I’ve given up trying to work my radios on vacation in Maui for this very reason. Virtually every home has rooftops covered in panels and really cheap charge controllers. My band scopes looked just like that. Thanks for demonstrating.
I use a Victron charge controller with a smaller 400 watt 12v system. My antenna is right next to (and above) the panels and power center. I've heard no such interference with my HF in the three years it's been in operation. The only interference I get when using the system is caused by the power inverter. Inverter is a ProWatt 1000 pure sine from Xantrex. They're all noisy. The NB on my FT-991A normally (and easily) takes care of the inverter noise.
Same here. I have three different solar systems, two were on RVs, 600w, and two other s for portable. Never had that issue. Pretty sure it is his controller.
Yes! With. Passive recivers, and direct conversion units. Mostly. And I also have chargers that sweep up, and down the spectrum. Hash, buzzing, and AC multiples. Thrugh my net work. Best I have found is to install caps at the solar cells and on my 12 volt mains. So you are not alone. Tks Fer good show. De kv4li 73.
I had bad interference with my last RV's MPPT controller all the way through VHF. My new RV Solar has a Samlex PWM controller nowhere near as noisy. I also have an external panel with good old fashioned relay controller which has zero affect on HF. For that reason, I no longer use MPPT controller even though they are more efficient.
PWM solar controllers are the problem. My Morningstar- PS-30M 30 Amp 12/24 Volt DC Solar Charge Controller has the option to install a jumper cross two solder pads to make it a on/off type charger. It is even stated in the manual about if installing in a telecom installation to install a jumper if RFI occurs on equipment. I soldered two wires and a toggle switch to have the option if needed. I could tell it was an emitter, instantly via an HF RXR. This was done LONG before the Icom SDR TXR's were even on the market, circa 1999 or so. 73 KA1GJU
Thank you ! I got same problem with IC 7300 on HF bands. Moring star tri star MPPT charge controller . 12V system for HAM. no problem on 6M and above and goes away at night ! 160M is real bad during the day .even AM boast .But at night with snow on ground and a clear night 160M really hopping . I put hash chokes on all leads except ground rod lead and cut the noise almost in half . when working 20M during the day I was pulling the solar panel disconnect when working the band. I mostly use my HF at night and is not a problem , and ben some 6M day openings and hash noise not up 50 MHz range. I also put RF chokes on 7300 power lead close to radio .The snap choke no cutting wire .Thank you for showing this problem ! 73's
Generators and charge controllers are notorious noise sources. Best ways to mitigate I've found is use top rated (aka expensive) brands like Victron and Genasun, used shielded boxes, and coil the feed lines ends into makeshift chokes. Still not totally gone but it helps.
I have also been off grid and some of the top of the line pure sign wave inverters and a Morning Star mppt charge controller, and no matter what I tried the rf hash made the radio's almost unusable except for the strongest signals. I finally gave up and am back on grid where it is quiet. I wish there was an answer to this problem, but I had not found it.
I am New to Ham - but not to solar. We travel in our RV fulltime and so far, have not seen anything like the noise you display. perhaps it's one of the components you are using you could switch out? We use Victron charge controllers.
Same here on my 100 watt solar system, Anything above 15-16 mhz to ~30+ is really bad to almost unusable. I have noise on 40 and 80, but good stations and conditions overcome it. I power my radios directly from the battery. The noise is from the charge controller. I definitely would hope for some one to design a charge controller that has low noise, if it doesn't already exist
Wow, thanks for discussing this Eric!. Do ferrites make any difference or is it irradiation from the solar charge controller & some sort of faraday shielding may work?. Deeply curious how you solve this as I'm testing a similar setup with a 12v 25ah LiFePo4, trickle charged with a 12v 50w lightweight foldable panel sometime this week when the weather improves here using a Sotabeams inverted V with a 7m mast
Solar panels and DC regulators don't make interferences. The problems is always with the inverter (AC 230v). I had a lot pf years mi shack powered by solar energy and no issue, but in the new house with another solar installation with inverter I have a lot of QRM
I have serious doubts that SDR vs the Superhet would make any difference. The signal is actually being transmitted on the frequency where you are listening. Also, it’s not overloading the receiver. If anything some noise reduction software may make it bit easier to deal with, but not that trash. Other than replacing the charge controller, you could use an antenna phasing device to help null it out.
