily in infrared wavelengths, which has much greater difficulty escaping . . .

Plants (and many bacteria) convert the light energy captured from the Sun into chemical energy . . . photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and water, releasing oxygen as a waste product. . . . The portion of the EM spectrum used by photosynthesic organisms is called the photosynthetically active region (PAR) and corresponds to solar radiation between 400 and 700 nm, substantially overlapping with the range of human vision.

Ultraviolet Light:

Ultraviolet (UV) light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light in the range 10 nm to 400 nm.

Most UV is non-ionizing radiation [as with radio waves and visible light to the left on the spectrum], though UV with higher energies (10-120 nm) is ionizing. All UV can have harmful effects on biological matter (such as causing cancers) with the highest energies causing the most damage.
The danger posed by lower energy UV radiation is derived from the ultraviolet photon’s power to alter chemical bonds in molecules, even without having enough energy to ionize atoms.

So, there’s an example of damage done by non-ionizing radiation–although it is a higher frequency than radio waves.

X-Rays:

X-rays are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers and energies in the range of 100 eV to 100 keV.

frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3×10^16 [3 x 10 to the power of 16] Hz to 3×10^19 Hz)

Gamma Rays:

. .. very high frequency electromagnetic waves usually emitted from radioactive decay with frequencies greater than 10^19 Hz [10 to the power of 19].

Gamma rays are the highest energy EM radiation and typically have energies greater than 100 keV, frequencies greater than 10^19 Hz, and wavelengths less than 10 picometers.

Narrowing down our focus:
Radio Frequency Bands

Here is an article with some details on how radio frequency waves are produced: https://mri-q.com/radiofrequency-waves.html

RF Bands:
https://www.rfpage.com/what-are-radio-frequency-bands-and-its-uses/

Radio Frequency is the lowest frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum

  • ELF: Extremely Low Frequency: 3 Hz to 3 KHz. Used in seismic studies.
  • VLF: Very Low Frequency: 3 KHz to 30KHz. Wavelength: 100 km to 10 km. Used in submarines and for time synchronization.
  • LF: Low Frequency: 30 KHz to 300 KHz. Wavelength: 10 km to 1 km. Reflected by earth’s ionosphere, so suitable for long distance communication. Amateur radio operators, submarines, RFID tags.
  • MF: Medium Frequency: 300 KHz to 3 MHz. Wavelength: 1 km to 100 m. AM radio, navigation systems, emergency signals.
  • HF: High Frequency: 3 MHz to 30 MHz. Wavelength: 100 m to 10 m. Also known as short wave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_bands. Reflected by earth’s ionosphere. Aviation, near field communication (NFC), government, amateur radio, weather station broadcasting
  • VHF: Very High Frequency: 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Wavelength: 10 m to 1 m. Analog TV broadcasting. FM Radio – 88 MHz to 108 MHz. Medical equipment (MRI). Here is an article on how MRI works: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121941/
  • UHF: Ultra High Frequency: 300 MHz to 3 GHz: Wavelength: 1 m to 100 mm. GPS, satellites, pagers, WiFi, Bluetooth, TV broadcasting, and GSM, CDMA and LTE mobile transmission.
  • SHF: 3 GHz to 30 GHz. Wavelength: 100 mm to 10 mm. can only operate in line of sight, obstructions will break the communication. Point to point, satellite, digital TV in Ku band (DTH service – direct to home), WiFI (5 GHz channel), microwave ovens, mobile networks
  • EHF: Extremely High Frequency: 30 GHz to 300 GHz. Wavelength: 10 mm to 1 mm. radio astronomy, remote sensing, 5G.

The details of remote sensing needs further research. Could 5G systems be connected to that also at ground level? What kind of data could be collected?

