[TowerTalk] CF Bulbs Noise reduction

[Pat Barthelow]

I had a CF bulb "let the smoke out" of its base, recently, cracked the base open, and was amazed at the quantity of discrete components that were inside, considering the selling price of the product.

There used to be advertized a nicely packaged diode that you just dropped in the light socket, to half wave rectify the AC, supposedly lowering your power bill.  Could you build an RFI filter in such a wafer...looked to be the size of a nickel, about 4 mm thick, and you simply screwed down the bulb onto it, after dropping it in the socket.  Also, can the RFI be coming through the (appears to be) plastic base housing the electronics?  If so, could you make some sort of clip on, conforming metal film shield around the base, and ground it, reducing the noise emitted?  

All the Best, 73,
Pat Barthelow     aa6eg at hotmail.com
http://www.jamesburgdish.org
Subscribe: http://bambi.net/jamesburg.html
Jamesburg Earth Station  Moon Bounce Team




> Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:01:17 -0400
> From: nv8a at att.net
> To: TOWERTALK at contesting.com
> CC: kb9cry at comcast.net
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] CF Bulbs
> 
> I was in Sam's Club yesterday and noticed that their GE CF bulbs have a 
> warning against using them close to emergency communications equipment. 
> A frequency range was mentioned: the upper limit was 30MHz, but I don't 
> recall the lower limit.
> 
> 73
> 
> Alan NV8A
> 
> 
> On 10/31/07 10:26 am Phil Camera wrote:
> 
> > My experience is as follows:
> > 
> > I've replaced a number a incandescent bulbs in the house and especially in and near the radio shack and have not had a problem.  Those bulbs are the 8 to a pack GE styles from Sams Club.  
> > 
> > 
> > Now, I've done the same with the same bulbs on the two outdoor lights with photoeyes.  On older photoeye units, these bulbs just burned out within a week or so (they are specifically not rated for photoeyes or dimmers).  This past summer I replaced these two outdoor fixtures with new that had a different type of photoeye (replacement was due to old fixture starting to look beat up).  I again tried these same CF bulbs and they have lasted for a long time......but
> > 
> > The new problem I experienced is that when these came on and stayed on, RFI wiped out the AM radio (and most likely up into the amateur bands).
> > 
> > I did an internet search and only found CF bulbs specifically rated for use with dimmers (none stated for use with photoeyes but I thought the issues were the same).  I bought a few of these dimmer rated CFs and installed these and no more RFI.  Gone.
> > 
> > 
> > So if you are having interference issues with CFs; you may wish to try obtaining dimmer rated CFs and gives those a try.
> 
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