How You Can Construct An Inexpensive Detector
for AC Electric & Magnetic Fields In Your Home and Work Areas
Background:The Buzzstick was developed as an inexpensive educational tool to indicate with sound, to persons unfamiliar with EMF fundamentals, the general location and intensity of EMFs around equipment and appliances. The stronger the magnetic or electric field, the louder the buzzing sound will be.
No claims are made for accuracy of these instruments; they are for detection only so that one can make a personal choice about one's long-term stay in the proximity of the field detected. "Long-term," as used here, refers to many hours in the same location, day or night, but most importantly, at night where you sleep.
You can begin to locate EMFs in your home and working areas with your Buzzstick and lower the field intensity by prudent avoidance of the field source [see pg. 19] or removing the source.
When equipment or appliances are turned on in your home or workplace, both magnetic and electrical fields are present (current is flowing, creating the electromagnetic field [EMF]) and the magnetic field can be detected. When the switch is turned off no current is flowing through the circuit and equipment to create the magnetic field.
The two detectors on the Buzzstick detect not only the regular 60 Hz (Hertz -- cycles/second) power frequencies operating at 110 and 220 volts, but also other low frequencies from 0.1 Hz up to 300 Hz. You will find that the buzzing sound will change with different frequencies or combinations of frequencies.
Recommendations:Proper grounding, shielding, balancing, phasing, or rewiring, to lower or eliminate the field intensity, will require services of a trusted professional electrician who can accept that persons may be hypersensitive to EMFs.
More expensive equipment and professional expertise are required to determine the on-site variations in intensities, frequencies, waveforms and what kind of long-term periodic spikes or transients are in your power circuits (which may have more potential long-term biological effects on one's health than exposure to a strong field intensity).
However, location of strong fields, especially in the bedroom near your head, can be determined and prudently avoided, to reduce any potentially harmful exposures. For example, one can move the bed a foot or two from the wall circuit with a bookcase headboard; the electric clock radio and phone answering machine can be placed 3-4 feet away. The use of halogen, fluorescent, or high intensity reading lamps near the bed is to be avoided.
Because strong fields can be induced into metal from nearby electrical wiring, the optimum bed frame and mattress would contain no metal, therefore one might consider a wooden bed frame and/or a futon (cotton) mattress, if one's sensitivity to EMFs is high enough. For the same reason, thick lamps completely of wood, ceramic or glass are best, with no external metal, excepting the metal tube encasing the wire-to-the-bulb socket.
How to Construct Your Own Buzzstick:Items Required: (Note: If Design #1 RS 43-231B out of stock, go to Design #2)
Design #1: Radio Shack Telephone Listener*, Catalog No. 43-231B, with cost of $11 -- this 3" wide x 1 1/2" thick x 4" length white plastic amplifier and speaker is equipped with a 3' 6" cable. The cable leads to a cylindrical magnetic field detector coil that attaches by rubber suction cup to the end of the telephone handset.
The detector coil picks up the callers' voice and amplifies it so it can be heard by others in the room or it can be tape recorded. The detector is sensitive to a very wide bandwidth of magnetic fields besides the normal 60 Hz.
Design #2: Radio Shack Telephone Amplifier®, Catalog No. 43-229, with cost of $11,also. This 2.5"x2.5"x0.5"thick gray and white box contains the amplifier, speaker and magnetic sensor coil all in one unit and is more compact, but less sensitive.
The A. W. Sperry Electrical Wiring Detector, for finding electrical fields, can be purchased at your local superstore for home builders (Home Depot, for example) for about $18-20. The gray plastic unit is 1 1/2" wide x 1/2" thick x 7" length with a tiny speaker, a green "power on" light and a red light that glows when an electrical field is detected by the sensor in the tapered end. Speaker is of poor quality and not very loud.
Design #1: A round three foot length of hollow, thin-wall PVC pipe (or equivalent non-metal material) of 1.0" diameter will be required for attachment of the two detector units. A 90o PVC elbow for a 1.0" diameter pipe will be required to house the magnetic coil on the detector end. Two PVC caps can be used, one to cover the elbow after the coil is inserted and the other cap on the handle end
Design #2: A round three foot length of hollow, thin-wall PVC pipe (or equivalent non-metal material) of 1.0" diameter will be required for attachment of the two detector units. A 90o PVC elbow for a 1.0" diameter pipe will be required at the end to provide an extension tube as a holder for the magnetic field sensor to one side. This produces an "L" shaped end on the handle where the sensors are mounted
Designs #1 & #2: (Optional) If you have some electrical expertise, you can create a "deluxe" Buzzstick by installing a double-pole, double-throw switch in the handle cap to provide a quick change back and forth from electrical to magnetic field detection. The Sperry Unit speaker can be bypassed into the Radio Shack Unit amplifier and speaker, through the switch (cutting off the magnetic coil sensor when the Sperry is activated). This provides a much louder sonic response to electrical fields through the volume switch on the magnetic detector.
