On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 16:01:12 -0400
"Mike Greenway" <K4PI@BELLSOUTH.NET> wrote:
> I wondered how long it would take before they started
>selling some RFI
> generating lighting. Soon we can have a complete
>neighborhood of RFI
I have tested compact fluorescent bulbs a couple of years
ago and found that they were noisy. I have not tried to
quantify the level of noise emitted, but it was about S5
on my K3 at a distance of about 4 feet using a one foot
wire for antenna. I have stayed with incandescent, but my
neighbor has installed over 50 of them on his house. The
noise coming from that direction (NW) is significantly
stronger than what I get from any other direction. Since
he has installed the CF (and many LED) bulbs, I have not
made one JA QSO! Fortunately, my DHDL, which looks towards
EU (NE) completely blocks the noise and I am still able to
work Europe.
On the other hand, I have LED lights installed on my dock,
which is only about 20 feet to the East of the RX antenna,
but these LED lights are driven by well filtered drivers
in metal boxes. No noise from these lights can be
detected.
It seems to me that we have a very serious threat from
noisy "switched" light sources (and other digital noise
generators, like Variable Frequency Drives) that have not
been properly filtered. I am wondering the if the LED
bulbs bought from Home Depot meet FCC Part 15 specs. Were
they marked so?
George, AA7JV
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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