[600MRG] Low RF Noise LED Light Bulbs

Thu Sep 5 20:16:04 EDT 2019

W0OGH de N1EA,

Larry,

Are your bulbs a particular brand?  I'm understanding some are noisy some
are not.

When you said "I have about a dozen of them i bought a year or so back
around the house including here in the shack in a

single bulb outlet. " are you meaning LED's in general or the brand Jay
Rusgrove, W1VD mentioned, "Ecosmart"?

I just want to follow and understand.

Thank you,

73

DR

David N1EA

On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 1:39 PM Larry <Telegrapher at q.com> wrote:

> I have about a dozen of them i bought a year or so back around the house
> including here in the shack in a
>
> single bulb outlet.  I don't hear any noise anywhere and the light is
> about 6 feet from the radio.  I get more
>
> noise from the computer screen, especially when it's loaded with text than
> anyplace else.  Normal noise
>
> level here is S-2 or less most of the time on bands above 30M.
>
> Course the noise source here on 40 and down depends a lot of what's
> happening in the medium.
>
> To broad of a statement?  Oh well, hope you all get the idea.
>
> Larry
>
> W0OGH
>
>
> On 9/5/2019 7:05 AM, Scott Armstrong wrote:
>
> I've swapped out most of the incandescent bulbs in the house for LEDs and
> have had no noticeable change in noise levels (or I just haven't found the
> noise yet). The bulbs are from different manufacturers.
> Just recently bought some more LED bulbs made by EcoSmart. They are part
> 15 compliant bulbs. Can't say that for the others.
>
> I also replaced the 4ft fluorescent lights in the kitchen with LEDs and
> started replacing the 8ft ones in the garage. Nice bright light but what
> crap they are. They generate noise from just below 10MHz to above 144MHz.
> Haven't had the time to see if I can tame the noise any by putting filters
> on the AC line and toroids on the individual fixture wires.
>
>
> Good Luck,
> Scott AA5AM
>
> On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 7:09 AM John Langridge <kb5njd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Les,
>>
>> My experience with LED bulbs has been that for the one's I have tried,
>> none work well across the the entire spectrum all the time.  Load
>> conditions seem to also impact where they will make the most noise and
>> temperature is also a factor.
>>
>> I don't know the brand (kirkland?) but Costco has a large multipack of
>> LED bulbs that are insanely bright.  I use them on my front and back
>> porches.  During the Summer when its hot here in Texas, the noise seems to
>> shift higher in frequency, into the upper broadcast band but below 160m.
>> That's a workable solution for me as I operate on 630 meters.  I also don't
>> hear these bulbs in the 630m band under any of the load conditions I can
>> present (other lights and appliances on at the same time).  Im sure there
>> is some combination that will become a problem, however.
>>
>> During the Winter its different.  If temperatures are below about 45
>> degrees and both of those porch lights are on, The signal is right in the
>> middle of the 630m band and its bad on two of my rx antennas.  If I turn
>> off the back porch light and change the load condition, the noise goes away
>> on those antennas.  So during the Winter when I am operating on 630m, I
>> turn off the back porch light.
>>
>> Every situation will likely be different so you might buy these same
>> bulbs that I have mentioned and have a completely different experience.
>> I'm afraid its probably going to be a trial and error situation for you as
>> every house will have a bit different wiring topology.  I bought
>> incandescent bulbs for the remainder of the house (you can get them on the
>> internet), which cost considerably more to operate but its worth it to me.
>>
>> 73/GL
>>
>> John
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 5:52 AM Les Rayburn <les at highnoonfilm.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Budget is very tight here. A couple of years ago, my wife and I
>>> converted all the lights in the house from CFB to LED lights and the
>>> savings on our monthly bill have been signifiant. $22 dollars a month on
>>> average.
>>>
>>> The downside is that the LED bulbs put out a lot of noise on LF, MW, and
>>> HF.
>>>
>>> A few months ago, I saw a thread about some LED bulbs that were
>>> ham-radio friendly, putting out considerably less EMI than other bulbs.
>>> Alas, the link was broken.
>>>
>>> Has anyone found an LED light bulb that is radio-friendly? If you have
>>> links to directly purchase them, even better.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>>
>>> 73,
>>>
>>> Les Rayburn, N1LF
>>> 121 Mayfair Park
>>> Maylene, AL 35114
>>> EM63nf
>>>
>>> Member WTFDA, IRCA, NRC. Former CPC Chairman for NRC & IRCA.
>>>
>>> Elad FDM-S2 SDR, AirSpy SDR2, SDRPlay RSP-2 Pro, Sony XDR-F1HD [XDR Guy
>>> Modified], Dennon TU-1500RD, Sangean HDT-1X, Ray Dees RDS Decoders,
>>> Korner 9.2 Antenna, FM-6 Antenna, Kitz Technologies KT-501
>>> Pre-amps, Quantum Phaser, Wellbrook ALA1530 Loop, Wellbrook Flag, Clifton
>>> Labs Active Whip.
>>>
>>> “Nothing but blues and Elvis, and somebody else’s favorite song…”
>>>
>>>
>>>
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