[RFI] 6 Minutes - a record?

[Dale Svetanoff]

Jerry,

All's well that ends well.  While I am not surprised about the touch lamp
being the eventual "guilty party", I am a little amazed that it had
previously been RF quiet.  Those things can be notorious.

Since you say that the MinkaAire does have remote speed control, that info
tells me it has some sort of solid state circuitry (probably SCRs or
triacs) to achieve such a task.  As long as the unit does not cause you
RFI, then it would appear that the manufacturer has applied filtering
within the unit.  

Thank you for sharing the info with the list.  This is how we can all learn
from each other.

Final note:  My five fans all have old-fashioned pull chain speed controls
(pole switching within the motor).  My house was built in 2000 and the
electrician installed electronic speed controls in the wall switches for
each fan.  These are either Lutron or Pass & Seymore, and no RFI from any
of them.  Thus, I leave the pull chain switch on each fan set for maximum
speed and then set the wall switch slider pot to the speed I actually want.
So far, so good.

73, Dale
WA9ENA 


> [Original Message]
> From: Gerald Wolczanski <jerrywolczanski at earthlink.net>
> To: <svetanoff at earthlink.net>
> Cc: <RFI at contesting.com>
> Date: 5/21/2012 12:58:06
> Subject: RE: [RFI] 6 Minutes - a record?
>
> 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
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > RFI at contesting.com
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> > 
> > 
>
>