FCC bans EMP Sheilding?

[TheLQ offline]

On the back of alot of electronic products is part 15 of the FCC Rules. Usually it says something like:

(1)This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.

Now i'm worried about #2. This says any interference must be accepted. This includes a Electromagnetic pulse.

In case your wondering what EMP is, here's some basics:
EMP is a large field that disables anything electronic. It can be created with powerful equipment but is better known coming from a nuclear bomb. There are theorists that say if someone flew high enough with a extremely powerful EMP generator, you could take out all the electronics of a specific country. This is why most military products are EMP shielded, or highly resistant to EMP fields.

What i'm wondering is why the FCC would prevent EMP shielding or shielding from other powerful sources? How is the government or people benefiting from this rule?

[Andy Waltfeld offline]

Simple, the FCC made that rule back when EMP wasn't a well-understood phenomenon, much like the other after-effects of a nuclear explosion. They've been around since 1934 - over a decade before Hiroshima and a solid 10 years before the heyday of the Manhattan Project.

Of course, if you still want to appease your conspiratorial notions while acting perfectly legally, there's nothing in the FCC code (to my knowledge) against using a Part 15-compliant device within a Faraday Cage or other EMP-hardened structure designed with blocking harmful interference in mind.

EDIT: Heck, a quick search for "Part 15" in the FCC website's own search engine turns up a laundry list of waivers granted for military and civilian EM devices (read, active sonar and GPS) that cause interference by the nature of their operation.