Putting It Together:
Design #1: Glue the 90o elbow to the end of your 3' long pipe Drill a 1/4" diameter hole 14" from the handle end of your pipe. Thread the 3' 6" wire and its miniplug into the elbow and down the pipe interior and out the drilled hole. The cylindrical magnetic sensor (telephone pickup) with its rubber cup will then fit snugly into the open end of the elbow, at 90o to the pipe. Put the cap over the open end of the elbow, thus sealing the magnetic sensor inside.
With screws, clamps, and/or tape, attach the Sperry Unit so that the tapered end with the built-in sensor is at the very end of the pipe (on top of the elbow) for closest approach to powered equipment or wires. Do not obstruct the unit speaker or on/off-volume switch on the side, and provide easy access to replace batteries as needed.
Attach the amplifier/speaker box of your Radio Shack Telephone Listener at the handle end of your pipe with two short flat-head metal-tapping screws with 1/4" diameter heads. Note that the plastic amplifier/box has two 1/4" diameter slotted holes spaced 3" apart in the back. Install the first screw 9" from the handle end and the second screw 12" from the handle end.
Leave about 1/16" of each screw head above the pipe surface so you can place the back of the plastic box over the screw heads and slide them down the slots in the box for a snug fit of the box against the pipe. Insert the miniplug from the magnetic sensor (installed in the pipe elbow end) into the amplifier/speaker box, put the pipe cap on the handle end, and you are ready to use your Buzzstick.
The special switch installation can be made in the cap of the handle end, if desired
Design #2: Glue the 90o elbow connector to the "sensing" end of your 1.0" diameter, 3' pipe, then insert a short pipe extensions (about 2") into a 90o angle connector at the ends, then figure out some sort of fork arrangement to insert into the tube end and rigidly hold the magnetic field sensor by the sides where the elastic strap attaches.The magnetic detector coil is on the bottom of the sensor, opposite the speaker. Bottom, top and on-off/volume control switch of the sensor must be clear. A good holder from a 0.25-0.50" thick sheet of plastic could be slotted and glued into the pipe extension. Provide easy access/removal of the detector to replace batteries, as needed
With screws, clamps, and/or tape, attach the Sperry Unit so that the tapered end with the built-in sensor is at the very end of the 3" handle. Do not obstruct the unit speaker or on/off-volume switch on the side, and provide easy access/removal to replace batteries as needed.
Operation of the Buzzstick:(a) A. W. Sperry Unit for a.c. electric fields -- Turn on rotary on/off - volume switch (green light comes on) and rotate to full volume. The tiny built-in speaker will buzz when the detection end is placed near an a.c. source wire or other electrical field. This shows that an electrical field is present, whether the equipment is turned on or not, thus supporting the reason for shutting off the circuit breakers to the bedroom at night or pulling the plugs on electrical devices in the bedroom if you feel you are electrically sensitive (ES), or just wish to avoid artificial EMFs.
(b) Radio Shack Telephone Listener*, Catalog No. 43-231B for a.c. magnetic fields -- Initially, adjust the rotary volume control switch to '0', then turn on the unit by pressing down the rectangular switch. Assuming you are standing away from any strong EMFs (powerlines, wires, or equipment), gradually, rotate volume switch clockwise, until you hear a gentle hissing sound.
(Note: This unit is very sensitive and if you are close to a strong magnetic field and the volume is set high when the unit is turned on, permanently damage may result!). The closer you approach a source of a.c. magnetic fields (motors, transformers, dimmer switches, clocks, wrist watches, TV, computer monitor (CRT), the louder the buzzing, humming or clicking noises.The sound will change with different frequencies and devices. You may be interested in monitoring the strong magnetic fields around your analog watch (see pg. 92) or at the driver's area in your car when starting and running the engine
(c) Radio Shack Telephone Amplifier®, Catalog No. 43-229 for a.c. magnetic fields -- turn the on-off rotary volume control switch on and to full volume, then explore sources of magnetic fields, as described above. Adjust volume to suit. This unit is adequate, but less sensitive, than the other one.
Note: For best performance, check your batteries frequently to be sure they are fully charged.
Surveying an Area:The most important places to examine for strong EMFs are the areas where you spend most of your time, such as your bedroom (#1), your kitchen/dining area, and your working area.
Next, check your children's rooms (especially any monitoring systems), around couches and chairs (and associated lamps), bathrooms, and entire building, inside and out. Wave your buzzstick in a back and forth scanning motion close to walls, floors & ceilings, because magnetic fields from transformers, wires, equipment, etc. can penetrate almost anything; however, electric fields can be easily shielded with a grounded metal screen or foil.
Remember, putting distance between yourself and strong fields, magnetic or electric, is generally your easiest and best bet.
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