[RFI] A request for RFI service.

[Mike Ryan]

The vendor really has nothing to do with it.  If the sign is indeed the 
problem, which is owned by the pharmacy, the pharmacy is liable for it's 
operation and interference. If you talk to the nearest FCC Field Office, 
they can quickly direct you to the rule. The END USER of the product is 
ultimately responsible. If you get the response that I expect you will, 
(especially if you have a contact name from your power company who can 
verify the source) from the Field Office, they will write the letter to the 
pharmacy directing them to remedy the situation or face a fine. I would 
expect the sign to go away rather quickly after this, as these fines are not 
cheap.
This sort of thing happened to me when a neighbor had a solar panel array 
and a bad dc to ac inverter. The FCC could care less who made it. The letter 
was written to the neighbor threatening the fine as if should have been. The 
end user of the product must clear up the violation.  - Mike

-----Original Message----- 
From: dalej
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2015 4:49 AM
To: Ken Gordon
Cc: RFI at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RFI] A request for RFI service.

Ken,

It's a prickly problem.  I had a dog water dish that was raising heck on 20 
meters.  The dish was heating the water so I never told the guy he had to 
get a new water dish because I knew what his answer would be, it works.. So, 
I bought a new one for him, problem solved.

In your case the sign might be very expensive so you can rule that out.  A 
couple of possibilities, the letter to the FCC is good, hope you kept a 
copy, in fact you should have cc the store owner.  Do you have a city 
electrical inspection department?  If so you could contact them (in person 
is always best) and see if they will visit the business and check the sign 
for electrical defects, could save big money if a fire hazard is found, you 
might become a hero, saving businesses from destruction.  Be sure to take 
your portable radio along to demonstrate the noise it's generating, might be 
arcing inside the thing somewhere.  If it can be shown the sign is defective 
the city could issue a letter to the store to get it fixed.  Does it 
generate noise in the AM broadcast band?  If so it could be hampering people 
to listen to commercial broadcasts, if so you could contact the radio 
stations and tell them I can't hear your programming due to a noise problem 
with a sign at such and suc
h business.  Attention to the problem might make the store owner a little 
more nervous and just shut the sign down or get a different one.

If the FCC writes a letter that would help, but the store still has to get 
the sign fixed or replaced. This might take a looooooonnng time if they get 
their attorney involved.

Good luck
73
Dale, k9vuj


On 05, Feb 2015, at 20:28, Kenneth G. Gordon <kgordon2006 at frontier.com> 
wrote:

Does anyone know of a professional company who does RFI mitigation?

That is, a company that another company could call to come to fix an RFI
issue?

I have a pharmacy nearby whose "Pharmacy Open" sign, a neon one, causes
severe RFI interference to my station.

An RFI investigator from our local power company absolutely 100%
identified the source.

Turning off the sign drops my noise level by 15 dB. The store is around 3
blocks away.

I contacted the pharmacy, talked with the manager, told her what the
problem was, and who had found the source, and asked her to get it fixed.

She called the original installer, who came out, looked at it, and told
her it was all right.

I then filed a complaint with the FCC.

The manager then told me that she knew of no one who was capable of
fixing the sign, and although I could do it myself, I won't due to
liability issues.

So, does anyone know of a company which offers the kind of service she
would need?

Ken W7EKB
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