unexpected rf readings from phone mast?

Hi folks
Happy new year
This is my first post and my first foray into emf / rf radiation so please bear with me.
About 7 years ago the local authority gave approval for a 12m high monopole phone mast approximately 20m from our house (literally across the road). Despite objections and a committee meeting it went ahead, over the years we got on with life and to be fair the mast was relatively unobtrusive blending in with the street lighting and surrounding landscape, out of sight out of mind.
Fast forward to 2015 and we have 2 toddlers in the house and once again the local authority has given permission toca phone company, this time to replace the existing 12m high pole for an 18m high 4g pole.
We objected along with a very small handful of neighbours (very disappointing) and heard nothing of it until one Sunday morning and bam! Humongous monstrosity looking like a space rocket in bright white ready to launch!
We object again blah blah but its happened. It's so hig and so close if you lay it on its side it would touch our external wall.
So considering our options (shame because we liked living here) I've considered moving or shielding but first thought it wise to put the situation in perspective, how much rf are we exposed to and a comparison to perspective new areas to move to etc. So I bought a Cornet ed78s meter, the plan being to compare our house to friends houses in areas we would move to.
It arrived yesterday and (almost like a kid at Christmas) I placed the battery in, switched it on fully expecting all manner of flashing lights and alarms going off and us spending the night in a tent in a field, but I got 1 Led and that's it.
So I read the instructions and looked on the net etc and the results are thus.
Average readings are Max 0.4 ave 0.01 mw/m2 or 1 green led.
OK so put the microwave on and it goes nuts even half way across the kitchen and the WiFi box sends it to the red within a foot of it, doing a sweep of the house the readings are steady until I enter the smallest bedroom belonging to my youngest son in the room closest to the mast and the readings go up and up into steady amber the highest reading in the house except for toying with the microwave, feeling full of dread i walk closer to the exterior wall with the readings going higher, then I notice I'm within a meter of the baby monitor (that's in standby) so out of curiosity I switch it fully off and all the lights extinguish back down to 1 led, so clearly this meter is working but I can't understand why I'm not getting higher background readings with the phone mast so close? Does this mean we are potentially safe (bar the baby monitor of course).
Another observation is outside directly below the mast the readings are at the lowest but walking 100m each way down the road see's the readings head amber, OK this may be additional radiation I'm not aware of but its there none the less.
OK so I know its not a professional bit of kit but as a basis for comparison it should still be more accurate than voodoo and black magic.
Does anyone have any input?
Thanks in advance.
J King

We once had someone here who ended up choosing to move into a place pretty close to a cell tower, because they said it felt better than where they were living now.  I think maybe the cell tower was high enough that most of the radiation was directed high over the house?  But it was all rather counter-intuitive.

Marc

A mobile phone mast is emitting, let us say to the North on an angle of minus 8 degrees of the horizon, on a horizontal angle of 120 degrees.
So, when the mast is very high, the radiation will go over the roof.

However, dependent pn the type of transmitter, and when radiation to the North, on the East and West, there may be *side lobes* which go down at 70-80 minus the horizon.

So, when you are N or S of the mast, you may be clear, but be aware that on E and W, you may fall in these side lobes.

Have a look at the images: http://www.milieuziektes.nl/Pagina112d.html

I know a business that is also next to a HUGE tower. 

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.
Marc, can you shed any more light on why the move you mention was counter-intuitive?
Thanks.

Charles
Thanks for the technical input, please excuse my ignorance but I thought the mast emmited radially? So there would be an even spread round the antenna?

Lastly, what do you guys make of the readings? I've done some more measuring today and got 0.003 - 0.03 mw/m2 in the kitchen (higher) and lounge.
What would be considered average base readings in a domestic building? What sort of levels would one realistically aspire to for a healthy balance of convenience (I use WiFi all the time) and not causing I'll long term health problems?

Once again thanks for any input.
Regards
J King

> Marc, can you shed any more light on why the move you mention was
> counter-intuitive?

It was counter-intuitive because the person felt better in the house that was closer to a cell phone antenna.

Marc

> Thanks for the technical input, please excuse my ignorance but I thought the
> mast emmited radially?

Phones might emit radially, but not towers.  If you look at a bigger tower, you'll often see several different panels pointed in several different directions.  

Marc

Thank you all so very much for all your responses, very much appreciated.
Above is a photo of the mast in question (left) and my house (right), since the top is cylindrical and not flat panel shaped I assumed it emmited radially unless I got my terminology wrong?
It would be nice to think the worst of the radiation is going straight over the top and we've been done a favour by the height increase.

Thanks for your useful info and links frog top, the radiation pattern diagrams make interesting reading,
I've located a good conversion chart online that I'm currently using called test emf it's a PDF file.

Regarding my actual readings, I've yet to take some proper detailed series of measurements that I will rely upon just yet, my plan is to measure each room in the house over a period of 4-5 hours providing the battery holds out then repeat each room at the same time each day then collate my readings into something tangible.
Looking back at what I took today though I saw (displayed average) of 0.003 mw/m2 in the lounge and 0.03 in the kitchen over a couple of hours, so translating this into the data you mentioned above regarding sleeping zones these are equivalent to 3 uW/m2 in the lounge = lower end of "slight concern" scale if I were to sleep in the lounge? Correct me if I'm wrong but maths was never my strong point.
The max mentioned previously of .4mw/m2 was literally just that, a split second anomaly that should not give too much concern.

Once again thanks for all the help, I'll let you all know how I get on as it happens

Kind regards
J King

jinny, where do you live?  

I have a mast fairly near me>

    Because it is tetra it is horrible (part tetra anyway). I have dificulty sleeping and feel damaged after sleeping, even with canopies - yes plural- round the bed. Yet those canopies usually deal fine with levels of microwaves higher than in this room, when the source is not tetra. Yet inside the canopy MY meter gives very very low levels here with the tetra mast as well as elsewhere without.
    It is strange, I wonder if it is  associated with very high frequencies bundled into the tetra but not the other places without tetra, that are affecting me.
   The only thing I can think of doing to pacify the mast involves a blackened face, clandestine trips outside at 3.00 a.m and a rocket propelled grenade. Not terribly practical. But visualsing DOES make at least some difference. I visualize massive swaying mushrooms in front of my house soaking up the radiation. That can help> Also skittering past the mast and zipping down like gadarene swine to the sea (about 2 miles away).
   I have certainly heard you get beams of greatest intensity from these abominations.

Hi there
We are in the UK

The house is 8m and the mast is 18m,  take a meter off to cover the transmitter area and its still twice as tall as our house, I think the photo perspective isn't great.
Thanks

Just a quick question about the meter itself, while in use it displays current reading - peak - average all in mw/m2, while the current reading jumps about up and down as I would expect, the average just seems to jump about in the same manner but at a tenth (approximately) of the strength as current reading, my understanding was that average was the total average since the meter was switched on? Therefore I would have expected the average to be roughly half that of the current (although I appreciate it may not but for every high reading on the current display I would expect more corresponding lower readings to average out at the rate mentioned previously) but more so I would expect after the device being on for 8 hours as it was last night for the average to be totally stable since the current display was still reading the same as when I switched it on at night, considering such a long time duration had elapsed only to fluctuate from a series of exceptionally high or low readings which wasn't happening.
So my main question is what is the average reading? Is it total or just ironing out the peaks and troughs over short durations?

Sorry for the long post guys
Cheers

Ha I remember seeing that video too, you can see why a normal law abiding citizen could go off the rails

I work with tanks to he he.

yes, i think that tetra and police brutality are