[GreenKeys] RF noise

[Don Robert House]

Chris,

You are correct. Broadband Interference is getting worse.  Any one of  
these RF generators
probably would not be very noticeable, but when there are so many  
sources it becomes
very problematic.

In the year 2000 the FCC turned over several parts of it's  
requirements including Part 15
to a separate agency.  I have forgotten the actual name and acronym  
but the standards
group that overseas and contributes to this agency is ATIS.  The  
Alliance for Telecom
Industry Solutions.  ATIS is a spin-off from ANSI.  It seems no one  
really wants to enforce
the standards, just play with them and modify them.

These days low first cost is the prime motivation for purchasing  
agents.  Quality and
reliability mean almost nothing.  You may notice that you will soon  
start to have to replace
your telephone jacks every three years, especially if you are in a  
climate that experiences
high humidity and damp locations like basements and kitchens.

This is because the industry depends on Chinese manufacturers to build  
the lowest cost
jacks.  Part 15 requires all jacks for telephone service to be plated  
with no less than
50 micro-inches of gold.  The jacks imported by Woods, RCA, and  
several others are
plated with only 3 micro-inches of gold to reduce first cost.

This is only one example of the blind eye to standards.  Another is  
the actual size of
wall phone jacks.  So many have been copied from others that the  
dimensions of many of the jacks
you buy in the Home Depot or other stores are as much as a sixteenth  
of an inch off in
more than one dimension.  Just finding the correct dimensions is no  
longer a simple task.

For several years I worked with regulatory compliance as one of my  
engineering tasks.
I refused to let the company lower it's specifications to not meeting  
national standards.  Today
the company has lost most of the business it once had due to asian  
competition.  They let go
all of the people, except one, I trained and now leave the regulatory  
compliance to people in
the orient... specifically China.

The goal of purchasing should always be the highest total value, not  
simply the lowest
first cost.

End of sermon.

Don
K9TTY


On 7 Apr 2009, at 11:14 AM, Chris Elmquist wrote:

My experience says this is a much wider problem than just compact
flourescent bulbs...

I get broadband hash S9+30 from the variable speed blower in my new
energy efficient furnace.  This blower motor is speed controlled by a
microprocessor on the furnace control board but the means for doing so
is so brutal that it conducts the broadband hash onto the power line,
the thermostat cable and the A/C control cable leaving the furnace.

I get broadband hash S9+10 from my front loading energy efficient
washing machine.  Same issue as above, the motor control has no concern
for the sharp edges generated when switching the power to the motor and
consequently conducts this hash into the power line and directly through
the chassis of the unit.

I get broadband hash from the halogen under-cabinet lighting in my
kitchen which uses a so-called "solid state transformer"--  which is
really nothing more than a very crappy switching power supply.

Broadband hash from numerous "wall warts" that power pieces of computer
gear--  network connected music players, routers, laptops... all of  
these
supplies are physically too small to house any amount of filtering and
so the switching hash goes right back onto the power line for efficient
distribution throughout the house and neighborhood.

I think the FCC gave up on Part 15 compliance years ago...

Sad and very frusterating.

I've found I don't hear these noise sources on 10.368 GHz however :-)

Chris  N0JCF

On Tuesday (04/07/2009 at 11:38AM -0400), KC0NNC at aol.com wrote:
> We need to file a complaint with the FCC ASAP....
>
> Is anyone familiar as to how to proceed, probably the ARRL:
>
>
> Perry:    are you aware that the fluorescent compact bulbs are  
> causing havoc
> with ham band receivers?
>
> Could you bring this to the attention of someone at the ARRL: as  
> hard as we
> have fought BPL we need to petition the FCC to require that these  
> devices are
> non EMI emitting....  Does the ARRL have a posture on this yet?
>
> Please advise via a "reply all" so this will get posted on green  
> keys....
>
> Harvey E. Smith
> 2020 Baculite Mesa Road
> Pueblo, CO., 81001-2456
> 719 406 9735
>
> fka WA0BBG
> nka KC0NNC
>
> HarveyEsmith at aol.com
>
> KC0NNC at aol.com
>
>
> 73's

-- 
Chris Elmquist

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