Hi Clay,
We use a Honda ES6500 at our Field Day site without any special
line filtering and don't have any problems with noise. That is not
to say that it doesn't generate any RFI. My experience has been
that the degree of RFI you get from a noise source like a generator
can be very site specific. If the antennas feedlines are adequately
decoupled from the antennas (e.g. horizontal antennas with proper
baluns), then the amount of pick-up may be minimal. In contrast a
vertical antenna with an inadequately decoupled feedline may
pick-up a lot of noise from the same source. I had this experience
with my Honda EU2000i generator. When I checked
at home with my horizontal antenna, I didn't hear any noise at all.
When I went portable with the generator using the exact same
radio, but using an R7000 vertical mounted to my trailer hitch of
my pickup truck instead of the horizontal antenna, the switching
noise pickup from the inverter in the Honda was S7 to S9 on 15
and 10 meters. I used a common mode filter to get rid of this:
http://www.dellroy.com/W4EF's-Ham-Radio-Page/Portable_Operation/EU2000i_Filt
er.htm
The Honda EU2000i also generates ignition noise on 160 meters.
It was quite strong when I was using this generator in conjunction
with my short top-loaded vertical in a portable setup. NL7Y suggested
that I shield the spark-plug wire with copper braid between the ignition
coil and the engine block to get rid of it. This knocked the ignition
noise from the Honda engine down to below my local noise floor.
73 de Mike, W4EF............................................
----- Original Message -----
From: "Clay Curtiss W7CE" <w7ce@curtiss.net>
To: <rfi@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 4:29 PM
Subject: [RFI] Honda Generator RFI
> Does anyone have any experience with Honda generators and RFI? I just
> purchased a Honda EM6000GP propane powered 6KW generator for use at a
cabin
> that is off the power grid. Unfortunately, the generator is creating a
lot
> of RFI. At some frequencies the noise is as high as S9+10 and at other
> frequencies it is virtually non-existant. I don't think it is ignition
> noise but I won't know for sure until I do some more testing. For the
test,
> I'll run the receiver from a 12V battery and disconnect the AC power
> connection at the generator. If the noise disappears when I disconnect
the
> AC then I think I can safely assume that the noise is on the 120/240 line
> itself.
>
> The cabin is wired for 240V with a standard breaker panel. I'm supplying
> 240V from the generator to the panel. I suspect that line filters mounted
> at the generator will probably do the trick, but I'm not sure. Any
> recommendations? I've looked at the Corcom line filters or I could build
> one from toroids. For the latter, I'm not sure which cores would be best.
> I need to filter 30A at 240V.
>
> On a similar topic, I plan on adding batteries and an inverter so that the
> generator doesn't need to run all the time. I've looked at the Trace
SW4024
> and SW5548. I like these units because they can automatically fire up the
> generator when needed. However, they generate stepped sine wave output
and
> I'm concerned that I'll have the same kind of RFI that the generator is
> producing. Would line filters help smooth out the waveforms here?
>
> One other option I've considered is a 6KW isolation transfomer. Would
that
> provide enough RF isolation at 1.8MHz and up?
>
> Any and all suggestions are welcome.
>
> Clay W7CE
>
>
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