Tube Feed Line Chokes

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

F400-31 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
Refine by
 

Filters

Filters
TUBE feed line chokes/Line Isolators are used to suppress common mode current carried on the outside of the  coax braid which is often responsible for receiver noise and RFI in the receiver/transmitter. These chokes are very useful for suppressing RFI common mode current at the antenna feed point, at 1/4 wavelength intervals along the coax feed line and also at the entrance to the radio station.  They are available with various input and output connectors so as to conveniently connect to standard output connectors already installed on your feed line.

Palomar Engineers TUBE feed line chokes are designed to have 2-5 times more choking impedance over a broader frequency range than competitor units in similar packaging.  Each choke has the choking impedance and effective frequency range on the product label so you can choose the product best suited for your application.