[PPRAANet] Colorado Ham Tracks Down, Resolves Interference from Pot Cultivators' "Grow Lights"

[John Bloodgood]

Shotgunning this out to see if anyone might be willing to speak to Bryce from the Colorado Springs Independent regarding tacking down sources of interference and how things like grow lights might affect ham radio.  The ARRL pieces piqued his interest in doing an article.  Unfortunately I am a bit busy the next couple of days and will not be available for a face to face or demo.  
 
Please let me know.  
 
Thanks,
 
John, KD0SFY
 
Sent from my BlackBerry
 

 

Subject: Re: Colorado Ham Tracks Down, Resolves Interference from Pot Cultivators' "Grow Lights"
From: bryce at csindy.com
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 10:28:22 -0600
To: johnbloodgood at hotmail.com

I appreciate that. I’m looking to talk to a local about this as well, though. Could you do tomorrow morning?


Bryce Crawford | ReporterColorado Springs Independent235 S. Nevada Ave.Colorado Springs, CO 80903719/577-4545 | csindy.com at brycecrawford


On Jun 19, 2014, at 10:24 AM, johnbloodgood at hotmail.com wrote:I am running back and forth between bases today.  Unless we could do it in the evening, I would recommend looking up "radio direction finding" and "radio fox hunt".  You'll find a ton of open source info.  

John
(719) 651-5495
Sent from my BlackBerryFrom:  Bryce Crawford <bryce at csindy.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 10:09:15 -0600To: John Bloodgood<johnbloodgood at hotmail.com>Subject: Re: Colorado Ham Tracks Down, Resolves Interference from Pot Cultivators' "Grow Lights"
Hey John, we’re looking at a modest piece on this. Would you be available for me to come visit you today and see your rig, etc., and maybe see what it looks like when you walk the neighborhood for interference?


Bryce Crawford | ReporterColorado Springs Independent235 S. Nevada Ave.Colorado Springs, CO 80903719/577-4545 | csindy.com at brycecrawford


On Jun 16, 2014, at 2:41 PM, John Bloodgood <johnbloodgood at hotmail.com> wrote:Thanks Bryce.  The American Radio Relay League has already filed complaints with the FCC regarding the Lumatek LK-1000 electronic ballast as noted at http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-to-fcc-grow-light-ballast-causes-hf-interference-violates-rules (linked to in the article below).  Additionally, as ballasts age, they can start emitting more and more RFI (Radio Frequency Interference).  Often a ham operator who is being severely interfered with will engage in a "fox hunt" (a direction finding exercise designed more for locating beacons) to find the source and once they have it narrowed down to a house or building, try to work with the owners in a non-adversarial manner to pin-point the exact item at fault and in some cases may even help get it fixed.  CFLs and LED home light bulbs are another common cause of RFI, though they are usually less powerful (one positive about the old incandescent bulbs -- very little RFI since they have no ballast or rectifier).  
 
Take care, 
 
John, KD0SFY
 
From: bryce at csindy.com
Subject: Re: Colorado Ham Tracks Down, Resolves Interference from Pot Cultivators' "Grow Lights"
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 14:22:57 -0600
To: johnbloodgood at hotmail.com

Thanks for the heads-up on this, John. I had no idea these two could intersect. I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

Bryce Crawford | ReporterColorado Springs Independent235 S. Nevada Ave.Colorado Springs, CO 80903719/577-4545 | csindy.com at brycecrawford
On Jun 13, 2014, at 10:10 AM, John Bloodgood <johnbloodgood at hotmail.com> wrote:Corrected "about" to "able" regarding NWS.  Auto-correct strikes again.  
 
John
 

From: johnbloodgood at hotmail.com
To: bryce at csindy.com
Subject: FW: Colorado Ham Tracks Down, Resolves Interference from Pot Cultivators' "Grow Lights"
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:17:14 -0600

Since your paper is a voice for the cannabis community, please jump down to Colorado Ham Tracks Down, Resolves Interference from Pot Cultivators' "Grow Lights".  
 
The FCC lists over 1900 ham operators in Colorado Springs, over 2500 when you expand that to El Paso county, and over 16,000 in Colorado.  Further, MJ users and hams are not mutually exclusive groups.  These grow lights are becoming more and more of an issue.  Since hams do provide communications during disasters, emergencies, and perform weather reporting (just in our area we had approximately 20 operators active for 3 hours on Sunday when the funnel clouds were spotted in Park and Teller counties and were able to provide vital observations to NWS Pueblo and NWS Boulder), interference can actually be more than just an annoyance affecting a hobby, it can be detrimental to public safety. 
 
 Not trying to be a buzz-kill or to harsh people's mellow, just asking people to be good neighbors and please don't be upset if a ham radio operator, or any radio operator or even the FCC comes knocking. 
 
We get interference from a number of sources, not just grow lights.  Some other sources have included door bells, "arc fault" circuit breakers, etc.  And sometimes we cause interference for people's home electronics, which, when we are told about, we try to mitigate with filters, shielding, and grounding.  
 
John