[RFI] RFI via Florescent Lights

[Carl Foster]

Mike, 

I had the same issue with workshop lights. I did so much electrical work
that the professional electrician supply place I go to gives me excellent
pricing. I installed new lights in a workshop addition and all they sell are
the industrial fixtures. I put ferrite chokes everywhere on those fixtures
and nothing seemed to help. I ended up replacing the ballasts with the
residential types and everything went quiet. The ballasts are available at
Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace Hardware. 

Carl  KB7AZ

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2016 17:42:23 -0500
From: "Mike & Becca Krzystyniak" <k9mk at flash.net>
To: "'RFI List'" <rfi at contesting.com>
Subject: [RFI] RFI via Florescent Lights
Message-ID: <00e501d18ec3$42ed7440$c8c85cc0$@net>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Greetings All,

   I just moved into a new QTH.  My detached garaged has Florescent shop
lights and unlike the old QTH the RFI from these are pretty darn bad.  Hash
goes up into the FM broadcast band.

   I did some reading through the RFI archives and I am not sure of the
physical DNA of these units (classic or modern or cheap import).  They are
compact offering high energy output suggests solid state ballast but I have
not popped one of them open yet to see what might be spewing the hash.
Instead I find myself in a panic pondering in line filters (like Mousers TE
Connectivity offerings), or maybe some snap on ferrite, or maybe
combinations of both. 

   Sanity must prevail.  There are four offending H-E-F's so I'm wondering
what is the most prudent approach to killing or resolving the problem?
Short of ripping them out, what might yield the biggest bang for bucks
already sunk?

Thanks in advance.

Best 73     Mike    K9MK/5

PS: I do intend to get up there tonight and see if these are rated for
commercial or residential lightings.