[RFI] Solar Arrays, etc.

[dgsvetan at rockwellcollins.com]

Rick and All,

The sad news is that "clean" power-consuming devices, such as incandescent 
light bulbs, passive iron core transformers, and induction motors, are 
going the way of the dodo.  (Yes, I know that you frequently get a noise 
spike when switching the listed devices on or off, but when they are 
running, they produce no inherent RFI.)  If you consider that all of those 
technologies are more than a century old, it is amazing they have lasted 
as long as they have.  Filament bulbs are not efficient, and transformers 
and motors based upon iron laminations are too expensive and/or heavy. So, 
add in welders, variable speed motor drives, pulsed electric fence 
chargers, BPL (in some locales), and all the rest, and you have the 
situation described below. 

If it were practical to perform a plot of RF spectrum noise floor 
components in the continental US by flying over the country, I suspect 
there would be some very interesting (and bothersome) results, especially 
in the more heavily populated areas.

73, Dale
WA9ENA

 



"Richard (Rick) Karlquist" <richard at karlquist.com> 
Sent by: rfi-bounces at contesting.com
05/07/2007 11:15 AM

To
<WarrenWolff at aol.com>, <rfi at contesting.com>
cc

Subject
Re: [RFI] Solar Arrays, etc.






I have been doing RF scouting in power line free zones.
I noticed that whenever I get near "civilization" even of
the off-grid variety, there is a big increase in RF noise,
presumably from inverters, etc.

Rick N6RK

> -----Original Message-----
> From: rfi-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:rfi-bounces at contesting.com]On
> Behalf Of WarrenWolff at aol.com
> Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 2:55 PM
> To: rfi at contesting.com
> Subject: [RFI] Solar Arrays, etc.
> 
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Has anyone encountered QRN/RFI from solar array inverters or  from wind 
> charger systems?
> 
> Regards,  Warren; W7WY
> 
> 
> 
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