Exercise Equipment RFI Kit

Does the operation of a treadmill or your exercise equipment wipe out your radio receiver reception?  We have heard cases where the treadmill from a neighbor’s house wiped out the ham radio receiver reception from 2-30 Mhz!  The treadmill source was finally isolated to a variable speed motor power supply that was injecting RFI into the AC wiring of the house and the AC wiring was acting as a transmitting antenna broadcasting the signal to the entire neighborhood.  The case was difficult to track down since the broadband RFI interference only occurred at 7-8 pm each nite when the neighbor used the treadmill. As with all RFI cases the sequence is similar: Find the Source, Choke the Path, Protect the Victim.

Once the source was identified, a simple solution was to choke off the transmitting antenna with a AC line choke shown below which eliminated the interference problem to the ham receiver:

 

 

Testimonials

FB400-31 AC Power Cord Choke completely cured the RFI problem I had with my wife’s treadmill.  Now I can hear the weak signals!

73,
Jim K4AXF
Icom IC-725
Grottoes, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia