[Lowfer] PLC at 125khz and clamp-on ferrite filters

N6IO n6io at wasson.com
Wed Mar 14 14:36:52 EDT 2018


I have a question about using clamp-on ferrite filters.  It is a little off
topic, but is related to PLC and transmitting on longwave.

I'm trying to stop interference from my plug-in car's charging circuit to
my Ted5000 power monitoring system.  The Ted5000 operates PLC on 125khz,
transmitting its signal between the black and neutral wires using the power
line as a transmission line.  It's not clear if the car charger is
inserting noise, or acting as a short when it is drawing over 12 amps.  In
any case - if I start charging at over 8 amps, the signal from the power
monitoring unit to my power monitoring hub is lost.  I don't see a lot of
noise on my SpectraVue display around 125KHz when I start charging, but
that antenna is 50 feet away.  I do clearly see the data bursts from the
Ted5000 units.

Would it be effective to use a clamp-on filter over the entire 3-wire cable
to my car charger, or would the fact that the black/neutral pair in that
cable was a transmission line mean that I have to put a filter on each wire
separately?

I'm not clear on how these filters work on a pair (open wire transmission
line) running through them vs trying to stop conduction of noise on the
entire bundle when it acts more like a long wire antenna.

Any advise is appreciated!

Craig - N6IO


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