TV antenna signal problem

I has been mentioned previously that some LED lights cause RF signal interference. Probably what is happening to yours. I don't have a cure but first thing I would do is insure the antenna booster is on a different circuit from the lights.

yup, RFI caused by the LEDs

It's RFI radiated out of the switching regulator in LED itself, and while it is using the DC wire as its antenna, all that garbage is gone within a few feet of the lamp. It's the antenna picking up the RFI directly from the lamp, not into the preamp via its DC input, and that's what makes it so hard to kill.

It you're a techie type you can get in there and do a few things to the LED itself that may help or cure it, but there's no slam-dunk fix

Sounds like RFI. :(

I figured it would be RFI, but why would a manufacturer use lights that can interfere with there own antenna? I will take it up with warranty department.

X2 - yup, RFI caused by the LEDs


My fix was to change to the cheap $4.99 EBAY/CHINA boards. You can get ten for less than $50. In my case it didn't matter which LED light you would turn on in the trailer - they all bothered my HDTV receptions as well as my NOAH WX radio and cut back on received two meter/440 Ham radio reception. It did not bother my AM/FM JENSEN radio...

The RFI Problem comes from the BUCK BOAST Regulator chips on your new LEDs lights...

You can see the regulator chips just under the red wire here in this photo


The cheap ebay/china boards only have LED lamps installed on them - no regulator components.


If you are using a contained replacement bulb type the regulator chips are inside the assembly.


Since I already had a bunch of the regulator type LED SMD boards I installed a three position switch in my existing ceiling lamp fixture where it selected OFF-ONE-BOTH. Making the ONE position the cheap $4.99 ebay/china LED board. This way I could cut my lights in half power while we were camping off the power grid using the OTA Batwing antenna for the Natl Broadcast signals from the local towns. The signal strength of the camp ground CABLE connections over ride the RFI being received. However my NOAH WX radio signal still gets interfered with whether I am camping off the power grid or at a camp ground.

Some have used this type of ceiling lamp fixture that comes with a ON-FF switch for each side. Then have one side using the just the cheap $4.99 led EBAY/CHINA SMD board.



This is a well documented problem and after many discussions with the different LED manf they mostly say the problem is not big enough for them to make big changes in how the make the LEDs.

The other problem is the manf are within the FCC limit rules for creating RFI that may interfere with your other electronics. Only one company being STARLIGHTS Inc Jason Weaver is about the only one that will talk about the problem.. He was playing with a different regulator called PWN regulators with an EMI Bridge. I never heard anymore about this...

The downside for using the non-regulated type SMD boards is the voltage range we play with. My setup uses 12.0VDC to 14.4VDC VOLTAGE range and some claim this may shorten the life of some non-regulated LEDs. So far after a couple years of use I have only lost one three segment line of LED lamps on one board. I figure I can wait a lot longer and still get more life of the LED board and then just replace the whole thing. $4.99 is not too much of cost factor to worry about it.

A few HAM types have played with installing capacitors and wire beads at certain places around the boards and fixtures etc and may have some success in killing the RFI. The 1/8-inch square chip capacitors are too small for me to work with hehe...

Just my thoughts
Roy Ken

WI Bowhunter wrote:
I figured it would be RFI, but why would a manufacturer use lights that can interfere with there own antenna? I will take it up with warranty department.

Complaining to the warranty department won't do any good.

It is going to take hundreds of complaints to the FCC and maybe when they are done worrying about "wardrobe malfunctions" they will do something about it.

I would say you need a book.. One possible book to look at is this one ARRL RFI book 3rd Edition

It explains a whole bunch of how to reduce/eliminate Radio Frequency Interference, from many sources.

I used to have an older version of the book.

NOTE: There are other books like it, but ... Well.. I'm a life member of the ARRL so naturally I think of their library first.

I agree, warranty will point fingers at the manufacturers and they will say to take it up with them.. There are things that can be done but you need to be a little tech savvy and handy with a soldering iron at the board level to get anywhere. OR, as Roy points out, replace them with non-regulates lamps, but them you stand the risk of burning them out due to over-voltage.

It always somethin'..

What Paul K9ERG has already played with is using real small 1/4-inch or smaller ceramic chip capacitors and soldering across the end of sockets something like this photo. Having very short leads is the trick. Not sure AARL manuals will help much here...

I don't have that much patients anymore at my age... The standard ferrite beads don't work here where the 12VDC connections are made at the board edges... That has been all I have played with and didnt have any success.

Paul had much better luck with the very small chip capacitors.






Roy Ken