I checked in with the Oregon OOC since he does a lot of RFI work in the Eugene Oregon area.   He said he got lucky and found out about the switch to LED when the City of Eugene was doing it and worked with the Chief Engineer on testing the lights.   The City Chief Engineer had never heard of RFI when Dave NK7Z contacted him but was very responsive.

 

Dave got a list of all the locations and tested each site several times when the lights were active.  In all cases the street lights were dead quiet.  No RFI of any kind. 

 

He said that Springfield, right next door to Eugene, did the LED thing a few years ago, and there appear to be no issues with their lights either, although all evidence of quiet lights is anecdotal.  No tests were done.   He would know if hams were getting street lamp RFI in either Eugene or Springfield because he does 10-15 RFI hunts a year for anyone who requests it; a lot were related to marijuana grow lights, even before it was legal in Oregon.   The local power company also calls him out sometimes to assist on RFI locates.

 

He suggested the following:

 

The ARRL should prepare a pamphlet for distribution to all City Engineers dealing with RFI, and make it available to all clubs, and on the web for downloading.  

 

By doing the above, any Amateur Operator could download it, print it and pass it on to their City of residence, or a shopping complex, store owner, or whoever. Basically spray the pamphlet anywhere there might be a need.

 

The ARRL should contact the top 10 major cities, and the top 10 major light vendors, and provide that same pamphlet, and remind the city engineers that if they spend, let’s say a million bucks on LED lamps, and they tear up HF they might have to replace them all and not get a refund.  Not something a City Engineer wants on his/her record.

 

Bonnie AB7ZQ

 

Bonnie Altus, AB7ZQ

Northwestern Division

Vice Director

ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio™ 

 

Grid Square: CN85gb

Polk County, Oregon

 

 

 

 

 

From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Kermit Carlson via arrl-odv
Sent: Monday, August 1, 2016 11:25 AM
To: Bob Famiglio, K3RF; 'arrl-odv'
Subject: [arrl-odv:25545] Re: This Will Become A Bigger Problem - And We a Should Have A Game Plan

 

Hello Bob;

 

            When you encounter situations like this please contact MIke Gruber W1MG at the

lab with the details.  The lab has been very actively looking into the problems of interference

caused by LED lighting systems but there is a lack of feedback from the field. 

           Also, please encourage hams that you know have encountered these

types of problems to contact  the lab by email.  The ham in the article that was posted

by N5AUS had not contacted the lab, and had the reporter not contacted Mike, this

particular case would have been an unknown situation.

 

             The issue of measurement at VHF for LED lighting devices is a significant

issue that is being looked at by the lab and Chris.  If harmful interference exists to a licensed

radio service the operator of the device must mitigate that interference.

 

                                                                                     73, Kermit W9XA

 

                                                                          

 

From: "Bob Famiglio, K3RF" <RBFamiglio@Verizon.net>
To: 'arrl-odv' <arrl-odv@arrl.org>
Sent: Monday, August 1, 2016 11:58 AM
Subject: [arrl-odv:25544] Re: This Will Become A Bigger Problem - And We a Should Have A Game Plan

 

It is already a bigger problem.  Some brands of new traffic light LED bulbs seem noisy.  In Southeastern Pennsylvania at least, all the traffic lights for state roads being replaced by PennDot with LED lamps exhibit broadband type noise.  I live one county over from Bucks County, PA where the ham in the article lives.  Here in Delaware County, PA, the new LED traffic lights cause significant noise even up at  VHF High band (for us 144 to 148 MHz).  While driving through newly re-lamped intersections, moderately strong two meter FM signals are blanked out as the strong noise masked the signal and closes the squelch.  This begins almost 300 feet from the closest LED traffic light.  In large interchange intersections with coordinated lights for 600 feet (US Route 1 and PA 252 for eg.), the dead zone is a significant period of drive time, especially if one gets caught at one or more of the lights.  I hear the same noise up on public safety UHF-T band (500 MHz), but it is not as strong.  I do not yet work HF mobile so I have not checked.  

 

Is this our new BPL level of threat?  LED lighting may end up as our biggest spectrum threat yet.

 

 

Bob Famiglio, K3RF

Vice Director, ARRL Atlantic Division

610-359-7300

 

 

 

 

From: arrl-odv [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Christopher Imlay
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2016 11:42 AM
To: N5AUS
Cc: arrl-odv
Subject: [arrl-odv:25542] Re: This Will Become A Bigger Problem - And We a Should Have A Game Plan

 

John thanks for sending that. I have relayed it to Ed Hare and Mike Gruber and Kermit Carlson and we will see if we can help with this. It may be a good test case for RF lighting interference. Mike and Ed have several of these of course but the press coverage makes it a bit more compelling.

 

73, Chris W3KD

 

On Sun, Jul 31, 2016 at 8:07 PM, N5AUS <N5AUS@n5aus.com> wrote:


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--

Christopher D. Imlay

Booth, Freret & Imlay, LLC

14356 Cape May Road

Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011

(301) 384-5525 telephone

(301) 384-6384 facsimile

 

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