[RFI] 6 Minutes - a record?

Gerald Wolczanski jerrywolczanski at earthlink.net
Mon May 21 10:58:06 PDT 2012


I took the blades off the fan and hung it from its installation hook
and, after an hour of running back and forth from the basement breaker
panel - I found the interference was still there even after installing a
ferrite clamp, and then disconnecting all the wires.   I looked around
the room and there is my wife's touch-to-light lamp.  I have always
bothered it (keying the rig turned on the light), but it had never
bothered me.  I unplugged it and the interference disappeared.  Geeze.
It has been unplugged for about a week while I repainted the
bedroom....so maybe, when it woke back up, it changed frequency enough
to bother me.

So, I am both embarrassed and educated.....as well as happy that I
didn't go up into the attic and install an AC filter.  I'm not sure I
would have even admitted that one.  Har.

For the record, the fan is a MinkaAire, Concept II with a remote light
and speed control.  My previous fan had a light that was switched on
from the wall.  I snipped into the wire bundle in this fan and connected
the light that to the switched AC line.  For a while, I thought my
modest little modification might have been the source of RFI, although I
couldn't imagine why that would be the case. 

Thanks for your interest Dale!

73
Jerry W
KI4IO
Warrenton, VA




On Sun, 2012-05-20 at 22:51 -0500, Dale Svetanoff wrote:
> Jerry,
> 
> Please do us a favor and list make and model of the fan.  Frankly, I am a
> bit surprised about a ceiling fan causing RFI, but I suupose anything is
> possible.  I say that because I have 5 ceiling fans in my house and all
> have straight induction motors - they are "RF quiet".  Speed change is
> accomplished by switching the number of poles within the motor.  
> 
> Does this fan use solid state speed control?  It would be interesting to
> know.  
> 
> 73, Dale
> WA9ENA
> 
> 
> > [Original Message]
> > From: Gerald Wolczanski <jerrywolczanski at earthlink.net>
> > To: <RFI at contesting.com>
> > Date: 5/19/2012 7:14:20
> > Subject: [RFI] 6 Minutes - a record?
> >
> > Scott (transistor at charter.net) assisted me in chasing down an RFI
> > problem that was wiping out portions of the 40 meter CW band.  I finally
> > traced it to a sailboat dual-battery charger that was keeping my boat
> > batteries charged in the off-season.
> >
> > Unplugging the unit did not make the interference immediately go away.
> > Indeed the RFI did not go away until roughly 6 minutes after I unplugged
> > the charger (batteries were still connected to the charger).
> >
> > Scott asked that I share this with the RFI folks.
> >
> > So, that took care of my RFI problems until I installed a new ceiling
> > fan in the bedroom yesterday.  I confirmed it was the fan by shutting
> > off the CB for the bedroom.  I'm going to build the "brute force AC
> > filter" described in the ARRL handbook and put it into the AC line
> > feeding the unit (up in the attic).
> >
> > 73
> > Jerry W
> > KI4IO
> > Warrenton, VA
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > RFI mailing list
> > RFI at contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rfi
> 
> 




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