[South Florida DX Association] Light dimmers

[Tom Lewis]

FYI,

We had a light dimmer on a light in our kitchen. It generated so much RFI I
asked my wife not to turn it on when I was on the radio or working on old
radios in my shop. After a while I replaced it with a regular switch. After
a while my wife said she missed the dimmer. So I did some searching and
found an article on the ARRL website about dimmers. They recommended a
Lutron dimmer. So I bought one at a electrical supply company for $19.
Before I installed it, I checked it on my workbench. I compared these three
dimmers.


1.    Cooper, 600 watt.   This is the one that was installed and generates
lots of RFI.
2.    Leviton 6641-W, 600 watt. New from box.
3.    Lutron AY-600PH-IV, New from box.

The Lutron was very quiet compared to the other two. Now I found that Ace
hardware on T.W. Alexander has Lutron dimmers from $13 to $22 depending on
the model.  I have not tried the lower cost one but the Lutron website
states that all their dimmers have RFI protection.

http://www.lutron.com/technical_info/catalogs/resi_light_cata.asp

73 Tom, N4T