i use a Genasun MPPT charge controller (10A) for LiFePO4 batteries. I have not not experienced any noise interference from this unit. The manufacturer claims its charge controller is suitable for radio amateur work. I can confirm that claim at this time.
Yes the solar controllers and the AC inverters need to be regulated by the FCC! It's a horrible problem especially if you are living in an RV park. It's not just solar.
PWM charge controller? Have you installed all the wires inside metal tubes/pipes? I tried the Austrian Fronius made inverter till 1.2GHz with no problems whatsoever.
I've got 30 decibels over S9 noise from my son gold power 6000 watt pure sine wave inverter. I've tried putting ferrite modules on all of the leads going in and out of the inverter to no avail. The solar panels are radiating I can't even though the DC wiring from the solar panels to the house have about 50 ft of it submerged underground for read direct burial cable. Aref interference from these inverters is a major problem in a major engineering challenge to solve.
I just installed a GroWatt 3000TL. RFI is horrendous! Exactly as you demonstrate. I just tried putting a 4 inch 31 mix ferrite donut on the battery leads. I was able to get four passes through the donut. No measurable suppression. So I might have to resort to disconnect the panels when using the rig but what a sad situation. When I'm not using the station I am going to be polluting the spectrum for others.
@@HamRadioConcepts I'm wondering if running all the PV DC wiring inside metal conduit would help at all. The charger to battery wires are short. I'm guessing most the RFI is off those PV feeder wires. "Sniffing" around with a portable RF rig and short antenna, the panels themselves seem to be radiating but not as much as the lines. Adding the conduit would be a lot of work and expensive - I'd be willing to do it if I thought it had a decent chance at success. The other thing is my panels are not earth grounded (frames) yet but I can't see how that will help.
I have a 5 KW Solar System and have Zero noise on all bands and no RF from the solar system, mounted Solar Inverters inside shipping container earthed, all cables underground shielded and earth between solar container and living area, I live in a caravan about 250m from solar container on a farm, noise level is below S1 all bands, and yes i do have good antenna :) regards Nigel ZL2SEA
Thanks, Eric. I have 800 watts on the RV roof myself and plan to do a lot of POTA activations in multiple National Parks this year. Please let us know if you find a remedy. Otherwise it looks like I’ll run the generator and then turn the charge controller off.
Good evening, I also have a lot of qrm but at night when there is no sun the photovoltaic system does not work anymore is it possible to continue with the qrm?
I'll have to test this with our RV. We have 1300W of solar on the roof. Begs the question if we leave the solar charger on during travel days will it interfere with the CB reception? Based on the video my guess is yes.
It also could be because it's a crappy day outside.... I don't have any experience with bigger panels yet, but if the voltage being produced by the panels isn't high enough (because of the cloud cover), then the charge controller would need to boost convert to get high enough to charge the batteries with.... There would be a switching frequency associated with that.... I'd try to compare to same everything situation, but on a very sunny day...
Great demonstration, do you think a portable kit like a Goal Zero Nomad 50 solar panel & Yeti 200X would interfere with an Icom IC-705 while doing portable operations? Cheers! Keep up the good work, stay safe! 👍🏻🇬🇧🤝🏻🇺🇲
I scanned the comments but are you sure that is your solar panels, yes I have heard some panels can do this. I have had two 600w systems on RVs. One was Samelex panels and MPPT controller and the last one was 600w Renogy panels and using Blue Sky MPPT controller. Operated on the last one almost every day for 8 months inside and out the RV. I have also played with smaller controllers MPPT with QRP portable, 60W and 10a LIFeOP4. Panels never an issue. Yes, some MPPT portable controllers have caused RF. Some did not.
