Which of the following types of equipment are exempt from RF exposure evaluations?
Why When the FCC overhauled its RF exposure rules (effective May 3, 2021), it deleted the old amateur-service categorical exemption and required every amateur station to be evaluated unless it meets the general exemption criteria in 47 CFR 1.1307(b). One narrow grandfather provision remains: hand-held transceivers that were already on the market before that date were not required to be re-evaluated. Everything else, including your home station, needs an exposure evaluation by calculation, modeling or measurement.
Watch out The 7-watt figure echoes the old power-based categorical exemptions that the FCC removed; today exemption depends on power, frequency and distance worked through the 1.1307(b) formulas, not a single wattage threshold.
One date to remember: May 3, 2021. Handhelds sold before it are grandfathered; everything else gets evaluated.