About a month ago, a reader e-mailed me:
I bet you know or have heard about the grow light problem. Where I live, someone is running grow lights about 300 to 350 feet away. When the lights are on, the noise level is S7 in some areas of the bands. I bought the MFJ 1026 and it does help some, but it doesn’t completely eliminate the noise. I hope the FCC will put a stop to the import of these cheap kinds of grow lights.
I read about the filters you can give people who are using grow lights. I don’t know the people so I won’t contact them. A friend that live just down the road that knows them, said they have a 1000 W system. I don’t know if they are legal or care. This matter is going to have to be fixed in the states where this is going on. It makes you want give up on ham radio.
Here are some Web pages for more information:
- http://tomthompson.com/radio/GrowLight/GrowLightBallastFilter.html
- http://www.w0qe.com/RF_Interference/grow_light_electronic_ballasts.html
- http://www.arrl.org/news/colorado-ham-tracks-down-resolves-interference-from-pot-cultivators-grow-lights
- http://www.grozine.com/2014/05/15/rfi-troubles-digital-hid-grow-lighting/
Are people using grow lights a problem in your neighborhood? If so, what, if anything have you done to mitigate the problem? What do you think can be done?