DC DC converters do this, but at predictable freqs, can't filters be built? (placed on batteries) Are you powering the rig from the batteries the solar charge controller is run into? Or is this spurious RF in the area of the charge controller and still there when running on another battery?
I have that same sounding RFI that moves slightly on my rigs bit no solar at my place or nearby. Any idea of other sources. Tried turning all my power off and running on batts but same issue
Nice info and seems to indicate that its the charge controller electronics causing the issue. How far away is the controller from antenna in the demo ?
YIKES! That's very bad, some of the worst I have seen from strictly solar. I know both the small units on the back of the panels (name escapes me atm) AND your charge controller can be the culprit, or even a combination of both. I run a fan dipole of 20/40/80 just 30-40 feet directly over my modest Solar setup of 600watts with cheap Chinese PWM controller only 10 ft away from my Radios & I haven't ever noticed any noise anywhere. Just FYI.... The panels are Renogy & the controller is too cheap to even have a name. So it's not necessarily all solar that creates noise. I did however have some small 5v wall warts for POE injection to my Security Cameras that I have to unplug when I want to get on HF, so I do feel your pain. :). 73!
@@HamRadioConcepts Just so much switching going on in any kinda of charge controller. Is the noise RF coupling or common mode? Does it exist if not powered by that battery/charge controller? I could see some simple (albeit less efficient) options. Maybe consider panels wired to match charged battery voltage and running dumb, controllerless. That would be QUIET.
Yes, there's a ton of RF noise that can enter your radio. I run multiple charge solar banks on my 1,000 watts of solar and get noise from 1 of 2 identical charge controllers. Cheap MPPT Chinese controllers suck.The simple solution I do is separate my antennas at least 50 ft. from my vehicle/operating position. Pull the charge from the offending charge controller if there's a birdie on the freq. that I'm trying to use. I have enough battery backup to shut every thing down and run exclusively off my lithium batteries. Ahhhhh, once you experience the silence you will never go back.
What kind of controller are you using? I've got a couple Renogy (PWM and MPPT) charge controllers I and others in my club have used with great success, but find it is necessary to put some chokes on the wires in/out of them or it will make the cables ring with noise. Never had complaints from anyone in the club running solar since I put the chokes on the panel and battery leads (I go directly to the batteries for the load, not back thru the controller). I did a video about my power setup from 2019 Field Day here: ruclips.net/video/oQj4huH9voY/видео.html
If you can manually set the charging voltage, you can bump up the voltage a bit and run the power through a linear regulator to clean the line noise. If not put the DC through a low pass filter and it should clean it up some.
The Genasun solar controllers claim they are noise free: Radio Silence Most MPPT solar charge controllers broadcast Radio Frequency noise from the DC/DC conversion circuit. Unfiltered inputs and outputs waste energy and interfere with nearby or attached electronics. Genasun worked to eliminated RF emissions from our line of charge controllers. During third-party testing for FCC compliance, the test engineer asked us, “Is it on?”. Mission accomplished. 4thdsolar.com/products/genasun-gv-5-65w-5a-solar-charge-controller-with-mppt
Hi Eric, To be clear, it's NOT the solar energy that's the problem, it's some TYPES of solar CHARGE CONTROLLERS that are the problem! PWM (Pulse-Width-Modulated) types are particularly bad. But worse is that those units that make too much r.f. hash noise are not F.C.C. Part 15 compliant! They may say they are, but they can't be when they create that much havoc on the airwaves!!! Most likely a false claim/label by the manufacturer! The true fault here; like with some types of new light bulbs, is that they do not have proper filtering to eliminate the noise. I.e. they cut corners to make it cheap! Now, that said, there are two more tests that you should do & film... A) Electrically separate out a single battery from the rest, run the radio off of that one battery & leave the others charging. The second part of that is; if you still have hash, move the station further away, and perhaps the antenna too. B) This is a bit more involved. As I mentioned above, the real problem is a lack of proper filtering on the output of the solar charger (and perhaps shielding too! Since many new controllers use plastic cases instead of metal ones (i.e. a Faraday cage!) What is needed is a filter on the power output or... a high pass filter on the antenna, also known as a broadcast blocking filter. If you block everything below 1.8 MHz, you shouldn't see it's harmonics higher up. If the noise persists, then that means you need the heavy duty filtering on the solar charger output, or a far superior quality of controller! The irony here is that people go & buy the cheap controllers because they are cheap. So cheap that they don't realize that the same problem that causes us noise... also hammers away at the controller's output circuits and will cause them to fail early! So Eric, hope your new year is going well so far. 73 - John
Interesting. Is it as simple as low cost = low quality? I'd like to know what charge controllers do NOT dump RFI out everywhere. Is additional shielding an answer for those with cheaper gear?
