Solar Power and Ham Radio

Over the past year or so, I've had a small solar PV system running as a test of both how much power - and how much RFI - I can expect to generate.

Cheap, cheerful and ubiquitous.  These Chinese inverters are safe and work well, but also produce copious RFI.

The test unit is hooked up to the house mains with a Chinese inverter.  This does produce a large amount of RFI on all bands.  On 160m, the RFI is entirely intolerable, even though I don't operate there.  On other bands, given the low price of the unit, the RFI is just about tolerable.

Serious RFI from a poorly-considered solar PV installation (NOT Outback Power's system)

A lot of discussion on EMC issues is now taking place in the ham media.  What strikes me, though, is that, whilst a lot of people complain and measure the spikes on their waterfalls, few bother to tell us what does work well.

After reading a letter in the latest QST from someone who found they had almost no RFI with their solar inverter (a system which was not fitted with individual panel conditioners), I contacted the author to find out what he had that was so successful.

So, as today's handy tip, if you live in the US or Canada, is that these boys and girls apparently make good quality, low RFI inverters and answer questions pretty smartly.

For the rest of the day, I shall be hanging my head in sadness at the stupidity of the UK population, and it's decision to leave the EU...