Spurious emission

A spurious emission is any radio frequency not deliberately created or transmitted, especially in a device which normally does create other frequencies. A harmonic or other signal outside a transmitter's assigned channel would be considered a spurious emission.

From ITU, 1.145 Spurious emission: Emission on a frequency or frequencies which are outside the necessary bandwidth and the level of which may be reduced without affecting the corresponding transmission of information. Spurious emissions include harmonic emissions, parasitic emissions, intermodulation products and frequency conversion products but exclude out-of-band emissions.

See also

• Unintentional radiator
• Radio spectrum pollution