Perhaps you would like to point out that it is not OK for equipment to interfere with licensed FCC broadcasters. While you find it OK that your equipment interferes with your ham radio, most would not find it OK if someone died because your equipment interfered with a licensed radio in an ambulance or fire truck. Moving your antenna is not the answer. Have you contacted the manufacturer of your solar controller and notified them that their equipment is interfering with a licensed radio service? Have you asked them to fix the equipment? DE WA1KLI
Try wiring in a few decent sized 16v capacitors on the 12v power wires going to your radio gear, that will act as a "filter" to get rid of any noise going through the charging wires and help drop that noise floor. Make a short "extension cable" with the same type of male/female terminals your radio uses with the caps wired into that, so if for some reason a cap fails you can take out the extension and still be able to operate. Something similar to this should do wonders but you'd only need half the circuit as shown here though: i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/2dZqP.png
Would be interesting to know which Charge Controller is being used. As another has noted, some are better than others with respect to noise.
I’ve given up trying to work my radios on vacation in Maui for this very reason. Virtually every home has rooftops covered in panels and really cheap charge controllers. My band scopes looked just like that. Thanks for demonstrating.
I use a Victron charge controller with a smaller 400 watt 12v system. My antenna is right next to (and above) the panels and power center. I've heard no such interference with my HF in the three years it's been in operation. The only interference I get when using the system is caused by the power inverter. Inverter is a ProWatt 1000 pure sine from Xantrex. They're all noisy. The NB on my FT-991A normally (and easily) takes care of the inverter noise.
Same here. I have three different solar systems, two were on RVs, 600w, and two other s for portable. Never had that issue. Pretty sure it is his controller.
I have the same problem here at home, neighbouring solar panel installations, Vdsl, PLT.... HF is so problematic to used... Such a shame.
That's exactly what I'm getting from my neighbors Solar Panel 2:22
Yes! With. Passive recivers, and direct conversion units. Mostly. And I also have chargers that sweep up, and down the spectrum. Hash, buzzing, and AC multiples. Thrugh my net work. Best I have found is to install caps at the solar cells and on my 12 volt mains. So you are not alone. Tks Fer good show. De kv4li 73.
Looking forward to the next upload. It will be interesting to see you track which component is causing that QRM.
I had bad interference with my last RV's MPPT controller all the way through VHF. My new RV Solar has a Samlex PWM controller nowhere near as noisy. I also have an external panel with good old fashioned relay controller which has zero affect on HF. For that reason, I no longer use MPPT controller even though they are more efficient.
