[GreenKeys] Off Topic: Curly-Q light bulbs

[Ralph Irish]

I installed two 60W equivalent LED bulbs in my Garage Door Opener last year. In a few seconds, the usefulness of the 
remote opener was gone. I would go into the garage, hit the wall button to open the door. I would get into the car and 
start up, buckle up and (try) to close the door with the remote. NOTHING! 
I took the remote into the garage, clicking the 'Operate' button every few steps. It was not until I got the remote less 
than 1 foot from the antenna on the device would respond. 
The attached image shows one of the offending bulbs. They were purchased from a national chain of stores, with the 
words "Depot" and "Home" in their name. Note the plastic sleeve between the threaded metal base and the glass 
globe. THAT part of the device gets very HOT after a few minutes of operation. I'm guessing that there is a lot of 
electronics in there that produce the heat. The glass bulb is only slightly warm. 
I replaced the two bulbs with older, less light output LED bulbs. The opener now works from over 100 feet away, as it 
did before the 'event'. 
I've not done a lot of shopping for LED bulbs, so I don't know if this 'design type' is common or not. If you can find 
suitable LED bulbs with an 'all glass' bulb, they might not be "RF Generators." Don't buy in quantities unless you know 
they can be returned, if they cause RF problems. 

Installing this type in your home might make radio operating difficult, if not impossible. I've done NO TESTING of 
the freq. range of these 'offenders'. I just know that they disrupt my Garage Door Opener. It might be just 'narrow 
band' radiation, or it might be wide band and random, depending on what the manufacturer could purchase in large 
quantities for production. 

Time for the FCC to step in? 

73, 

Ralph - W8ROI 
- - - - 


----- Original Message -----

From: "Steve Garrison" <steve.n4tty at gmail.com> 
To: "Jim Haynes" <jhhaynes at earthlink.net> 
Cc: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net, "tony podrasky" <tony.podrasky at gmail.com> 
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2018 7:43:37 AM 
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Off Topic: Curly-Q light bulbs 

That is a concern! 

Our radio club has a 2 meter repeater on top of Stone Mountain (since 1969) and every year the Park creates a "Christmas Tree" with strands of lights running from near the top to the ground all around the radio tower on the mountain top. Around 1350 bulbs in the display makes for a quite impress tree for miles. About 3 years ago they changed to LED bulbs the purchased from Home Depot. 

Wow, did out repeater coverage suffer! But working with the park we were able to show them proof of the LED issue in regards to RFI. And we worked out a temporary work around with them for the nearly two months the "Christmas Tree" is lit up (24 hours a day). They even wrote a letter to the FCC explaining the results of our study and how the two of us had worked out a yearly solution. 

And LED street lights were installed in my neighborhood about a year ago (one of the is at the end of my drive way) and I see no difference on the spectrum display of my FlexRadio when the street lights come on. Sure can't say that about the fluorescent light in the laundry room right outside my ham shack! 

Steve G./N4TTY 
Sent from my iPhone 

> On Jun 9, 2018, at 4:28 PM, Jim Haynes <jhhaynes at earthlink.net> wrote: 
> 
> Any info about RFI generation? Important to us radio guys. 
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