Getting even more detailed:
Microwave Frequency Bands

https://www.everythingrf.com/tech-resources/frequency-bands

Organizations that define these bands: IEEE Radar Bands, NATO Radio Bands, ITU Bands

The two ranges for each band are frequency followed by wavelength:

  • L band 1 to 2 GHz 15 cm to 30 cm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/l-band

    radars, mobile & satellite communication, satellite navigation (like GPS, GLONASS etc.) and satellite broadcasting (DAB)

  • S band 2 to 4 GHz 7.5 cm to 15 cm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/s-band

    mobile communications, including IMT-2000/UMTS, mobile satellite communications and weather/ship radar systems

    widely used 2.4 GHz ISM band . . . the 2.4 GHz band is used for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee

    NASA communication with ISS and Space Shuttle
    Satellite Radio applications like XM Radio
    Distress signals
    Real-time data delivery for traffic and weather conditions

  • C band 4 to 8 GHz 3.75 cm to 7.5 cm
  • X band 8 to 12 GHz 25 mm to 37.5 cm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/x-band
    Civil, military and government radar for weather monitoring, air traffic control, maritime vessel traffic control, defense tracking and vehicle speed detection, meteorological satellites, SATCOM, weather monitoring radar, amateur radio operations, amateur satellite operations.

  • Ku band 12 to 18 GHz 16.7 mm to 25 mm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/ku-band
    Satellite TV, VSAT systems on ships, includes Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) band, which is used by Free-To-Air (FTA) satellite systems, and Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) band for digital television
  • K band 18 to 26.5 GHz 11.3 mm to 16.7 mm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/k-band
    Satellite, astronomical observations, radars
  • Ka band 26.5 to 40 GHz 5.0 mm to 11.3 mm
  • Q band 33 to 50 GHz 6.0 mm to 9.0 mm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/q-band
    satellite, terrestrial microwave, radio astronomy studies and automotive radars
  • U band 40 to 60 GHz 5.0 mm to 7.5 mm
  • V band 50 to 75 GHz 4.0 mm to 6.0 mm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/v-band

    point-to-point (pt-to-pt) radio solution market

    802.11ad wireless access systems (also called as WiGig)

    Ffrequency band from 57 to 71 GHz allocated by FTC for unlicensed wireless systems
    57 to 66 GHz used for high capacity millimeter wave communications systems

  • W band 75 to 110 GHz 2.7 mm to 4.0 mm
    https://www.everythingrf.com/community/w-band
    Automotive radars, satellite communication, astronomy, defense, and security applications
  • F band 90 to 110 GHz 2.1 mm to 3.3 mm
  • D band 110 to 170 GHz 1.8 mm to 2.7 mm

6G

Article on 5G and 6G antennas: https://www.everythingrf.com/News/details/9269-New-Antenna-Technology-Enables-Extremely-Fast-5G-and-6G-Connections

Article on first 6G white paper has a lot of information in it for further research about possible applications: https://www.everythingrf.com/news/details/8958-Read-the-First-Official-White-Paper-on-6G-Technology

Applications of Millimeter Waves (and Microwaves)

https://www.rfpage.com/applications-of-millimeter-waves-future/

Millimeter waves: Extremely High Frequency band (30 GHz to 300 GHz). Wavelength ranges from 10 mm to 1 mm.

5G uses millimeter waves between 24 GHz and 86 GHz

Applications:

  1. WLAN, small cell concept, could be used to connect base stations instead of fiber optic lines.
  2. UHD video transmission
  3. IEEE 802.11ad WiGig standard for transmission between devices and computers
  4. Satellite communication
  5. Autonomous driving, detection radar in real time and low latency
  6. Millimeter wave human body scanners, e.g. https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/products/test-measurement/security-scanners/pg_overview_230800.html. 70 GHz to 80 GHz. Notice that that they introduced two types of body scanners, possibly so that people pick the less outrageous one: they have the “bad” one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray and the “good” one which also invades your privacy as if you are a slave, but supposedly has less health risks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimeter_wave_scanner. It’s “safe” they say: https://time.com/4909615/airport-body-scanners-safe/. Which one would you prefer? That’s how it’s done.
  7. High frequency radar. Radar has been miniaturized to a single chip. Can be used for motion sensors, automatic doors, collision avoidance, intrusion alarm devices, speed detection.
  8. Virtual Reality devices
  9. Medical applications, e.g. experiments on treating acute pain
  10. Millimeter waves require line of sight communication. Atmospheric conditions interfere. So distances are short

Radar has a purpose. Microwave ovens have a purpose. Microwave and cellular towers have a purpose–or more than one purpose.

