[Elecraft] 4k monitors for the shack, late 2019

[Chris R. NW6V]

Hi Scott.

You wrote  "What can people suggest for quasi-affordable *RF-quiet* 4k
displays in
the 27-40" range?"

I'm using an LG 27UD69P that I picked up as open stock at Best-Buy last
year and am quite satisfied. It's beautiful.

It does have an external PS, and is very happy to run off the same supply
as the rest of the rig, as is the Intel NUC PC it's connected to (Tim Duffy
of DXE uses these at every position of the K3LR super-station). This was an
important consideration because I wanted to be able to run the whole rig,
computer and all, off a big ol' 100AH LiPO battery, both for emergency use,
and when I wanted to kill all the noise possible when chasing DX down into
said noise.

I made the change to this configuration last year, before I retired as an
IT director, so at the time I had access to a number of DC-driven monitors.
This LG was the quietest of the four I tested. One Dell (not 4K) was a
hell-hole of RFI... :-)

Although this monitor was the "quietest" of the bunch, it was not
completely quiet. But. as Jim K9YC noted, I put ferrites on both the HDMI
and power lines to eliminate "noticeable" RFI.

I say noticeable because I "monitored the monitors" with a panadapter
running on a laptop hooked to the station antennas. Once the ferrites were
installed on this LG, what remained was but the faintest trace on 12M, *at
the antenna, *and that was good enough for me.

As another mentioned, the "noticeable" aspect of the RFI is important. If I
hold my RFI sniffer (a Kenwood TH-F6 HT) within about a foot of the
monitor, oriented at one specific angle, it is still putting out RFI. But
since I can't see the RFI at the antenna, that RFI is not impacting my
operations: The inverse-square law is reducing the intensity below
"noticeable" levels by the time it gets to the antennas, which is all that
matters.

And that of course is in the context of my background noise levels, which
at this city QTH are high (even after extensive mitigation work). So
background noise could render this internally generated noise undetectable.
But my existing system is sensitive enough to notice the differences among
several switching and analog supplies, so I'm satisfied that I'm not overly
QRMing myself.

So: I suggest testing whatever monitor you select, and buy enough snap-on
ferrites and extra-long cables (for enough turns) to filter any remaining
RFI.

Also, If you can get the monitor at a best-buy or some other place that
allows returns without restocking fees, you should be able to find one that
fits all your criteria.

Please let us all know what you find that works!

73 Chris NW6V