In response to the question from Randy, WX5L, about RFI in the HF range from
K1TL's neighbor's systems:
I live nearby and have helped Tom investigate numerous RFI problems for
several years.
He currently is plagued by several major sources:
= next door neighbor to the south recently installed a SolarEdge based
system. He immediately started seeing significant RFI at both 6m and 30m,
the only bands for which he has antennas.
= next neighbor south of next door has a significant grow operation in his
garage. This causes broadband RFI across the entire spectrum that we have
looked at.
= other houses located several hundred feet away with what must be SolarEdge
based systems. These are very noticeable on 6m, especially a large noise
peak at about 50.098 MHz which is a popular cw dx frequency.
I personally have a SolarEdge based system with 22 panels. Through a bit of
luck in timing, I was able to interrupt the installation before making final
payment (my system is owned by me, not leased or financed) and negotiated
installation of the same mitigation hardware described in K1KP's article in
QST.
Prior to installation of mitigation hardware, my system caused SIGNIFICANT
interference to my station in all HF and VHF bands for which I have
antennas. I also had the 50.098 MHz noise hump. This noise hump comes from
harmonics every 100 KHz across a wide frequency range. We believe this
noise comes from the so called power optimizers used in SolarEdge based
systems which are switching mode power supplies.
Following installation of mitigation hardware, my system has some
interference but the effect is tolerable. K1KP's mitigation design makes
use of a number of ferrite cores and a single large line filter to greatly
reduce common mode RFI.
>From time to time, I do find enough interference on specific frequencies
that I shut the system off. This helps but does not completely make the RFI
disappear as the solar panels are still active. There is no way to shut off
the panels as long as they are illuminated by the sun short of placing a
black tarp over them.
I have a neighbor who also has a solar array system of the same size but it
is NOT based on SolarEdge hardware. This system is almost undetectable
here.
I am also fortunate in that the only solar array system causing me any
problems is my own and I have a large amount of control over its operation.
Should another neighbor install a SolarEdge based system then I will be in
the same boat as K1TL and many others.
There are several companies installing solar array systems here. My system
was installed by SunGevity which has gone into bankruptcy.
Google my qrz.com address and you can see my system and its relationship to
my various antennas. The neighbor with the non-troublesome system is to my
south.
Jim Spears
N1NK
Tiverton
_______________________________________________
RFI mailing list
RFI@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
|