TV interference when bedroom lights are on!

[MTPockets]

We rarely use TV antenna as we have Dish TV. Yesterday I rolled up antenna, did the channel search, turned on the booster, found a channel we decided to watch. A bit later I went to the bedroom and turned a light. The TV signal vanished! Turned off the light, the TV was back on. Did this a few times to confirm what I was seeing and yes it was. Pretty weird; assume some sort of elec interference. One hour later it wouldn't do it and today no interference. October Ghosts?

 

[danemayer]

Re: "This" is different!

Terry,

I think the signal booster may share a fuse circuit with some of the lights. If there's something wrong with the wiring inside the light, or with the light switch, I suppose it could be interrupting the power to the signal booster. You might want to inspect the wiring at the switch.

 

[mlburst1]

Re: "This" is different!

Turning on the exhaust fan in our bathroom kills our OTA TV - just one of those quirks that you learn to live with...

 

[JohnDar]

Re: "This" is different!

Turning on the exhaust fan in our bathroom kills our OTA TV - just one of those quirks that you learn to live with...

There was a fix posted some time ago for that. Involves installing a small capacitor across the power wires to the fan.

 

[wdk450]

Re: "This" is different!

Was the lamp involved regular incandescent, or fluorescent, or LED? Regular incandescent is essentially a resistor, and generates no RFI. Fluorescent fixtures use high voltage transformers and alternating current (derived from their 12 volt DC source), and are known sources of RFI. LED's should not generate RFI.

BTW, the same .001 microfarad 35 volt ceramic disk capacitor across the power terminals of any 12 volt device should attenuate RFI generated by that device.

EDIT: It is always considered best practice to filter noise at the assumed source (lights), but it might also help to filter the power connection to the antenna amplifier with the same capacitor technique. The capacitor acts as a short to high frequency AC noise (reducing it), but as an open circuit to the DC power (no effects).

 

[jbeletti]

Re: "This" is different!

Terry,

Bill asked some good questions. Hoping you can answer them. I have one too - have you converted your TV antenna to the Jack Antenna? Reason I ask is the Bernie (Happykraut) had the EXACT same experience as you. He converted to the Jack Antenna. I'm not saying it was the cause, but just like Bill, the more we all know, the more we can narrow this down.

With Bernie, at first I thought it might be noisy LED light circuits. I checked with Heartland who checked with our supplier and we're told they LED light circuity is not RFI/EMI noisy.

 

[kowAlski631]

We have the same issue losing reception when we turn on the main lights in the bedroom & have since the beginning. As we have Dish, it is seldom that we use the antenna (original to the trailer).

 

[happykraut]

As JB says, I have the same problem with both of my TV's. If I turn on any LED light in my rig, I loose audio and video on both TV's. I found that this only happens on weak stations. Justin Day from Heartland had this "I have seen something like this happen where the 12v power was causing back ground noise in the TV or stereo. When I have seen it the 12v power for the booster was touching the antenna coax line at the booster." to say about it. I haven't attempted to fix this problem. The easy "fix" is to watch TV in the dark. LOL

 

[Kenbsc]

Just took delivery of a new 2014 Bighorn 3260 EL. Spent the first night in it last night to test it out. We ran into the same problem with the bedroom led's and the tv. Lights on, tv off. Wondering if anyone has come up with a fix for this...Thanks for any help. I have been scanning the forum for a couple of weeks and really appreciate all of the information here.

 

[danemayer]

Just took delivery of a new 2014 Bighorn 3260 EL. Spent the first night in it last night to test it out. We ran into the same problem with the bedroom led's and the tv. Lights on, tv off. Wondering if anyone has come up with a fix for this...Thanks for any help. I have been scanning the forum for a couple of weeks and really appreciate all of the information here.

Hi Kenbsc,

Congratulations on your new Bighorn and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. Hopefully over the past few months someone has come up with an answer on this.

 

[jdfishing]

Just recently installed some LED lights in the bath and bedroom. We were dry camping, so the living room TV was running off of the inverter and Jack antenna. When watching TV off of the Jack antenna, as soon as any LED light was turned on, we lost picture and sound. Turn on any standard light, no problem. When watching TV off of satellite, neither light affected it. We have not had a chance to try the TV and LED lights when hooked up to 110v.

 

[danemayer]

If this is a signal-to-noise problem, it might be that there's a problem with the signal quality where the TV works until there's a little noise. Might be time to check the antenna connections.

 

[caissiel]

We have all LED lights in our unit and have absolutely no TV on antenna interference. Both on shore power and modified inverter power. For the past 2 years.
2009 BC 3500RL.

Sent from my LG-LS720 using Tapatalk

 

[MTPockets]

This only happened to me this one day. When it happened, I pulled the bedroom light switch out (this was the light circuit that caused the interference) and inspected the wires and connections to see if there was anything amiss. Seeing nothing, I put it back in and the problem went away. Jiggling the wires? A speck of sawdust? I'll never know, but my problem never resurfaced.

 

[happykraut]

Hi Kenbsc,

Hopefully over the past few months someone has come up with an answer on this.

I've been hoping for an answer since last July. Come on HEARTLAND, help us out(you can look at my BH before or after the Shipshewana HL rally). Still have the same problem on weak stations with any LED light. The Jack could have possibly helped it some because it appears to pull in some of the weaker stations better.

 

[wdk450]

From all of the electronics theory I know from being an electronics technician for 40 years, this should not happen with standard LED lights. A standard 12 volt DC LED light is a forward biased diode, acting in a circuit much like a resistor (think very small toaster). The individual LED actually operates on 1.5 to 3.5 volts and the 12 volts must be reduced by a resistor, dc power regulator, or series array of LEDs.

12 volt Fluorescent lamps are very electrically noisy, using power inverters to generate high AC voltage.

Are you SURE these are LED's???

I have bought defective replacement LED assemblies in which some of the LED's flashed. I would try changing the LED bulbs and spraying all contacts with contact spray. If the circuit is generating electrical noise due to poor contacts, it may be flashing faster than your eye can perceive it

 

[sengli]

Our 2013 3260 big horn.... does the same thing. Turn on the bedroom lights and suddenly no picture or sound from the TV? Turn out the bedroom lights and the picture returns? Getting some RFI from the lights somehow? Maybe the power lines run in the same channel that the RF for the antenna does?

 

[happykraut]

Are you SURE these are LED's???

I can honestly say that I have never pulled any lenses to look at the actual LEDs, but HL advertises them as LEDs.

 

[pegmikef]

All the flush mounted lights in my rig are leds. I know, because I took every lens off to clean out bits of foam insulation and other debris that appeared after two or three trips (I thought it was bugs).

 

[wdk450]

Gang:
Although I can't explain the cause of this problem, the solution is the same as for the electrical noise from the bathroom fan motor - install a .001 microfarad, greater than 12 volts voltage rating, ceramic capacitor across the leads to each LED light as close to the light as possible. This shorts out the RF AC noise from the wiring while allowing the 12 volt DC power to pass normally. You will have to remove the light socket and solder the capacitor in place to do this.