[RFI] Grow Lights

[Kelly Johnson]

I've heard two distinct noises from grow lights. The first has a very distinctive 120hz buzz. It starts with random pops. The pops get closer and closer together until an hour or so later the buzz is constant. It is a classic street light signature.  In fact, I first Went looking for a faulty street light.  The second is wide band hash. Noise levels drop as frequency increases but is still audible on 6m. It is wide band. No birdies or hotspots 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 1, 2011, at 5:23 PM, Eric - VE3GSI <ve3gsi at sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Hi Joe,
> 
> Sorry no recording, but I can tell you from first hand experience with the
> ballasts used on lower power (300 Watt) grow lights I once tried. I did get
> a broadband hash and electrical buzz on the rig with a very high floor
> noise, no pulsing, no whistles just wide band noise. The interference was
> worse with my rig on 80 meters, which I suspect was because one leg of the
> dipole went over the house. There was enough hash/buzz from the ballast in
> fixtures to actually show sparkles in a TV picture off my satellite
> receiver. The ballasts also interfered with the X10 timers I used to switch
> the lamps on/off.
> 
> The dealer assured me the ballast would not cause interference on my radios,
> needless to say I did not keep them. I do not remember the manufacture of
> the ballasts.
> 
> Eric - VE3GSI
> 
> P.S. I assure you the plants I was growing at the time were not smoked or
> turned into cookies. <grin>
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Wilkowski
> Sent: January-01-11 4:08 PM
> To: rfi at contesting.com
> Subject: [RFI] Grow Lights
> 
> A recent quote from another thread on this reflector...
> 
> Wait 'till you have an indoor
> marijuana farmer in your neighborhood with 1KW grow lights running off
> switched-mode ballasts that probably don't even meet industrial
> emissions rules!   I was told that "grow lights" are now the #1 source
> of ham RFI complaints at the ARRL; eclipsing powerline noise
> complaints.
> 
> Does anyone have a bonified rfi recording of these things ?  Can you post it
> ?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
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