[RFI] Solar System RFI

[Mike Ryan]

Well, this issue will be more and more prevalent as people try to go solar 
or generate energy via wind turbines, as they do on boats in marinas, etc. 
You just have to do a little on line research to see.  And call Fair Rite 
Products..they know as well.
I have this at my qth and have been dealing with it for a number of years. 
The cure? Move
The short story here is that my neighbor who is more than 1000 ft north of 
me uses solar panels and a 3000 watt inverter (imported of course, no FCC 
type acceptance, not UL approved, nothing) and runs his whole house on the 
system. The inverter there is the issue.  With the wiring from the inverter 
removed it was quiet. As soon as a load is put on the inverter the rfi could 
be heard 3/4 of a mile away in my car on 40 meters (I run a Kenwood 480 
mobile).  Just the test leads from a volt meter pugged into the inverter 
were enough of an antenna that I can hear it 1000 ft away back here at my 
house.
Trying to keep this story short...
I was able to convince the guy to let me wrap his output cables through some 
toroids that came from Carol Parker at Fair Rite. These were Mix 31 cores as 
I recall. This knocked the noise down about 50%.  Carol offered to send some 
higher permeability cores to me, but as soon as I mentioned to the neighbor 
and his wacko wife that I needed some more time to work on the problem with 
him, he abruptly told me to take a flying leap. The FCC Field Office wrote 
him a letter, and threatened a $7000 fine. The neighbor though the letter 
was bogus and that I wrote it.  A call to the office from him verified the 
legitimacy of the letter of course. Well, after my wife was threatened in 
the grocery store and after loosing some friends in the neighborhood who 
thought I was the problem, the trouble maker, etc., I had to have the Field 
Office drop the issue.  My ops on 160, 80, 40, and 30 are about nil. The 
noise up the block is worse at night it seems perhap from this guy's 
system...Don't know.  But early on when I was just starting to look for the 
RFI noise, the local power company was investigating things for me, looking 
for a bad lighting arrestor, or whatever. They brought their direction 
finding equipment into the neighborhood. They went right to this guys house. 
I was told by his next door neighbor who I know very well that when the guy 
would see the power company van, he would turn the inverter OFF to confuse 
them.  Tell me what kind of an -hole would do that?  The answer, an ex-ham 
who knew and KNOWS exactly what he is doing...that's my neighbor...that's 
the guy.
    I forget the brand name of the inverter but could find it if you need 
it.  FCC will do nothing to the company selling or distributing these units. 
It is the END USER or the neighbor who is responsible for it's proper use 
and the noise it puts out. I wish you luck...  '73, Mike K4CVL

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kelly Johnson
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 11:58 AM
To: RFI List
Subject: [RFI] Solar System RFI

I believe I have identified a new source of RFI in my neighborhood.
It appears to be coming from the solar system installed last year by
my next door neighbor.  Noise is about S7 on all bands during daylight
hours when my beam is pointed in the direction of my neighbor's house.
Noise peaks when I am pointing at some sort of junction box on the
side of the house.  I assume this is the inverter, but can't be sure.

Anyone have suggestions about what to do next?
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