CHRISTMAS LIGHT INTERFERENCE PROBLEM
SOLVING PAGE
its not what it was ment to be in DXing this Holiday Season. There are
many Christmas Lights that are not regulated by the FCC for Part 15
emissions. The Christmas lights we are talking about are the are the electronic type that are flashed by a TRIAC circuit. The basic Christmas
Lights are the mainly the flashers. If you are radio listener, please try not to purchase lights that do fancy light displays or dimmer switch
noises in the string.
cause noise, unless someone is using a dimmer switch on christmas lights,(now that's another
RF nightmare!).
2. Try to limit usage or try to keep receiving equipment away from electronic type Christmas lights, you know ones that do spectacular things like streaming, trailing, and dancing around
type. Those are known to cause lots of noise on the LW bands, and AM bands.
3. Consider using a ferrite clamp to wrap around the cord that goes into the wall, its better than nothing and it will keep the radiation distances to less than 10 feet.
4. Put the receiver away as far as possible or use loop antennas and noise elimators, most noise
will be on the longwave bands and AM bands and also the 160 meter to 80 meter bands.
5. Try not to use too many extension cords to light up the strand without proper ferrite
clamp solutions to supress noise.
6. Use an AM radio to pin point the noise to make sure where its coming from and which
circuit its on.
7. If all else fails use a new strand of lights instead of older strands more than 5 years old
cause most light manufactuers are doing the best they can to suppress noise with better circuitru that will make them last longer and also perform well for the next 5 years.
8. Be sure that your light spark bar have some real good AC line noise filtering if they are
running on digital or analog timers. Yes please use the proper ferrite clamp.
9. The smart idea even for others aware of the weather, is not to use lights when its heavy
downpouring, which can cause alot of noise and fire, unless they are ment for outdoors.
10. LED lights are safe so look into them , they do run on electronic circuits, but are
known to cause some RFI so please use ferrite clamps for them if that occurs. .
The main reason I am telling you this is that it seems to work with TV's and VCR's the ferrite
clamps are helpful to keep noise down to a minimum.
Keep your lights in good working order and they will last you throughout the holidays
for years to come. Happy Holidays!