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The Worst Household AM Noise(s) For DX, pls?

Steve Green NEPA

Steve Green NEPA

Can you folks list the worst sources of this racket? The biggest offenders ?

See, we live in a 'double', or an 'attached', if you will. There's a common wall. To my knowledge there are no outlets common to both us and our neighbours'.

I have a flat-screen computer monitor that goes maybe 18 X 10. It makes everyone look fat, even me.
The wifester has a flat-screen TV about the size of a small outdoor billboard.
We each have our own Windows 7 computers and our own XP rigs.
There is an electric coffeemaker, two wall phones and a cell phone, an electric stove, a toaster-oven, a refrigerator, a microwave, a small double-element burner I use to make soup .... I swear even the kitten emits static from her whiskers.

Otherwise, we are peaceful, goodnatured people in a corner house. Whence and why am I getting all of this unconscionable noise coming over what are perhaps the three best AM DX radios in our small town?
 
I'd say flatscreen TV's. Even if yours is off you'll still get garbage from your neighbors' who are connected to the same power company transformer. I've ordered ferrite chokes from ebay ($5.00) to combat this somewhat.
 
Yeah the TVs are big interference makers in our house. Whenever I DX I get as far away from them as I can. As Cyberdad has mentioned getting outside is a good idea although here in the midwest that's not very pleasant in the winter.
 
AM band DX has been about impossible from my apartment from various kinds of noise, though it did improve when the complex re-wired the grounds.
 
Worst? Dying CFL bulbs that still are lit normally. I had one on my front porch that wiped out everything below 600 khz. Found the culprit by accident, more or less. With a portable radio.

Next? Router noise. Although in my case it is nullable and isn't as bad as the CFL was.

After that, LED bulbs, if they are too close to the radio. If they are farther than a couple feet, or on a metal mount that's near the radio, it will put buzz on the radio.

No flatscreen TV here, so that isn't an issue. My laptop computer's flatscreen monitor is maybe 3.5 ft from my PR-D5 when I'm writing and there are not issues there.
 
Perhaps the worst... and it's a tie... are cheap "wall wart" power supplies and dimmers.

Then, anything with a CPU including Smart TVs. CFL bulbs, LED bulbs. Even the CPU-controlled thermostats on my AC units emit noise on AM!
 
boombox4 said:
After that, LED bulbs, if they are too close to the radio. If they are farther than a couple feet, or on a metal mount that's near the radio, it will put buzz on the radio.
Click to expand...

EDIT: what I meant to say about LED lights: if they are closer than a couple feet, or on a metal mount (like a metal desk lamp arm) that is near the radio.
Farther than a foot or two, LED's are not so much a problem here.
 
This should vary somewhat household to household, because televisions, light bulbs, etc vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

There are some LED bulbs which operate without generating AM noise. I don't have a particular model number to endorse, unfortunately. For those, you need to buy a non-dimmable type, and usually one of the lower power ratings like a 40Watt equivalent.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
This should vary somewhat household to household, because televisions, light bulbs, etc vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

There are some LED bulbs which operate without generating AM noise. I don't have a particular model number to endorse, unfortunately. For those, you need to buy a non-dimmable type, and usually one of the lower power ratings like a 40Watt equivalent.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I never get the dimmable ones because I don't have dimmers. I was surprised at how little RFI the LED lights throw out considering their guts must be loaded with a switchable power supply.
 
No switching supply in LED bulbs. That's because the voltage doesn't need to be increased like for CCFL.
LED bulbs are repairable. I opened one up and there are maybe 2 dozen LEDs in series. One was burned out. So I replaced it and it worked.
 
But most LED bulbs have to be broken open in order to get to them unless there is some type of bulb with removable globes and replaceable elements. Or is something like that actually available? When I worked at Lowe's there wasn't anything I saw like that, but it's not a bad idea if it's feasible.
 
kf4rca said:
No switching supply in LED bulbs. That's because the voltage doesn't need to be increased like for CCFL.
LED bulbs are repairable. I opened one up and there are maybe 2 dozen LEDs in series. One was burned out. So I replaced it and it worked.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I just assumed they had them.
 
anotherguy said:
But most LED bulbs have to be broken open in order to get to them unless there is some type of bulb with removable globes and replaceable elements. Or is something like that actually available? When I worked at Lowe's there wasn't anything I saw like that, but it's not a bad idea if it's feasible.
Click to expand...

In some LED bulbs, the globe is loosely attached with glue. Some models have a circuit board with 6-12 surface mount LEDs, which can be replaced with a soldering iron. But it's almost never economical to do so unless you're already an electronics hobbyist.
 
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