Topband: Home Depot LED bulb interference.

[GeorgeWallner]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 16:01:12 -0400
  "Mike Greenway" <K4PI at BELLSOUTH.NET> wrote:
> I wondered how long it would take before they started 
>selling some RFI 
> generating lighting.  Soon we can have a complete 
>neighborhood of RFI 

I have tested compact fluorescent bulbs a couple of years 
ago and found that they were noisy. I have not tried to 
quantify the level of noise emitted, but it was about S5 
on my K3 at a distance of about 4 feet using a one foot 
wire for antenna. I have stayed with incandescent, but my 
neighbor has installed over 50 of them on his house. The 
noise coming from that direction (NW) is significantly 
stronger than what I get from any other direction. Since 
he has installed the CF (and many LED) bulbs, I have not 
made one JA QSO! Fortunately, my DHDL, which looks towards 
EU (NE) completely blocks the noise and I am still able to 
work Europe.

On the other hand, I have LED lights installed on my dock, 
which is only about 20 feet to the East of the RX antenna, 
but these LED lights are driven by well filtered drivers 
in metal boxes. No noise from these lights can be 
detected.

It seems to me that we have a very serious threat from 
noisy "switched" light sources (and other digital noise 
generators, like Variable Frequency Drives) that have not 
been properly filtered. I am wondering the if the LED 
bulbs bought from Home Depot meet FCC Part 15 specs. Were 
they marked so?

George, AA7JV