EXPOSURE FORGE
Fill It Out. Send It Up. Remain Compliant.
Exposure Forge
What are we checking?
Give this setup a name. Most operators have more than one — the HF rig in the shack, the handheld, the mobile — and each gets its own evaluation.
Nothing you type here leaves your device. There is no account, no server, and nothing is sent anywhere.
How much power?
The power your radio actually puts out on the setting you use — not what the amplifier could do if you turned it all the way up.
What do you do with it?
Different modes heat things differently. FM and the digital modes transmit a steady full-power signal; SSB voice only hits full power on peaks.
In a busy half hour, how much of it are you actually transmitting?
The rules let you average over 30 minutes, and this is where most operators turn out to be far more compliant than they assumed. Listening counts for nothing.
What antenna?
Pick the closest match and we'll use a typical gain figure for it, or enter your own if the manufacturer published one.
dBi and dBd are not the same number, and mixing them up is the most common mistake in every calculator out there. A dipole is 2.15 dBi, so 6 dBd is 8.15 dBi. If the spec sheet doesn't say, it is almost always dBi.
Where can people be?
Height matters as much as distance, because what counts is the straight line from the antenna to the person — not how far away they are across the ground. We work that out for you.
Household members who know the station is there and have been told about it fall under the higher controlled limit. Everyone else — neighbors, visitors, anyone on the sidewalk — gets the stricter uncontrolled limit. We assume a person is about 6 feet tall when we measure to them.
Which bands do you use with it?
Every band you pick gets evaluated. The tightest one decides the verdict, and all of them go on your record.
Your result
My saved setups
These live in this browser only. They are never sent anywhere, which also means they do not follow you to another device — use the export button if you want to move them.
Exposure Forge does the estimate the FCC's own guidance describes, using the limits in 47 CFR 1.1310 and the exemption thresholds in 47 CFR 1.1307(b)(3). It is a tool to help you carry out the evaluation 47 CFR 97.13(c) asks of you. It is not an FCC filing, a certification, or legal advice.