Interference with receiving Radio Stations

[foo1bar]

AM radio and all low frequencies are pretty much history in CA in cities.

What a load of crap.
I listen to AM radio every day and live a few blocks from the 3rd largest city. (in the second largest urban area).

AM radio is definitely dying - but it has been dying for decades because FM has dominated music stations.
It was dying long before PV inverters were being installed on homes.

[DanKegel]

As I said, those chokes are only good for several db, not very useful when you need 10 or 20.

Sure. But a few db is better than nothing, and they're doing this before anybody complains. Chokes are a really cheap, easy countermeasure. If somebody complains of actual interference, they can step up to something more serious.

I will ask them what prompted it, and whether they found chokes sufficient for some customer who had actual interference.

[Sunking]

What a load of crap.
I listen to AM radio every day and live a few blocks from the 3rd largest city. (in the second largest urban area).

AM radio is definitely dying - but it has been dying for decades because FM has dominated music stations.
It was dying long before PV inverters were being installed on homes.

Tell the USN that.
Tell the Solar Industry that
Tell Great Brittan Government that
Tell NREL and the DOE that.
Tell Homepower and the equipment manufactures that.

If you do they will quickly tell you donowchit what you are talking about. I could careless about commercial AM broadcast band

[foo1bar]

I could careless about commercial AM broadcast band

"AM Radio" is normally used to refer to commercial (or noncommercial) AM broadcast - ie. the range of frequencies that is the "AM Band" on typical car/home stereo system.

If you mean to refer to HAM radio or government bands, there are plenty of terms that would be appropriate (ex. "LF band")

When you say "AM radio and all low frequencies are pretty much history in CA in cities" you are (intentionally or not) saying that commercial AM radio stations are history in California cities. Even if that's not what you intended to convey, that is what you said.

What I see in those various links is that there is RFI generated from inverters. I don't think that is surprising. Power supplies and computer voltage regulators are known to cause RFI issues, and it's logical to expect inverters to also have similar issues. What I don't see in these links is anything saying it's a significant problem for the AM radio stations. If there was something, feel free to quote the specific passage and provide the link to prove me wrong.

And while you're at it, you could try to provide some sort of evidence that the FCC is being given direction by "you know who" to ignore interference. (BTW - who is "you know who"? Is this a "it's Obama's fault" tirade? - if so I apologize for trying to bring in logic and reasoned discourse.)

[Sunking]

If you mean to refer to HAM radio or government bands, there are plenty of terms that would be appropriate (ex. "LF band")

Ham and commercial AM all fall into the HF (high frequency) and MF (medium frequency) and encompass 300 Khz to 30 Mhz. That range of frequencies is where your long range communications is possible aka over the horizon. It includes commercial AM, Amateur, Government, Military, Aeronautical, Navigation, Marine, Public, and Private Business bands.

Sure local closeby AM stations can burn through the noise, but take a trip along 101 and commercial AM radio is done in the noise. In LA one use to be able to pick up KVOO out of Tulsa OK at night, the noise from solar is so high the signal is now drowned out. You may not notice or care, but other people do. It has become almost impossible for Ham radio operators to have DX communications on 160, 80, 40, and 20 meters in or near metroplex areas along the CA coastal cities. It started 15 years ago and has progressively gotten worse.

Do a search there are thousands of people wanting to know how quite their solar systems down. It is not BS, it is a real problem being ignored.

[DanKegel]

Ham radio operators are raising hell with the FCC about Solar wiping out HF bands all up and down the coast. FCC has been told to ignore the complaints by you know who.

Oh, hey, that's awesome -- you're actually blaming you-know-who for RF interference! Got any evidence for that?

[Sunking]

Oh, hey, that's awesome -- you're actually blaming you-know-who for RF interference! Got any evidence for that?

Surfer dude, go surf, that is what you do best. You might find where the USN Command and NREL are now looking at forbiding commercial solar projects anywhere near airports. Or IEEE coming out with reports of Solar Drowning out the Internet of Things. You got all th etime on your hands and surf all day. Go look it up yourself if you really want to know. But I know you will not lift a finger.

[bcroe]

Its a real problem all right. The technology to fix it is long known, but costly. When we have politicians over riding engineers,
we get into a real mess. Systems that only work some of the time, water mains dying, contaminated drinking water, bridges
falling down, and EMI. "If the majority of the people aren't complaining, its OK......." Bruce Roe

[Sunking]

Its a real problem all right. The technology to fix it is long known, but costly.

That is the issue and the burden lies on the manufactures to make equipment that does not generate the noise. However it would significantly increase the equipment cost. But advocates like Dan should not mind making the equipment a lot more expensive so it does not generate the interference. He likes punishing the public with higher energy cost.

[SunEagle]

That is the issue and the burden lies on the manufactures to make equipment that does not generate the noise. However it would significantly increase the equipment cost. But advocates like Dan should not mind making the equipment a lot more expensive so it does not generate the interference. He likes punishing the public with higher energy cost.

My guess is that "compliance with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC rules" will need to be improved.

[DanKegel]

My guess is that "compliance with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC rules" will need to be improved.

I have no objection to making manufacturers follow the rules. I personally dislike radio noise quite a bit. If any vendor isn't obeying the Class B rules, they should get smacked with a fine and maybe approval should be removed until they comply.

I suspect the FCC has always been hesitant to put too much burden on manufacturers. Small-government advocates should cheer that, shouldn't they?
If Class B standards aren't quite strict enough, the problems might occur more in the field than in the lab, in which case the chokes my solar vendor added make sense.

SK still hasn't provided evidence that you-know-who ordered this nefarious attack on radio operators.
IMHO, if there's anything squiffy, it's more likely that pro-business interests have always pressured the FCC into not being too strict, and rules like this only get tightened when a great many people suffer (e.g. when TV reception was frequently affected).

[SunEagle]

I suspect that the current FCC rules may no longer be enough. With more and more equipment generating RF there is always a chance of saturating an area which leads to interference in places when there wasn't any before. Sort of like a population explosion in an area where the infrastructure is not ready to handle it.

Hopefully the rules will get tightened so there will be less "noise" to be picked up by receivers.

[Sunking]

IMHO, if there's anything squiffy, it's more likely that pro-business interests have always pressured the FCC into not being too strict, and rules like this only get tightened when a great many people suffer (e.g. when TV reception was frequently affected).

1. Fact is TV frequencies are well above HF and the lower frequencies in question. Thus no complaints from the public. The noise in question is much lower than what TV and FM radio use. From a consumer POV the only band effected is commercial AM broadcast band.

2. Not may people even use OTA for Tv anymore. Today CATV, Satellite, and Streaming Internet.

[SunEagle]

I remember back in the 60's when my neighbor would turn his "beam" antenna in a direction that would totally screw up our tv reception. I can still hear him calling CQ 15.

Great guy. I learned a lot about Ham radio from him.

[DanKegel]

In 1990 or so my speakers started making noise while the stereo was off. After listening to it for a few weeks I figured out it was a neighbor with an illegal 1kw CB radio rig talking with people in iirc Australia. I recall buying chokes.

The tangerine tree at the house made up for the annoyance