PWM solar controllers are the problem. My Morningstar- PS-30M 30 Amp 12/24 Volt DC Solar Charge Controller has the option to install a jumper cross two solder pads to make it a on/off type charger. It is even stated in the manual about if installing in a telecom installation to install a jumper if RFI occurs on equipment. I soldered two wires and a toggle switch to have the option if needed. I could tell it was an emitter, instantly via an HF RXR. This was done LONG before the Icom SDR TXR's were even on the market, circa 1999 or so. 73 KA1GJU
Thank you ! I got same problem with IC 7300 on HF bands. Moring star tri star MPPT charge controller . 12V system for HAM. no problem on 6M and above and goes away at night ! 160M is real bad during the day .even AM boast .But at night with snow on ground and a clear night 160M really hopping . I put hash chokes on all leads except ground rod lead and cut the noise almost in half . when working 20M during the day I was pulling the solar panel disconnect when working the band. I mostly use my HF at night and is not a problem , and ben some 6M day openings and hash noise not up 50 MHz range. I also put RF chokes on 7300 power lead close to radio .The snap choke no cutting wire .Thank you for showing this problem ! 73's
Pretty much everything does these days.
Generators and charge controllers are notorious noise sources. Best ways to mitigate I've found is use top rated (aka expensive) brands like Victron and Genasun, used shielded boxes, and coil the feed lines ends into makeshift chokes. Still not totally gone but it helps.
Been facing this on 80,40 and 20 m ever since my neighbor installed his Solar panels.Wish it would soon go QRT.
That is a nice radio! It is definitelt the inverter doing that.
I have also been off grid and some of the top of the line pure sign wave inverters and a Morning Star mppt charge controller, and no matter what I tried the rf hash made the radio's almost unusable except for the strongest signals. I finally gave up and am back on grid where it is quiet. I wish there was an answer to this problem, but I had not found it.
I am New to Ham - but not to solar. We travel in our RV fulltime and so far, have not seen anything like the noise you display. perhaps it's one of the components you are using you could switch out? We use Victron charge controllers.
I use Victron as well and have no noise problems with it. de KG4CNA
Same here on my 100 watt solar system, Anything above 15-16 mhz to ~30+ is really bad to almost unusable.
I have noise on 40 and 80, but good stations and conditions overcome it.
I power my radios directly from the battery. The noise is from the charge controller.
I definitely would hope for some one to design a charge controller that has low noise, if it doesn't already exist
Wow, thanks for discussing this Eric!.
Do ferrites make any difference or is it irradiation from the solar charge controller & some sort of faraday shielding may work?.
Deeply curious how you solve this as I'm testing a similar setup with a 12v 25ah LiFePo4, trickle charged with a 12v 50w lightweight foldable panel sometime this week when the weather improves here using a Sotabeams inverted V with a 7m mast
New info to me, thanks great video.
Have you tried a MPPT charge controller with all metal enclosure and all wires inside metal pipes? Have you tried the Schneider charge controller?
ugh... Please keep us posted... Thanks for this info
Solar panels and DC regulators don't make interferences. The problems is always with the inverter (AC 230v).
I had a lot pf years mi shack powered by solar energy and no issue, but in the new house with another solar installation with inverter I have a lot of QRM
Yeah the Inverter always make a problem .... Maybe people can mention what kind of inverter they use for 220 V what not take interference
Would love to see your ftdx10 in that same spot. See if the super het to SDR conversion does better in noisy environment?? Thank you Eric
KC3ONO
I have serious doubts that SDR vs the Superhet would make any difference. The signal is actually being transmitted on the frequency where you are listening. Also, it’s not overloading the receiver. If anything some noise reduction software may make it bit easier to deal with, but not that trash. Other than replacing the charge controller, you could use an antenna phasing device to help null it out.
i use a Genasun MPPT charge controller (10A) for LiFePO4 batteries. I have not not experienced any noise interference from this unit. The manufacturer claims its charge controller is suitable for radio amateur work. I can confirm that claim at this time.
Yes the solar controllers and the AC inverters need to be regulated by the FCC! It's a horrible problem especially if you are living in an RV park. It's not just solar.
