<div dir="auto">I work in a 1 story building which is covered in solar panels. The inverters are mounted on the wall outside my lab. I design avalanche beacons at 457kHz. I am trying to detect signals that are barely there. While the solar panel is my "go to" culprit when I see interference (rare) we have never actually had detectable noise. <div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">That said, I agree that this is a potential issue for the reasons you raised. Perhaps we can interest the FCC on enforcing ALL electronic imports like they are supposed to already be doing. This would align with the trump agenda and would work in favor of us domestic companies who do the hard work, make quiet products, and actually get them tested in a real lab.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">My designs are so quiet they are almost unobservable in testing but one of my competitors is noisy enough to deafen any other unit within a meter or so when it is in receive mode. Personal electronics are a constant problem for us because of the high noise levels. The "smog" from all these devices is also destroying AM broadcasting .</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">What if the FCC actually grew some teeth and did their job?</div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Thu, May 3, 2018, 8:22 PM Robert Bruninga <<a href="mailto:bruninga@usna.edu">bruninga@usna.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I don't want to be an alarmist, but we need the Hams with the proper knowledge to get involved in this disturbing news.<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><br></div>The National Electric Code now requires electronics on every module of a solar array communicating via signalling on the DC power lines to assure EACH pair of panels can shut down independently. This is to make all possible faults never allow more than 80 volts anywhere in the system. This is effective 1 Jan 2019<br><br></div>This is the nail in the coffin of simple DC series string arrays which are the quietest systems and almost demands microinverters or optimizers on every panel. Refer to the QST article a few years ago about how disastrous optimizers are to RFI and HF operations with modules all over the roof..<br><br>Here is the Solar news:<br><a href="https://solarbuildermag.com/bos/nec-2017-module-level-solar-system-shutdown/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">https://solarbuildermag.com/bos/nec-2017-module-level-solar-system-shutdown/</a><br><br></div><div>Also, what is going to happen to an array that has signaling all over it in the near field of HF?<br><br></div>Although you can avoid it by going solar before then, you may have problems when your neighbors go later.<br><br></div>I hate to be an alarmist but we all know what happens when ham radio and commercial systems are incompatible and even though Ham radio might be in the right, we are only 1 in 600 and no one is going to side with us.<br><br></div>We took on broadband over power and squelched that dumb idea, but now this has the potential for equal demise of Ham radio. It should be fixable, but we also know that there is high competition in the solar market and the modules that are made the cheapest will be popular and will likely not be adequately filtered.<br><br></div>Sorry for posting to the APRS group but it is the only HAM email reflector I subscribe to besides AMSAT..<br><br></div>If nothing else, we need to find out what systems are terrible emitters and nip them in the bud. Maybe all it takes is driving by solar systems you see and turing on your AM radio on a weak signal channel and seeing if the background noise peaks near that home. But also it has individual peaks, so it might also be nice to tune around too find the max and then check the range. I find the noise can go hundreds of feet along the power lines....<br><br></div><div>You cant miss em... just sounds like a 60 Hz buzz on all the harmonics of the inverter switching frequency.<br></div><div><br></div>Bob<br></div>WB4APR<br></div>
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