Directed Energy and Microwave Weapons have a purpose:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon
https://taskandpurpose.com/army-microwave-weapon

Here is an article for further research on the millimeter-wave chip that scans your organs.There are a lot of negative as well as positive purposes mentioned for millimeter waves:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/07/tiny-chip-looks-deep-inside-your-body-with-millimeter-wave-radiation/

Each device has at least one purpose. So what is the purpose of a Smart City 5G grid that collects information from thousands of censors, from human beings and from countless products they are wearing or storing in their homes or disposing (potentially subject to fines for not recycling)? Here are various answers: Technocracy. Agenda 21. Total surveillance, total data collection and total control over our lives. What happens to the data from cell phones? What happens to the data from the “autonomous” vehicles and their 5G radar systems which could determine location, direction and possibly the identity of objects and persons?

Effects on Human Body and Health (just an intro)

Article about the study of Millimeter Waves on the Human Body – needs to be researched: https://www.everythingrf.com/news/details/1609-nyu-wireless-researchers-study-effect-of-mmwaves-on-the-human-body

and https://www.everythingrf.com/whitepapers/details/2398-the-human-body-and-millimeter-wave-wireless-communication-systems

The following article is sourced and it would be worth following up on those sources: https://io9.gizmodo.com/10-things-an-electromagnetic-field-can-do-to-your-brain-5851828

Another article on 5G, how millimeter waves interact with human body, possible health consequences for research: https://www.rfpage.com/is-5g-technology-and-millimeter-waves-safe/

United Nations Statement: Electromagnetic fields and public health: radars and human health Fact sheet N°226

https://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs226/en/

RF fields cause molecules in tissue to vibrate and generate heat. Heating effects could be expected if time is spent directly in front of some radar antennas, but are not possible at the environmental levels of RF fields emanating from radar systems.

And there is a lot more information in this UN statement for further research regarding health effects.

Concluding Comments

None of this is neutral with respect to the human body. Light affects our sleep cycles. Radio waves likely do the same.

One of the points for me in terms of further research is that I don’t believe that the body and brain are electromagnetically neutral. There are processes going on in the brain and body that are likely affected by these frequencies–and the available technology probably goes beyond the superficial and what has already been mentioned.

The heating effect is one process that illustrates the physicality and invasiveness of these signals. If a device is high-powered enough, it can damage human tissue. There is a radar function and a scanning function–which relate to data collection.

A whole area of activism relates to the wireless transmission of data by smart meters, their health effects, on sleep for example, and how they are designed to collect personal information from appliances about our consumption habits.

Is the issue about health only? No. It is about both health and privacy and personal rights with respect to our bodies and personal space (property rights also) and that includes our mental space believe it or not (relevant articles to be posted).

There has been conflicting health research for years regarding existing cellular technology (and RF radiation) beyond what has been officially admitted in North America, and obviously there is propaganda and marketing trying to deflect from contrary studies.

What is clear about the plans for new cellular technology is the absurd physical invasiveness of the infrastructure–the density of the towers that will be placed–the “Smart City” context–the number of censors and cameras that are planned–the quantity and density of RF radiation and data being transmitted–the radar beams coming from the “autonomous” vehicles we’re supposed to believe in–all of this is ridiculous. The invasion of privacy and personal space is over the top. There is enough information in the 5G public plans for people to condemn it once they read the mainstream articles selling it to us: https://canadianliberty.com/5g-overview/

Different generations have become sold on this way of life. Video games. VR. WiFi in the home. Bluetooth. Cellphones. People are used to it. They take it for granted that it’s harmless and that it’s fine for their privacy to be invaded. Many people have invested in it via their careers. Science fiction sells a slick, distorted picture of it. It appears there is a big problem communicating concerns to others who are immersed and invested in this technology. That is where we are tempted to feel hopeless, but on the other hand, I believe that most people have the same capacity for awareness and free will somewhere inside them that will allow them to snap out of it. Of course there are a lot of people already with the same concerns who are making an effort to turn things around.

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