RF Shielding History: When the FCC Cracked Down on Computers

Summary

Today in Tedium: Could we pin this all on C.W. McCall? In the early 1980s, the personal computer industry had a big problem—they were feeling perhaps their first-ever bout of regulation from a federal agency. The regulatory body in question? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The reason? A huge amount of concern about radio frequency interference, and how it might cause our TV and radio signals to stop working correctly. And the result? Thick metal plates in basically every home computer of the era. It wasn’t a problem that the computer industry created, necessarily. Rather, they were feeling pressure rooted in the failures of a completely different kind of technology: The CB radio, which surged in popularity and caused longstanding issues for prime-time viewers along the way. Today’s Tedium considers how RF interference (and indirectly, CB radio) created a giant headache for the home computer industry. — Ernie @ TediumTired of AI already? Meet la machine. The tech gadget invented by an AI pioneer and guaranteed 100% AI-free. Learn more here.“Radio, television, and radar receivers are almost invariably caused to malfunction by RF interference. This is due to the very low-level circuitry contained in these devices.”— A passage from the RF Interference Control Handbook, a 1962 book by Kemp Barron that describes the reasons why radio waves can be affected by things as diverse as electrical circuits, industrial machinery, and even ignition systems. A key element of blocking such interference? Shielding—of the device, of the cabling, and of anything else that might emit waves that affect performance of radio-based products. The book is up on the Internet Archive in case you want to get the 63-year-old perspective on RF interference.Remember when everyone you knew had a CB radio? Yeah, me neither. (khunaspix/Deposit Photos)How the CB radio created an interference problem for television setsRadio interference has long been a long, unusual annoyance in our society...