TV interference with T8 lights
 

I decided after the T 12 lights in my attached garage started having
problems to replace them with T8's.(Electroonic ballasts) Since doing
this, Channel 5 WTVF goes out every time I turn the garage lights on.
It goes back to normal when the lights are off.

I have a rooftop antenna a yagi, on a tower right outside my garage. I
also have on this tower my dish network dish.

I origionally thought it was probably the light and replaced it with
another one from Lowes, but this light did the same thing as well.

Is there a way to diagnose what is causing this or preventing it?

I also have UHF little antennas at varios tv's in the house to be able
to work the remote from another bedroom. (Satelite box). however, for
a test, I unscrewed one of the antennas at the kitchen tv and it made
no difference.

TV interference with T8 lights
 

Easy....get rid of the electronic ballasts, they are transmitters because of the internal square wave choppers.
Steve

"stryped" wrote in message ...
I decided after the T 12 lights in my attached garage started having
problems to replace them with T8's.(Electroonic ballasts) Since doing
this, Channel 5 WTVF goes out every time I turn the garage lights on.
It goes back to normal when the lights are off.

I have a rooftop antenna a yagi, on a tower right outside my garage. I
also have on this tower my dish network dish.

I origionally thought it was probably the light and replaced it with
another one from Lowes, but this light did the same thing as well.

Is there a way to diagnose what is causing this or preventing it?

I also have UHF little antennas at varios tv's in the house to be able
to work the remote from another bedroom. (Satelite box). however, for
a test, I unscrewed one of the antennas at the kitchen tv and it made
no difference.

TV interference with T8 lights
 

In article
,
stryped wrote:

I decided after the T 12 lights in my attached garage started having
problems to replace them with T8's.(Electroonic ballasts) Since doing
this, Channel 5 WTVF goes out every time I turn the garage lights on.
It goes back to normal when the lights are off.

I have a rooftop antenna a yagi, on a tower right outside my garage. I
also have on this tower my dish network dish.

I origionally thought it was probably the light and replaced it with
another one from Lowes, but this light did the same thing as well.

Is there a way to diagnose what is causing this or preventing it?

I also have UHF little antennas at varios tv's in the house to be able
to work the remote from another bedroom. (Satelite box). however, for
a test, I unscrewed one of the antennas at the kitchen tv and it made
no difference.

This should not happen.

One assumes that the electronic ballasts are jamming TV reception, but
UHF is way above the inverter frequency, which is probably around 20
KHz, with harmonics in the low megahertz.

I would try a different brand of ballast.

You should be able to return the light fixtures as defective, perhaps
illegal, because the FCC frowns on such interference.

Joe Gwinn

TV interference with T8 lights
 

On Dec 24, 9:23*pm, stryped wrote:
I decided after the T 12 lights in my attached garage started having
problems to replace them with T8's.(Electroonic ballasts) Since doing
this, Channel 5 WTVF goes out every time I turn the garage lights on.
It goes back to normal when the lights are off.

I have a rooftop antenna a yagi, on a tower right outside my garage. I
also have on this tower my dish network dish.

I origionally thought it was probably the light and replaced it with
another one from Lowes, but this light did the same thing as well.

Is there a way to diagnose what is causing this or preventing it?

I also have UHF little antennas at varios tv's in the house to be able
to work the remote from another bedroom. (Satelite box). however, for
a test, I unscrewed one of the antennas at the kitchen tv and it made
no difference.

The remotes work at 2.4Ghz, well within the microwave spectrum. A
leaky microwave oven will affect those, not much else.

If the ballasts are putting out that much RFI, you should be wiping
out AM reception for quite a ways, a cheap transistor radio should
pick that right up. If they're chink fixtures, not much you can do
except replace them with something better-made. Another problem,
maybe easier to fix, would be that the ballasts aren't radiating but
putting out a signal down your AC power lines and that's getting into
your electronics that way. RF chokes and filters can be added to kill
that off, shouldn't have to be done on correctly designed ballasts,
but would be a possible fix. I had a chink-designed motor control
that tripped the computer's UPS anytime I used it, had to stick an EMI
filter on the power cord to kill that.

Stan

TV interference with T8 lights
 

On Dec 25, 10:05*pm, wrote:
On Dec 24, 9:23*pm, stryped wrote:





I decided after the T 12 lights in my attached garage started having
problems to replace them with T8's.(Electroonic ballasts) Since doing
this, Channel 5 WTVF goes out every time I turn the garage lights on.
It goes back to normal when the lights are off.

I have a rooftop antenna a yagi, on a tower right outside my garage. I
also have on this tower my dish network dish.

