I just purchased a new printer (an HP Office Jet Pro 8600) because my wired printer went on the blink.  They only had “wireless.”  The saleperson, though, told me that I could use it as a wired printer.  Just use a cable,  and it couldn’t emit any RF radiation, he told me, as it needed a wi fi (which we don’t have) for the “wireless” component to be activated.

So I took the printer out of its box and plugged it into the wall, and then went to the garage to get the RF Analyzer.  While I was in the garage I turned the analyzer on, and I didn’t pick up a reading.  But as I walked to the front of the garage, the readings started to jump slightly to 11. Hmmm, I thought, perhaps it’s the “smart” meter or the flourescent light.  Then I got closer to the water heater and the numbers jumped above 100.   I didn’t know our water heaters emitted RF.  I waved the analyzer by the new refrigerator, which was next to the water heater, and the analyzer went past 200.  Perhaps  they have already started to put those RF chips in the new appliances?  This is something to tell the e-mail list.

I went inside, but the analyzer was still giving off readings in the kitchen nook area and the family room.  I continued walking toward that plugged in wireless printer on the other side of the room, and the numbers got very high, past 900 and then they blanked, which they do when they are too high (as I need an adapter).  I unplugged the printer, and all the numbers went down to 003,  which is the zero place for the analyzer (except for a 10 and 14 when I checked the garage again, coming from either the flourescent light or neighbor’s smart meter).

Okay. What’ s interesting about this is that a wireless printer,  which was just plugged into the wall, and turned on, but not printing and not connected to my computer or some kind of wi fi, was emitting a very high ongoing amount of radiation, similar to a cordless phone base, so high that it travelled through the walls into other rooms in the house and even out to the garage.