PWM charge controller? Have you installed all the wires inside metal tubes/pipes? I tried the Austrian Fronius made inverter till 1.2GHz with no problems whatsoever.
I've got 30 decibels over S9 noise from my son gold power 6000 watt pure sine wave inverter. I've tried putting ferrite modules on all of the leads going in and out of the inverter to no avail. The solar panels are radiating I can't even though the DC wiring from the solar panels to the house have about 50 ft of it submerged underground for read direct burial cable. Aref interference from these inverters is a major problem in a major engineering challenge to solve.
Very interesting, thank you for discussing this
I just installed a GroWatt 3000TL. RFI is horrendous! Exactly as you demonstrate. I just tried putting a 4 inch 31 mix ferrite donut on the battery leads. I was able to get four passes through the donut. No measurable suppression. So I might have to resort to disconnect the panels when using the rig but what a sad situation. When I'm not using the station I am going to be polluting the spectrum for others.
I'm working on this too
@@HamRadioConcepts I'm wondering if running all the PV DC wiring inside metal conduit would help at all. The charger to battery wires are short. I'm guessing most the RFI is off those PV feeder wires. "Sniffing" around with a portable RF rig and short antenna, the panels themselves seem to be radiating but not as much as the lines. Adding the conduit would be a lot of work and expensive - I'd be willing to do it if I thought it had a decent chance at success. The other thing is my panels are not earth grounded (frames) yet but I can't see how that will help.
I have a 5 KW Solar System and have Zero noise on all bands and no RF from the solar system, mounted Solar Inverters inside shipping container earthed, all cables underground shielded and earth between solar container and living area, I live in a caravan about 250m from solar container on a farm, noise level is below S1 all bands, and yes i do have good antenna :) regards Nigel ZL2SEA
Thanks, Eric. I have 800 watts on the RV roof myself and plan to do a lot of POTA activations in multiple National Parks this year. Please let us know if you find a remedy. Otherwise it looks like I’ll run the generator and then turn the charge controller off.
A simple fix, put in a temporary ground Rod on your trailer & Solar system, which should quiet the noise
Good evening, I also have a lot of qrm but at night when there is no sun the photovoltaic system does not work anymore is it possible to continue with the qrm?
Would it quite down if you put it in a metal box, maybe? Like a faraday cage?
I'll have to test this with our RV. We have 1300W of solar on the roof. Begs the question if we leave the solar charger on during travel days will it interfere with the CB reception? Based on the video my guess is yes.
It also could be because it's a crappy day outside.... I don't have any experience with bigger panels yet, but if the voltage being produced by the panels isn't high enough (because of the cloud cover), then the charge controller would need to boost convert to get high enough to charge the batteries with.... There would be a switching frequency associated with that.... I'd try to compare to same everything situation, but on a very sunny day...
Great looking setup! I know you gonna make it work as it suppose to do. 73's de Uncle Günter
Definitely this is dependent on the invertors / charge controllers.. are these FCC approved?
Time for chameleon magnetic loop test ?
Great demonstration, do you think a portable kit like a Goal Zero Nomad 50 solar panel & Yeti 200X would interfere with an Icom IC-705 while doing portable operations? Cheers! Keep up the good work, stay safe! 👍🏻🇬🇧🤝🏻🇺🇲
What tripod and mast is that? Thanks.
YES. My sinewave inverter and solar charge controller both generate a lot of RF hash.
Because your inverter is not pure sine wave. And you might think about adding ferrite chokes to all of your cables.
@@denelson83 I have a pure sinus wave and it all disturb to much all bands!
I scanned the comments but are you sure that is your solar panels, yes I have heard some panels can do this. I have had two 600w systems on RVs. One was Samelex panels and MPPT controller and the last one was 600w Renogy panels and using Blue Sky MPPT controller. Operated on the last one almost every day for 8 months inside and out the RV. I have also played with smaller controllers MPPT with QRP portable, 60W and 10a LIFeOP4. Panels never an issue. Yes, some MPPT portable controllers have caused RF. Some did not.
