I installed a DIY mini-split made by Mr Cool in my shack a couple of years ago.
It does put out white-noise RFI that brings up the noise floor about 10 dB when
I'm listening with my indoor 160m loop, but I can't hear a trace of it when
receiving with any of the outside antennas: dipole 110' high, 160m
quarter-wave vertical tee, or 500' Beverage. It isn't much of a problem since
I rarely use the A/C during the time of year I'm active on 160m, due to
spring/summer static.
Mine has a toroidal coil in the a.c. line going to the circuit board in the
outdoor unit. Not sure about the indoor air exchanger. It would be a PITA
squared to gain access to the inside of the indoor unit once it's installed.
I'll probably call a professional to service if that ever needs repair.
This was supposed to be a DIY installation the manufacturer claimed any
homeowner could do, but in reality it was a challenge for me, and I have years
of experience and a good collection of tools for doing that sort of work. I
don't think the average homeowner with a limited supply of tools and little
construction experience could succeed with the project. BTW, I love the way it
performs (except for the white noise). Totally quiet; I can just barely hear
it. I need to move that indoor loop outside anyway.
I have seen photos and descriptions of other mini-splits sold by other
manufacturers. They appeared to be identical to mine. I suspect one
manufacturer in China makes all of them and affixes the various companies' logo
before exporting them.
Don k4kyv
________________________________________
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2021 10:02:26 -0800
From: Dennis Monticelli <dennis.monticelli@gmail.com>
To: david@winarsky.com, rfi@contesting.com
Subject: [RFI] mini split for new ham shack
David,
I don't think you will find any single or multi-speed (split capacitor
type) for sale in CA anymore. The last ones were sold in 2019. New CA
HVAC efficiency standards that took effect in 2020 have pushed vendors to
electronically commutated motors which are not only more efficient
electrically, more importantly they offer continuously variable speeds
which in turn eek out a small efficiency improvement, especially with
two-stage types.
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