I origionally thought it was probably the light and replaced it with
another one from Lowes, but this light did the same thing as well.

Is there a way to diagnose what is causing this or preventing it?

I also have UHF little antennas at varios tv's in the house to be able
to work the remote from another bedroom. (Satelite box). however, for
a test, I unscrewed one of the antennas at the kitchen tv and it made
no difference.

The remotes work at 2.4Ghz, well within the microwave spectrum. *A
leaky microwave oven will affect those, not much else.

If the ballasts are putting out that much RFI, you should be wiping
out AM reception for quite a ways, a cheap transistor radio should
pick that right up. *If they're chink fixtures, not much you can do
except replace them with something better-made. *Another problem,
maybe easier to fix, would be that the ballasts aren't radiating but
putting out a signal down your AC power lines and that's getting into
your electronics that way. *RF chokes and filters can be added to kill
that off, shouldn't have to be done on correctly designed ballasts,
but would be a possible fix. *I had a chink-designed motor control
that tripped the computer's UPS anytime I used it, had to stick an EMI
filter on the power cord to kill that.

Stan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thing is, I took one light back to lowes and exchanged it and now this
light does it too. It is the commercial stip lights I bought. I really
dont want to buy another ballast. And chennel 5 here is broadcast on
VHF.

Is there a filter I could install on the coax of the antenna?

TV interference with T8 lights
 

stryped fired this volley in news:b6f8cb95-2d0b-
:

And chennel 5 here is broadcast on
VHF.


It's _actually_ on the old VHF channel 5? That's not unheard-of, but
pretty rare. Most digital channels (even if the _show_ as (say) "channel
5.1" are up in the 7-14 range, or up...

You ARE in a pickle. The way the old FCC regs read, if the device is
"approved" and it causes interference, it's as much the receiver's duty
to deal with it (re-orient the receiving antenna, etc.) as the
transmitter's.

LLoyd

TV interference with T8 lights
 

In article
,
stryped wrote:

On Dec 25, 10:05*pm, wrote:
On Dec 24, 9:23*pm, stryped wrote:





I decided after the T 12 lights in my attached garage started having
problems to replace them with T8's.(Electroonic ballasts) Since doing
this, Channel 5 WTVF goes out every time I turn the garage lights on.
It goes back to normal when the lights are off.

I have a rooftop antenna a yagi, on a tower right outside my garage. I
also have on this tower my dish network dish.

I origionally thought it was probably the light and replaced it with
another one from Lowes, but this light did the same thing as well.

Is there a way to diagnose what is causing this or preventing it?

I also have UHF little antennas at varios tv's in the house to be able
to work the remote from another bedroom. (Satelite box). however, for
a test, I unscrewed one of the antennas at the kitchen tv and it made
no difference.

The remotes work at 2.4Ghz, well within the microwave spectrum. *A
leaky microwave oven will affect those, not much else.

If the ballasts are putting out that much RFI, you should be wiping
out AM reception for quite a ways, a cheap transistor radio should
pick that right up. *If they're chink fixtures, not much you can do
except replace them with something better-made. *Another problem,
maybe easier to fix, would be that the ballasts aren't radiating but
putting out a signal down your AC power lines and that's getting into
your electronics that way. *RF chokes and filters can be added to kill
that off, shouldn't have to be done on correctly designed ballasts,
but would be a possible fix. *I had a chink-designed motor control
that tripped the computer's UPS anytime I used it, had to stick an EMI
filter on the power cord to kill that.

Stan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thing is, I took one light back to lowes and exchanged it and now this
light does it too. It is the commercial stip lights I bought. I really
dont want to buy another ballast. And channel 5 here is broadcast on
VHF.

I assume that the replacement is the same make and model.

US Channel 5 is 76 MHz through 82 MHz, which is way higher than any
reasonable inverter harmonics. For instance, the 20th harmonic of a 20
KHz inverter square wave is 0.4 MHz. So there is a problem in the
ballast design, and I have no idea how this got by the FCC.

I would try a better make and model fixture.


Is there a filter I could install on the coax of the antenna?

Certainly, but it should not be necessary, and the filter may be more
expensive than getting a fixture that does not have the problem.
Shielding an ~80 MHz signal at the likely power level isn't all that
cheap.

I have eight 4-tube T8 fixtures in my shop, and have no such problem.

By the way, how does over-the-air FM radio fare? The FM band is between
TV channels 6 and 7, so if TV 5 is in trouble, the FM band may also be.

And, how is AM band reception?

Joe Gwinn