DC DC converters do this, but at predictable freqs, can't filters be built? (placed on batteries) Are you powering the rig from the batteries the solar charge controller is run into? Or is this spurious RF in the area of the charge controller and still there when running on another battery?
I have that same sounding RFI that moves slightly on my rigs bit no solar at my place or nearby. Any idea of other sources. Tried turning all my power off and running on batts but same issue
What type of solar charge controller is it? Is a switch PWM charger worse than an MPPT type?
Nice info and seems to indicate that its the charge controller electronics causing the issue. How far away is the controller from antenna in the demo ?
Have you ever tested that EMF fabric on amazon?
I know a ham who lives off grid and has the same issue with his solar system.
Suboptimal charge controller job is wasting the solar energy into heat and RF emission.
So the charge controller being on is the problem? How far away would you have to be?
What tripod are you using?
Are you using a pure sine wave inverter.
Doesn't matter. He just disabled the charge controller. The battery still had power to the inverter, whether it was on or off.
YIKES! That's very bad, some of the worst I have seen from strictly solar. I know both the small units on the back of the panels (name escapes me atm) AND your charge controller can be the culprit, or even a combination of both.
I run a fan dipole of 20/40/80 just 30-40 feet directly over my modest Solar setup of 600watts with cheap Chinese PWM controller only 10 ft away from my Radios & I haven't ever noticed any noise anywhere.
Just FYI....
The panels are Renogy & the controller is too cheap to even have a name. So it's not necessarily all solar that creates noise.
I did however have some small 5v wall warts for POE injection to my Security Cameras that I have to unplug when I want to get on HF, so I do feel your pain. :). 73!
Did you build that carbon fiber mast yourself? Or did you purchase it somewhere?
Gigaparts.com donated it to me
@@HamRadioConcepts I found it! Surprisingly pricey for what it is, though that doesn't stop me from considering getting one anyway. Lol. Thanks!
Are your charge controllers MPPT or PWM? (no DC DC in the PWM, but plenty of noise generation with that scheme too) AI5AZ
They are MPPT
@@HamRadioConcepts Just so much switching going on in any kinda of charge controller. Is the noise RF coupling or common mode? Does it exist if not powered by that battery/charge controller? I could see some simple (albeit less efficient) options. Maybe consider panels wired to match charged battery voltage and running dumb, controllerless. That would be QUIET.
How on earth do these devices ever pass EMC compliance? It’s disgraceful that they can create such broad band noise and get away with it.
Yes, there's a ton of RF noise that can enter your radio. I run multiple charge solar banks on my 1,000 watts of solar and get noise from 1 of 2 identical charge controllers. Cheap MPPT Chinese controllers suck.The simple solution I do is separate my antennas at least 50 ft. from my vehicle/operating position. Pull the charge from the offending charge controller if there's a birdie on the freq. that I'm trying to use. I have enough battery backup to shut every thing down and run exclusively off my lithium batteries. Ahhhhh, once you experience the silence you will never go back.
A cheep low fiiltered charger could cause some noise, Way to fix that is use 2 banks of batteries and charge the bank that you aren't using.
What kind of controller are you using? I've got a couple Renogy (PWM and MPPT) charge controllers I and others in my club have used with great success, but find it is necessary to put some chokes on the wires in/out of them or it will make the cables ring with noise. Never had complaints from anyone in the club running solar since I put the chokes on the panel and battery leads (I go directly to the batteries for the load, not back thru the controller).
I did a video about my power setup from 2019 Field Day here: ruclips.net/video/oQj4huH9voY/видео.html
If you can manually set the charging voltage, you can bump up the voltage a bit and run the power through a linear regulator to clean the line noise. If not put the DC through a low pass filter and it should clean it up some.
Can you please tell me where you bought this tripode?
Gigaparts.com has them. They donated this one to me months ago.
