Antenna TV Interference

[Dave]

Were having the same problem with our 2014 BH 3010RE as we had with our 2009 Sundance. When we turn on the bedroom lights or the welcome home light comes on we lose TV signals to both living room and bed room TV's. Some time ago I saw threads saying other Heartland owners were having the same problem, I was hoping by now Heartland would have figured out the problem and fixed it. Some forum members say its the LED's but the Sundance didn't LED's. When connected to cable we don't have this issue. What is the problem and what is the fix? Thanks for your input

 

[pegmikef]

I only get it when the OTA signals are weak. It doesn't seem to affect the stronger channels and mine only occurs in the bedroom when those led lights are on. Does not affect living room. I tried to demonstrate this to Dan at a rally and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't repeat it.

 

[wdk450]

I am pretty familiar with LEDs and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) issues, but not together.

Question: Do the lights (LEDs?) have a dimmer? Electronic dimmers can cause lots of RFI. If so, you might consider installing a switch in place of the dimmer.

Regular LEDs and incandescent bulbs act much like a piece of wire in a circuit and do not normally generate RFI. Bad connections that are arcing generate RFI, but I would expect that you would see the lights flickering. Sometimes RFI sources can be sniffed out using a small AM radio tuned off of any station as a tracking device.

 

[rxbristol]

Were having the same problem with our 2014 BH 3010RE as we had with our 2009 Sundance. When we turn on the bedroom lights or the welcome home light comes on we lose TV signals to both living room and bed room TV's. Some time ago I saw threads saying other Heartland owners were having the same problem, I was hoping by now Heartland would have figured out the problem and fixed it. Some forum members say its the LED's but the Sundance didn't LED's. When connected to cable we don't have this issue. What is the problem and what is the fix? Thanks for your input

An uneducated guess is that your antenna boost signal is connected to this same circuit and like pegmikef stated, it may because the OTA signal is week and by turning on the lights it draws too much power from the antenna signal. But, that is only guessing.

 

[sengli]

Our rig does the same thing. Turn on the bedroom lights and poof, no more TV signal. We just dont use the bedroom lights when we watch TV.

 

[jbeletti]

I have a couple of suggestions...

1. Carefully inspect and repair as needed, all coax cable fittings. Don't forget the ones behind the TV amplifier wall plate.

2. Carefully inspect and tighten as needed, all DC grounds in the ceiling lighting and TV antenna circuit (they share the same circuit).

These are tips I received from Heartland Engineering. It's their theory (i.e. not proven).

As a radical test, if a person was willing, one could drop the DC power and ground off the back of the antenna wall plate and run a length of lamp cord from the wall plate to the coach battery directly. This "test" would eliminate the lighting circuit as being contributory to the interference. From there, troubleshooting could be more focused.

 

[danemayer]

There's also a barrel connector above the rotating handle for the antenna.

 

[Dave]

I have a couple of suggestions...

1. Carefully inspect and repair as needed, all coax cable fittings. Don't forget the ones behind the TV amplifier wall plate.

2. Carefully inspect and tighten as needed, all DC grounds in the ceiling lighting and TV antenna circuit (they share the same circuit).

These are tips I received from Heartland Engineering. It's their theory (i.e. not proven).

As a radical test, if a person was willing, one could drop the DC power and ground off the back of the antenna wall plate and run a length of lamp cord from the wall plate to the coach battery directly. This "test" would eliminate the lighting circuit as being contributory to the interference. From there, troubleshooting could be more focused.

Jim...thanks for the suggestions but the only one I haven't tried is tightening the ceiling fixtures which I will. Troubleshooting this issue on the Sundance I determined that the +12vdc was not being loaded down when I turned on the bedroom lights, bathroom lights or bathroom fan but I did substituted the camper +12vdc with another +12vdc power supply and it did not fix the problem. Now I wonder if putting the TV signal amp in a shielded container would make a difference? Thoughts from anyone?

 

[danemayer]

My best guess is that it's a signal-to-noise problem. Either the lights are generating more noise than normal, or the signal getting to the TV is weaker than it's supposed to be. In a prior thread we did note that some LEDs might be noisier than others, and while not 100%, most of these complaints have to do with LEDs.

A loose connection 1) at the rooftop antenna, 2) at the barrel connector above the rotating handle, 3) as the coax goes into the signal booster, 4) on the signal booster itself, 5) as the coax comes out of the signal booster, 6) at the TV, could be contributing to the problem.