In my day job with a national wireless carrier, noise from new "green" lighting
systems are plaguing our base stations. I've been working with two major
lighting vendors that are very serious about resolving the issue since the
alternative is a date with the enforcement bureau.
I don't think this will address the inexpensive imports we all run into at the
discount houses, but at least two are now paying attention to the problems
their lighting systems create. The larger players will have a group or
consultant in DC that represents them before the FCC. Contact with these folks
has proven to usually be very fruitful. BPL being the exception.
Most of the good interference chasers in our company (like me) are hams,
imagine that.
tnx
Mike
On Apr 5, 2012, at 7:10 PM, "GeorgeWallner" <aa7jv@atlanticbb.net> wrote:
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
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