@@HamRadioConcepts Do you a have the link for this specific tripode? Thanks
The Genasun solar controllers claim they are noise free: Radio Silence
Most MPPT solar charge controllers broadcast Radio Frequency noise from the DC/DC conversion circuit. Unfiltered inputs and outputs waste energy and interfere with nearby or attached electronics. Genasun worked to eliminated RF emissions from our line of charge controllers. During third-party testing for FCC compliance, the test engineer asked us, “Is it on?”. Mission accomplished. 4thdsolar.com/products/genasun-gv-5-65w-5a-solar-charge-controller-with-mppt
Eric..kj4yzi ? Is this an old cast or are you making cameo.😁 ?
Hi Eric,
To be clear, it's NOT the solar energy that's the problem, it's some TYPES of solar CHARGE CONTROLLERS that are the problem!
PWM (Pulse-Width-Modulated) types are particularly bad.
But worse is that those units that make too much r.f. hash noise are not F.C.C. Part 15 compliant! They may say they are, but they can't be when they create that much havoc on the airwaves!!! Most likely a false claim/label by the manufacturer! The true fault here; like with some types of new light bulbs, is that they do not have proper filtering to eliminate the noise. I.e. they cut corners to make it cheap!
Now, that said, there are two more tests that you should do & film...
A) Electrically separate out a single battery from the rest, run the radio off of that one battery & leave the others charging. The second part of that is; if you still have hash, move the station further away, and perhaps the antenna too.
B) This is a bit more involved.
As I mentioned above, the real problem is a lack of proper filtering on the output of the solar charger (and perhaps shielding too! Since many new controllers use plastic cases instead of metal ones (i.e. a Faraday cage!)
What is needed is a filter on the power output or... a high pass filter on the antenna, also known as a broadcast blocking filter.
If you block everything below 1.8 MHz, you shouldn't see it's harmonics higher up. If the noise persists, then that means you need the heavy duty filtering on the solar charger output, or a far superior quality of controller!
The irony here is that people go & buy the cheap controllers because they are cheap. So cheap that they don't realize that the same problem that causes us noise... also hammers away at the controller's output circuits and will cause them to fail early!
So Eric, hope your new year is going well so far.
73 - John
Interesting. Is it as simple as low cost = low quality? I'd like to know what charge controllers do NOT dump RFI out everywhere. Is additional shielding an answer for those with cheaper gear?
WOW. That is a great demonstration of the RF noise. Maybe change out our solar charge controller? I know Bioenno has RF quiet controllers.
Its your charge controller. Get a Genasun
Perhaps you would like to point out that it is not OK for equipment to interfere with licensed FCC broadcasters. While you find it OK that your equipment interferes with your ham radio, most would not find it OK if someone died because your equipment interfered with a licensed radio in an ambulance or fire truck.
Moving your antenna is not the answer. Have you contacted the manufacturer of your solar controller and notified them that their equipment is interfering with a licensed radio service? Have you asked them to fix the equipment?
DE WA1KLI
Nice
too bad there no way to chock out all the noise they put out.
Get a Bioenno or other quality shielded charge controller and you won't have this issue.
Citizens Band is even worse with PLC'swith no filters for 27 mhz. It's killing the hobby. FCC and other organization STOP THIS MADNESS.
Crappy controller? Wrong type? This seems excessive.
Awesome 😍💋 💝💖♥️❤️
Good. I wait for love from you 💝💖
Try wiring in a few decent sized 16v capacitors on the 12v power wires going to your radio gear, that will act as a "filter" to get rid of any noise going through the charging wires and help drop that noise floor. Make a short "extension cable" with the same type of male/female terminals your radio uses with the caps wired into that, so if for some reason a cap fails you can take out the extension and still be able to operate. Something similar to this should do wonders but you'd only need half the circuit as shown here though: i0.wp.com/i.stack.imgur.com/2dZqP.png