[Elecraft] CFL's - LEDs - Solar

[Jim Sheldon]

I bought all my LED's from a number of different sources and they are assorted brands.  The only thing i looked for was color temp and they had to be "dimmable".   After I swapped all the CFL's and tubes out, my background noise dropped by around a half S unit.  

I then killed all the lights in the house and the noise floor stayed the same.  To check for sure, I put a rubber duck antenna on my KX3 set it to AM, 6 meters and turned all the lights on.  Even with the antenna right on each bulb, I didn't see any significant change in the background noise.  

My closest neighbor had all CFL's and I could take the KX3 near his house when he had his lights on.  S7 noise on 10 and 6.  After he had a CFL catch fire, he bit the bullet and went all LED. Now, as long as the power company keeps the trees out of the lines and the insulators clean, my noise floor runs pretty much right at whatever atmospheric background is. 

I don't know what type of LED bulbs my neighbor got but they are quiet.

Jim, W0EB

 

Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 27, 2015, at 8:59 PM, Phil Hystad <phystad at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> My house is filled with some cheap LED lights — there are four in the ham shack alone.  Never have I had any EMI issues from these lamps.  By cheap, I mean the lower cost LED lights from Home Depot.  I don’t really go out of my way to get the cheapest things I own — after all, I have a full K-Line and KX3.
> 
> 73, phil, K7PEH