[RFI] Solar Panel RFI Video

[Dave Cole (NK7Z)]

Hi again Dale,

Respectfully you are correct in almost everything you say-- yes; the 
burden is on us.  Why?  Because our Government allowed the burden to 
fall on us.  Call your congress person, complain about the FCC, not the 
vendor, the vendor is spending money and flying engineers across the 
country to help us get things under control, the FCC is complaining it 
does not have enough money, and trying to assist us as it can.

I know without doubt that we are just not important enough to garner 
first class service.  I wish we were, but that reality.  RFI is going to 
be dealt with on a case by case basis, fair or not, that is how the 
world is working today.

As long as the FCC fails to enforce, the problems will continue.  The 
ARRL handed the FCC a ready to prosecute case with Home Depot, and as 
far as I know nothing happened...  That is the root problem here...

I am thankful the vendors are assisting us, if they wanted too, they 
could take a legal view of this, and make this a lot harder...  Look at 
how long W6WBJ kept the FCC going...  I don't want a vendor taking that 
path.

One makes the best of what one has...  I have no intention of stopping 
the push with regards to RFI, but I am careful how and who I push.  The 
goal for me, is to win the war, not a single fight.

I understand the process, I have had less than a month of operation in 
the last year due to constant RFI at 10 to 20 db over S9, across 40 
through 10 meters, due to a single IDed source.  I am hopping mad about 
it.  I have a complaint in to the FCC via the ARRL.  It is taking time, 
I don't expect it will be solved overnight, but I do expect it to be 
solved...

73s and thanks,
Dave
NK7Z
https://www.nk7z.net

On 07/14/2018 05:04 PM, Dale Johnson wrote:
> Yet again it puts the burden on the ham radio guy, that complainer down the street with his ham  CB “hobby” toy….causing the problem with *my* energy effeciant solar panels while I’m trying to be a good citzen and save the Earth, this ham guy keeps causing problems so he can play with his radio thing….. This is the perception…Folks…Get used to it.
> 
> You get the pix.
> 
> 73
> 
> Dale, K9VUJ
> 
> 
> On 14, Jul 2018, at 18:51, Dave Cole (NK7Z) <dave at nk7z.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Dale,
> 
> It actually might be cheaper to do just, fly an engineer out to a few RFI events to create a service bulletin.
> 
> Lets say the vendor sells a thousand of these PV systems each year, (and I bet is is quite a bit more), if each one takes two ferrites, and one hour of time to install, that is say-- 10 bucks in ferrites, and 10 bucks in installer time, or 20 bucks per system.
> 
> If they sell a 1000 of these a year, that is 20K a year they save by not installing RFI suppression on every system as it leaves the factory.  A good business decision.
> 
> Once the engineer gets a fix, and puts it in writing, making it a service bulletin when RFI is reported, it will be a lot simpler, (read that as cheaper for the vendor), for the install tech to do it next time someone gripes about RFI...
> 
> It will also be a lot better for us, as the installers can suddenly fix the RFI sooner than later, which is a LOT faster than flying anyone out to do anything...
> 
> This in fact is probably a very good business decision to have the engineers fly out and get hands on with actual RFI event and meet an actual Amateur operator.
> 
> I am sure that is why the engineers are flying out-- to see the actual issue as it happens.  This means that the vendor has put a high priority on fixing RFI, and is willing to spend some money to fix it.  This is great news for us!
> 
> This by the way, is a very good bit of customer service by the vendor. We need to be very thankful that they are not dragging things out as say-- W6WBJ has done.  The vendors could do just that, and they are choosing not too, they are choosing to help us in this...  Even though the vendor is responsible for the RFI, they are still our friends.
> 
> As much as I like the idea of having every solar PV system have RFI suppression installed from the get-go, that is simply not going to happen-- period.  No matter how mad we get, no matter how loud we carp about RFI, the vendors are simply not going to do that.
> 
> It is far cheaper to correct the relatively few problems the Hams report  than to proactively fix every system as it leaves the factory.
> 
> We MUST maintain a good relationships with the vendors that take the time, and money to fly out engineers to solve a problem that for them, is nothing more than a costly pain in the ass.  They are helping us by listening to and responding to our problems.
> 
> We need to support the vendors that help us removed RFI issues by sending high cost engineers across the country to make an RFI issue go away...  They could always just ignore the issue and not help...
> 
> 
> 73s and thanks,
> Dave
> NK7Z
> https://www.nk7z.net
> 
> On 07/14/2018 01:14 PM, Dale Johnson wrote:
>> I should think it would be a good practice for this company to fix their installation procedures so they don’t have to fly an engineer out to fix things.  Seems like a poor way to run a business.
>> Dale, K9VUJ
>> On 14, Jul 2018, at 14:34, Tony <dxdx at optonline.net> wrote:
>> On 7/14/2018 2:43 AM, Randy Standke wrote:
>>> Most of the SolarEdge house rewire jobs I have had around me solved the
>>> problem on the first attempt.  One took about four visits before it was
>>> finally solved.  On that final visit an engineer from SolarEdge came out.
>>> He discovered that they missed a couple of the optimizers.  Even one
>>> unfiltered optimizer will cause RFI 100s of feet away.  So, keep after them
>>> since they probably missed at least one optimizer.
>>>
>> Randy:
>> I've been in touch with Solar Edge field tech Tom Simpson who will be flying in from the west coast to inspect the work. He thinks the installers missed something which, as you mentioned, isn't the first time this happened. He tells me he's handled many cases and said the noise will be gone once he finds the issue.
>> Will keep you posted.
>> Tony -K2MO
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