FCC is Actively Seeking Solar Array Interference Complaints

My shack is 100% solar and the only problem I cannot fix is the Ethernet POE that powers my 5ghz broadband link. Stopped chasing my tail and bought a TImewave ANC and it knocks all the data noise out. Properly set up and designed the solar systems are HAM friendly.

 

Any chance you might be willing to explain what you did?

 

I think he said he installed a Timewave ANC as one solution:

https://timewave.com/support/ANC-4/anc4.html

I too would like to know what he did to mitigate EMI/RFI problems.


Phil

 

If I find time this coming Fall I will put something together and submit it to QST. Bottom line is this:
1. Don't listen to all the dribble and wanna be "Internet experts".
2. Puzzle it out from fundamentals and common sense.
3. You will have to buy several inverters / charge controllers and test them, the majority sold online are RFI generators.
4. The Timewave ANC will knock out most of the crap that is interfering with your reception, you will waist more money and time trying to
apply mickey mouse patches and other nonsense so the cost of the unit becomes moot relative to time and dollars waisted.

 

Okay, this appears to be the main abatement step here. From reading your earlier posts, I thought you had found a way to de-noise the inverter itself. Sorry, I misunderstood.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad it works for you. Unfortunately, this isn't a general-case solution. This just cuts a notch out of your antenna pattern by phasing-out the noise source, and it can only be effective when there is only one source of QRM on the frequency you want to use.

Agreed. If anybody knows of an inverter that is HF quiet, I would love to hear from you. All the ones I have tried range from "terrible" to "poor." There are HF-quiet charge controllers, but for some reason, nobody that I have found is interested in an AC inverter that is HF-quiet.

 

For the most of that it is a false statement, that is not how the Timewave ANC works, you need to do the math and understand what happens when 2 sine waves of the same frequency are 180 degrees apart.

 

Yes, they cancel out. When you adjust the phasing to cancel a QRM source, doing so cuts a notch out of your RX antenna pattern in the direction of the QRM you are trying to cancel. I used the DXE version of that box for several years with my K3. Even the DXE manual warns you that you can only cancel one source at a time, and that doing so may cancel other signals that you are trying to hear on that frequency and in that direction. It can also cause constructive interference, where a QRM source from another direction actually gets stronger, as a result.

I wrote an article on how to do the same thing without the variable-phase mixer: http://www.kk5jy.net/rx-loop-array/

I'm very familiar with the physics, thanks.

There is only one way to make a device ham-friendly, and that is to cause it to stop generating QRM in the first place. That's what I thought you were saying in your original post, but I misunderstood. Sorry to bother you.

 

Mike,
Thanks for the info. I have terrible noise centered at about 25 MHz, and which is S9 +10 on 12m, and S7 on 15m and 10m. I'm pretty sure the source is solar array noise, as it just recently appeared, is present all day, comes on at sunrise and off exactly at sunset, like clockwork. I was able to roughly DF it with my HF beam, and it is centered on a group of houses the next street over, a few which have solar arrays. I'm going to borrow a handheld SW RX from a friend and do some more precise DF.

Did the FCC say what, if anything, could be done from an enforcement standpoint?
Thanks,
Roger- AC6BW

 

I just read the engineering report generated by Electro Tec on RFI.
Seems that Section 15, Part B does not specifically apply to Solar and DC equipment at this time.
Maybe the FCC is now considering making this Law apply.
They need enough info to convince enough commission members to agree on a vote for.
Then there are Lobbies at work trying to convince otherwise.
So be patient.
As the world turns.
.
Good luck.

 

Can you post a link to that report? Tnx.

 

Mike,
Thanks for the info. I have terrible noise centered at about 25 MHz, and which is S9 +10 on 12m, and S7 on 15m and 10m. I'm pretty sure the source is solar array noise, as it just recently appeared, is present all day, comes on at sunrise and off exactly at sunset, like clockwork. I was able to roughly DF it with my HF beam, and it is centered on a group of houses the next street over, a few which have solar arrays. I'm going to borrow a handheld SW RX from a friend and do some more precise DF.

Did the FCC say what, if anything, could be done from an enforcement standpoint?
Thanks,
Roger- AC6BW

 

I'm off the grid here in my Hawaii home. Solar is my power source, and I have plenty of experience with RFI.
The panels themselves, of course, don't generate anything nasty.
The charge controllers have some harmonic crud. MPPT has been worse than PWM for me.
Inverters are awful. They spew RFI like a fire hose. I'm going to be replacing my inverter soon. The old one is just too small, so I tested a few with an SA, and the winner was a Schneider. VERY expensive! So I guess I'm going to have to spend the extra $$ and get a good one. Definitely not a place to be a cheapskate, though some expensive ones were plenty noisy too.
The one thing that saves the day with the old one (Outback) is that it has a terminal that you can wire a shutoff switch to. If I'm doing anything HF, I cut the thing off and all is well. The Schneider has that too.

 

Our 5 year ago Solar City installation makes S9+ across all HF. The Davis weather station reads bullshit for temperature and wind speed and direction.

Not my problem, XXYL has the house.

But yeah solar installations are a problem for HF noise.