Overview

The FCC has a number of rules that address RFI issues.  The Regularory Department RFI Page and its sub-pages are an excellent resource for regulatory information pertaining to RFI.  Go to that page for complete information on the rules about interference from licensed stations, interference to licensed stations and what to do if a neighbor or local police initiate legal action over an interference problem.

Guidelines for legal operation

Under the FCC's rules, Amateurs are responsible for the proper operation of their stations.  Harmonics and other spurious emissions must be below the limits for spurious emissions specified in Part 97of the FCC's rules, for example.  In addition, if spurious emissions cause harmful interference to other licensed radio services, such as broadcast reception, licensed operators may have to provide additional filtering to thier transmitters to correct the interference.

Interference caused by insufficiencies in consumer equipment

In some cases, however, RFI is caused by the fact that most consumer equipment lacks the necessary filtering and sheildng to allow it to work well near a radio transmitter.  The FCC does not regulate the immunity of equipment, however, so when interference is caused by consumer-equipment fundamental overload, there is no FCC rules violation, and licensed stations have no regulatory responsibility to correct interference that may result. (Hams may want to help find a solution to be neighborly, but this is not a requirement in the rules.)

Interference to Amateur Radio

In almost all cases, licensed operation is protected by the rules from interference from unlicensed devices such as compters, electric motors and power line noise.  See the The Regularory Department RFI Page for more information about the rules.  See the RFI technology page for information about the techncial causes and solutions to the type of RFI problem you may be experiencing.