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Re: [RFI] RFI via Florescent Lights

To: Rfi@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RFI] RFI via Florescent Lights
From: "Gary Smith" <Gary@ka1j.com>
Reply-to: Gary@ka1j.com
Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2016 10:45:56 -0400
List-post: <rfi@contesting.com">mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
I was looking for LEDs to replace the bulb 
in my CDE rotor as the ones I'd ordered 
from Idiom press never came in though I'd 
paid them. (more than a year later I got 
an email from Wayne Ordakowski, N0UN who 
owns Ham Supply. He had just purchased 
Idiom and now owning the business, had 
happened to read my final and somewhat 
nasty email to Idiom. He wanted to make 
good and sent me the kit without delay 
even though he had no part in Idiom's 
keeping the money and not sending.) I 
mention this only because Wayne deserves 
to be known for being an up-front guy who 
deserves our business and can be trusted 
to do the right thing.

But I digressed... So while looking for 
LEDs that would fit the bill I came across 
a strip of LEDs on a 4-5" spool looking 
like a small ladder line spool, of 12V 
LEDs on what is about a 16' strip with an 
LED every 3/4 or so of an inch. Wires from 
both sides so you can series another spool 
or more. All they take is a power supply 
and if the one you have is RFI free as 
ours are, these LEDs themselves put out no 
RFI that I have detected.

If you go to fleabay and type in 
( LED strip 12V ) you will find these. The 
ones I bought are bright, they have 
varying color temperatures. and have a 3M 
strip on the back that protects an 
adhesive backing and they're flexible 
allowing unusual placement. If I ordered 
again, I might go for the soft white but 
at a work station, the brights are good 
for seeing detail.

If you look at the price & shipping lowest 
first, you'll find something I don't get: 
bids starting at .01 with free shipping 
from China. Not sure what that means but 
if you bid low, you might get a nice deal. 

Looking under "Best Match" you find what I 
bought from but now there's a bigger 
selection. While I don't think one of 
these strips would light a room well, they 
make a very nice adjunct for lighting the 
shack with light that is not focused like 
a lamp with a hood will do. I have them in 
a zig-zag pattern and they replaced the 
Fluorescents above my station.

Each LED on the one I have seems to be 
about a third the brightness of the 
flashlight LED on my phone. With so many 
LEDs on the strip, the overall brightness 
is reasonable and RFI free.

73,
Gary
KA1J


> A lady friend of mine owns the local bowling alley. She decided to replace
> the fluorescent lights over the alleys with direct wire  4 foot LEDs. When
> 2/3 done and waiting for more bulbs she reported her electric bill went down
> by $200.00 in the first month. The light inside is better than ever. She
> figures on saving $300.00 per month when finished with the installation.
> $3600 per year is a lot of scratch to save let alone the power saved. I am
> thinking the heating bill will go up in the winter however. Here in the NW
> natural gas heating is less expensive than electric heating. We will see how
> this plays out. This has caused me to order some LEDs for my shop and
> laboratory. I will report when they get here how much RFI I can measure from
> them. At present I have Lights of America fixtures with F40 bulbs and I have
> to turn them off when making low level signal measurements on the bench as
> they are so bad with RFI from the BC band clear up to above 50 MHz.
> Lee  K7TJR   OR
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RFI [mailto:rfi-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Charles Plunk
> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2016 1:55 PM
> To: rfi@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [RFI] RFI via Florescent Lights
> 
> I was at a convenience store/gas station a few weeks ago in the bathroom and
> looked up and saw those LED T8 replacements. First i had seen. You 
> could see the individual LED's in them.     I too have some of those 
> noisy variable voltage input ballasts in my shop. Interested thread.
> 
> Chuck
> AF4O
> 
> 
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> RFI mailing list
> RFI@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
> 



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