Exercise Equipment RFI Kits
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
Exercise Equipment RFI Kits
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!
Christmas lights or yard lights with switching DC power supplies are often the RFI source and a clamp on ferrite bead on the AC AND the DC side feeding the lights is needed to help suppress the switching power supply RFI noise. Suitable snap on beads are FSB31-1/2 for the 1-250 MHz range.
We have also had reported wireless HDTV boxes, and FOSCAM and AMCREST security camera systems causing RFI to garage door remote openers. Use our Garage Door Opener RFI kit to suppress the interference to the opener (VICTIM) – you need one kit for each opener. Maximize the distance from the camera to the openers may also help. Additionally shield cable to the garage door sensors may be needed depending on severity of the camera RFI.
Obvious Tech Note: make sure your remote batteries have enough energy to activate the GDO or the signal they transmit may not be large enough to over ride the RFI signal, but a fresh battery may be able to overcome the weak RFI source and allow the GDO to operate correctly.