I am currently in the process of replacing old T12 lighting with T8
fixtures and have spent quite a bit of time testing the RESIDENTIAL
fixtures I found at Home Depot and Lowes. Plus one LED fixture by
Utilitech from Lowes. I was encouraged to find the boxes marked with RFI
filtered or similar on the T8 fixtures. I found the Lithonia to be
terrible. It had objectional RFI on 80, 40, 30M and terrible RFI on 15 and
6M. 6M had a 30db rise in the noise floor in a 2.5 KHz bandwidth with a
-93dBm noise level and 15M was similar but I did not measure the exact
level. This was using a 14dBd 6M array about 50' away, a small tribander
about 70' away and low band antennas 200'+ away from the fixture. Tests
with a 50 ohm resistor 3-4' from the fixture were worse.
The Metalux (I think that is the brand) fixture from Lowes showed no rise
in the -140 to -145 dBm noise floor using a 50 ohm resistor in the shack
during initial testing. After a bit more testing and tuning through the
bands I was able to detect weak switch mode power supply traces on the
waterfall at a few spots on the low bands. but they were not detectable on
my external antennas since the noise floor is much higher. After twisting
the balast leads and putting 6-7 turns on a #31 ferrite I can only barely
detect any traces any more even with two fixtures turned on. The handful
of traces on 160, 80, 40M were a maximum of -140dBm into a 50 ohm resistor
3-4' from the fixtures and only 3b above the noise floor. Another turn or
two might clean up the residual traces, but I used up the supplied
leads. I may have enough extra when the fixtures are installed.
I haven't installed the Lowes fixtures yet (will be a total of four
fixtures), but I don't anticipate any problems. Did I need to apply
ferrites to the Metalux fixtures, probably not, but these lights will be on
most of the nighttime hours so I do not want any noise from them.
The final test was a Utilitech T8 size LED fixture. Upon initial testing I
found no rise in the noise floor on any band except 20M which had a 5db
increase in the noise floor into a 50 ohm resistor. I didn't test this
farther since after opening the product I determined that the LEDs were
integrated into the fixture and not T8 style LED bulbs which would mean
replacing the entire fixture if it failed. There may be some other noise
from this fixture and the Lithonia fixture (see next paragraph).
During the testing of these fixtures I noticed some in shack noise on the
50 ohm resistor so I spent some time cleaning up a couple items in the
shack which dropped the in-shack noise floor at least 10dB depending on the
band, but had no impact on my noise floor with external antennas. There is
a chance the Utilitech and Lithonia fixtures may have some noise that I
didn't initially detect. As the experts say, clean your own house first.
I don't have the actual model/part numbers handy at the moment, but I can
post them later.
I didn't check any replacement ballasts from Home Depot or Lowes, but I
will say, even knowing what I was looking for, it was took a conscious
effort to determine which were the proper residential ballasts.
I also checked some 40w and 60w Utilitech LED incandescent bulb
replacements and have not noticed any noise floor increase in the 50 ohm
resistor or with three of them in a fixture about 15' away.
I also found the complete 4 ft 2-light fixtures made by Lithonia with the
ballast made by Accupro (Model No. AP-RC-232IP-102-1) states it complies
with 47 CFR Part 18 "consumer limits".
On their spec sheets I found online
[ http://www.lithonia.com/specsheets.aspx?cid=67054 ]
[
http://www.acuitybrandslighting.com/library//ll/documents/specsheets/accupro
%20ballast.pdf ]
it states: "Ballast shall comply with the limits of FCC Part 18C Class B
(residential) and Class A". I've had these installed for years with no
noticeable RFI even with my roof mount antenna only about 15-20 ft away from
it.
73, Robert KR7O/YB2ARO, DM07ba/OI52ee (ex. N7STU)
DXCC 6M #1122
WAZ 6M #112
VUCC 6M, 2M
www.vhfdx.com (KR7O/YB2ARO pages)
Looking for old VHF QSL cards and logbooks.
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