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Old October 19th 03, 03:49 AM
Colin
 
Posts: n/a
Default More info: FM Interference when the sun comes up


"Colin" wrote in message ...
From Canada, when trying to tune in a weak signal from the USA to get

National Public Radio I find that at night and on cloudy days the signal

is
clear and fine. I am using a Showgun TV antenna and amplifying it through

a
Trisonic 10db 10-900 MHz box.

On bright sunny days, at about 10 am when the sun is rising higher in the
sky the signal gets
gradually worse until there is so much interference that the signal is as
good as lost. In the evening it comes back and is clear again. It appears

to
affect only weak stations, the local stronger stations have no

interference.

Can anyone tell me what may be triggering this noise? Is there anything I
can do about it?

Thanks


Thank you for the feedback on this issue. Here are some more discoveries:

The power supply for this radio is a 175 watt inverter powered from a 12
volt battery, which in turn is charged by a set of solar panels, the charge
from which is regulated by a Morningstar Sunsaver charge controller. If I
unplug the radio from the inverter and plug into the regular power supply
from the grid, the noisy signal becomes clear. Additionally, after I unplug
from the inverter, for a second or so as the fields in the system die down
the signal becomes clear before the radio stops working.

This seems to indicate that the antenna is ok, and that the interference is
in the solar system somewhere, but not the inverter (otherwise the night
time reception would be bad) but perhaps the charge controller is having an
effect on the Trisonic amplifier?