Guest HomeGrown Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 "All the emergency services, planes etc are on digital so there will be no inteference with their signals" Why would digital not pick up interference? cos its only interfering with AM signals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HomeGrown Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 (edited) I'd have thought people complaining is the risk, so nothing like not having a TV license. If I was a 5 Live addict and it was buzzing for twelve hours a day I'd want to know who and what was doing it. Interfering with commercial radio stations is a risk not worth taking. depends if he's on digi or anologue CB loads of other things can intefere with the signal...my car for eg edited to add, its probably the equipment thats receiving the inteference not being earthed properly, thats why my car does it Edited January 22, 2006 by HomeGrown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peds Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Welli have just put in an order for a 600 w didgi ballast - will pay for it tomorrow - as soon as it arrives and i've wired it up i will test for interference and get back to you . Even if there is a little interference if it only for about 20 yards i'll stick with it anfd hope that running the lights overnight as usual will help lessen the chance of detection. Live in a semi but neighbour is old so hopefullyno problem. Cheers peds. :!: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HomeGrown Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 i think if anyone complains about interference on a anologue radio signal is going to get told "buy a DAB digital radio and u wont get no inteference" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Terpene Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I alerted OT1 to the interference on MW and LW bands. I regularly listen to Radio 5 and Radio 4 and straight away these were totally swamped out with bleed from the digital ballast. Not slight interference, but total and utter swamped. I could get no channels on either band. I must assume that other people in my vicinity also listen to the radio on MW/LW, I'd be some bloody fool not to. I tested the strength of the bleed with a tranny out on the road and I must say after 125 metres of significant strong bleed I gave up with a decidedly twitchy sphincter, and ran to pull the ballast down. The interference started to fade after 130m ish but a radius of that distance was well into the 3rd street and I also had a petrol station and a garage inside that distance. This is no slight buzz. The garage always plays 5 Live when they work - during the course of my having the digi ballast up and running the place was strangely silent. The garage is 100metres away. I would guess that I have 20-30 houses within my bleed radius. It would only take one person to complain. Game over. I couldn't take the risk, its an obvious problem - like having a neon sign outside your gaff, saying...digital ballast this way---->This was with one 600W lamp - I usually hang 4 !!. These ballasts will become more and more commonplace in the commercial sector - in warehouse lighting bays etc etc. and I assume that unless they do something about the leakage they are going to get a shedful of complaints from the public. Granted that MW/LW isn't going to be around forever, but its here and now and a lot of people still use it. I would like to think that overtime the manufacturers will respond to this problem and correct it. They have to. In the meantime I am back with my C&C ballast as I simply cannot afford to be this uncaring about something that will take me away for a spell at HM's pleasure. I did a quick and dirty recording of the bleed over, maybe OT1 can upload thre file so that people can play it and hear for themselves what type of noise I am talking about. People ain't going to just say - "awww some interference there - what a pity!" To those that say, its all 'something over nothing' then fair enough. Your neck, your call. I just thought that people should know about this before purchase. best tt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redseal Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Was that with a Lumatek ballast? Seems an oddly UK issue at the moment, unless other countries don't broadcast on AM radio these days so nobody's noticed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Terpene Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Was that with a Lumatek ballast? Seems an oddly UK issue at the moment, unless other countries don't broadcast on AM radio these days so nobody's noticed. Yes Lumatek. From my thinking, it would only take someone to make the connection and then its simply an easy game to roam the streets looking for interference on MW/LW and to track the source. I'm not making it easy for anyone to catch me, hopefully! I tried to upload the avi of the recording I made but I am not allowed to post that type of attachment here. tt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S2001 Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 The digi ballast that I have is NOT Lumatec, it's made by Winkon. I have had a radio in my hand and the interference goes away within 20 yards of walking away from my cottage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murran Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I just thought i would post my finding on these ballasts, I had two 600's delivered today from the 420store.I only wired one of them up,i thought if there isnt much interferance from the one i will wire up the other aswell. The interferance radius was about 30yards from the ballast and the ballast was at street level.It seems the problem with the 420 ballasts isnt as great as the lumatek,although when i built my grow room which is in a shed.I insulated the whole shed with a product called alufoam whitch is a type of foam backed foil, this may of helped to sheild the interferance to a degree who knows? I didnt bother wireing the other one up. With being aware of this problem i dont feel happy using these .if my grow got discovered because of using them then i only have myself to blame.Is it really worth the risk for a bit of extra light ?just my view on things. Hopefully the manufacturer will be able to sort the problem out so this technology can be used with peace of mind. Murran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Terpene Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I hang my lamps vertically inside a coolshade. I would assume that a metal reflector would direct the leakage downwards and limit the sideways spread somewhat? An attic grow, say, would allow more of the bleed to propagate across and further at street level ?? tt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joolz Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Yes Lumatek. tt have they been made aware of the problem mate ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fitduck Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 have they been made aware of the problem mate ? sorry but Joolz have u got a bigger pic of ur avvy? If that's a real photo (I think it is) then it looks an awesome piccy. I know I been a bad boy lately, but post it for us would ya? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Terpene Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 have they been made aware of the problem mate ? They were the first to know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gunnaknow Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 (edited) Perhaps it's more to do with the make of the ballast. There must be quite a few people who live atleast 20 yards away from their neighbours and those that don't might be able to reduce the distance further by painting the walls with metalic paint. If a room has 6 surfaces (4 walls, ceiling and floor), would covering the 4 walls and ceiling (5 surfaces), cut the amount of leekage down to 1/6 (16.6%)? Or would the intensity of leekage through the floor just increase by 6 fold? If the leekage was cut to 1/6, would that decrease just the strength of interference in the area, or would it also decrease the distance of interference? Edited January 23, 2006 by gunnaknow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Terpene Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 Perhaps it's more to do with the make of the ballast. There must be quite a few people who live atleast 20 yards away from their neighbours and those that don't might be able to reduce the distance further by painting the walls with metalic paint. If a room has 6 surfaces (4 walls, ceiling and floor), would covering the 4 walls and ceiling (5 surfaces), cut the amount of leekage down to 1/6 (16.6%)? Or would the intensity of leekage through the floor just increase by 6 fold? If the leekage was cut to 1/6, would that decrease just the strength of interference in the area, or would it also decrease the distance of interference? Unproven as yet and.......Is it really worth it ??? tt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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