Flat Screen TV's and RF

[N8QGC]

This is good information everyone thanks for your input. I'm not so much concerned about the TV giving me noise as I am about me disturbing the TV.

My hobby is of course Ham Radiio. The XYL's is TV. Everytime I key down on 30,40, or 80 meters I shut the TV off. Obviously this means that I can't work those bands at crucial times if the XYL is watching a TV show.

Looks like an LED or LCD will be the way to go for me.

[WY5V]

Just switch of the TV and go outside. There's hardly anything useful on there anyway.

The fact that it does it on certain bands/wavelengths is telling.

Try to determine the source first. Disconnect antenna/cable/satellite/AV connections one at a time to see if the problem follows either individually or cumulatively.

If you can, disconnect the set from the wall and run it of a UPS to determine if it is the power line.

It is possible that the problem is direct incursion. If this turns out to be the case, some sort of shielding may be called for.

If all else fails, try another set in the interest of marital bliss.

[WA4OTD]

You may still have some problem of shutting off the TV when you transmit.

[KJ4VTH]

Here we go again. There have been numerous threads that claim TVs, plasma in particular, are bad news. We have a plasma TV in the next room. It never seems to bother my radio in the least and my wife never hears me when I key up unless she comes into "the shack". Maybe I'm just lucky but see no absolute correlation between plasma TV and radio interference, or vice versa.

[AC0FP]

Here we go again. There have been numerous threads that claim TVs, plasma in particular, are bad news. We have a plasma TV in the next room. It never seems to bother my radio in the least and my wife never hears me when I key up unless she comes into "the shack". Maybe I'm just lucky but see no absolute correlation between plasma TV and radio interference, or vice versa.

I agree, their maybe be a minority who have gotten "lemons" and fixed it by buying another TV. As to N8QGC, it is not unusual for modern appliances to be turned off/on by an antenna installation such as yours, a strategically placed ferrite clip-on bead might help. Modern TV's, with a testing label such as the CE mark, are supposed to be tested for resistance to strong RF fields.

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[N5AL]

I agree, their maybe be a minority who have gotten "lemons" and fixed it by buying another TV. As to N8QGC, it is not unusual for modern appliances to be turned off/on by an antenna installation such as yours, a strategically placed ferrite clip-on bead might help. Modern TV's, with a testing label such as the CE mark, are supposed to be tested for resistance to strong RF fields.

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Possibly, the newest plasma TVs are better shielded that the older models and produce less RFI -- I don't have experience with them. Of course, it is possible to design a low RFI emission plasma set, but which manufacturers are adding this incremental expense to their already cost-sensitive consumer products?

Another big consideration is antenna location. If a ham is fortunate enough to have his antenna high in the air, and far enough away from the plasma TV set, he might not hear much of the RFI. Conversely, if a ham has a neighborhood-friendly stealth antenna in his attic, this antenna might be located just meters from the offending TV set. A device that meets FCC Part 15 emissions requirements can still trash a sensitive receiver at close range.

[KJ4VTH]

Ah! You raise a good point about 'cost-sensitive consumer products'. Perhaps the offending TVs are lower priced models from big box stores? That would explain why some people insist their TVs are RFI generators while my mid-grade model from a specialty store is relatively clean.

[AC0FP]

Possibly, the newest plasma TVs are better shielded that the older models and produce less RFI -- I don't have experience with them. Of course, it is possible to design a low RFI emission plasma set, but which manufacturers are adding this incremental expense to their already cost-sensitive consumer products?

Another big consideration is antenna location. If a ham is fortunate enough to have his antenna high in the air, and far enough away from the plasma TV set, he might not hear much of the RFI. Conversely, if a ham has a neighborhood-friendly stealth antenna in his attic, this antenna might be located just meters from the offending TV set. A device that meets FCC Part 15 emissions requirements can still trash a sensitive receiver at close range.

A good point. I have a 45' 40 meter inverted V outside but one end of the antenna is tied to the house less than 10' from a HP 50" plasma TV. I tested the TV originally with a IFR-500 test set on 7 & 14 MHz 4' in front of the TV and could not tell whether the TV was on or off! The TV operates on cable.

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[N0AZZ]

I have a 27" Samsung LED/LCD less than 60" away from my radios/amps and the coax for it runs with 8 runs of UHF-HF antennas of all kinds. They are in the same bundle my direct TV receiver sits on the Power Supply Of mt Yaesu YL-1000 amp amd never a single blip. I have digital TV antennas mounted @ 35' 2 pointed at different cities and they are near 9 antennas from 25'-75' verticals and yagis most all running 1K no problems.

The only problem I have sometimes is on our 65" Sony LED/LCD in the living room running on a 270' OCFD @ 55' on 80/160m will cause a menu to come up on the TV it does run over the house. None of my other antennas do that and I do have wires and verticals for 80/160m also. I never had any luck using ferrite beads on newer TVs but have used them on my home theater system on all 7 speakers and the sub-woofer. The sub-woofer is self powered 500w and it was the worst offender and then the 2 in-wall speakers between the living room and my shack/office. I mounted the beads on the speaker wires at the receiver and the AC power lines as well problem solved.

[K1FBI]

Ah! You raise a good point about 'cost-sensitive consumer products'. Perhaps the offending TVs are lower priced models from big box stores? That would explain why some people insist their TVs are RFI generators while my mid-grade model from a specialty store is relatively clean.

I have a Phillips 50" Plasma that's 3 years old and was purchased at Walmart; no RFI.