I moved my stereo out to my new garage where I have 8-8' T8 light fixtures. The lights totally mess up my radio reception. This same stereo was in my other garage which has 5-8' T12 light fixtures & it didn't bother it at all. Anybody know what I can do to fix this problem?
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Radio & Flourescent Lights
- Thread starter Brad1234
- Start date
oldwino
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Try plugging radio into a different circuit. When I built my garage I installed a separate radio circuit to prevent that problem.
apong23
Well-known member
Sounds like a grounding problem.
I have tried several circuits & still have the hum. The flourescent lights are on their own circuit. I installed them so I know that the grounds to the fixtures are all connected. This is a new garage with a new sub panel that has it's own grounding rod driven into the ground. Before I moved the stereo out there I had the problem on the little portable radio that I was using & I hoped that with the better unit the hum would stop.
AM only ?
How far away from the transmission sites are you?
Get a "T" type antenna.
Try putting it 90 degrees from the old set up.
Different radios are very fussy as to location.
I have had the same site with different radios needing better antennas, and
the same radio in different locations needing a better antenna.
AM is the fussy one.
FM is very distance sensitive, but AM is very antenna oriented sensitive.
How far away from the transmission sites are you?
Get a "T" type antenna.
Try putting it 90 degrees from the old set up.
Different radios are very fussy as to location.
I have had the same site with different radios needing better antennas, and
the same radio in different locations needing a better antenna.
AM is the fussy one.
FM is very distance sensitive, but AM is very antenna oriented sensitive.
Have you tried just moving it around? I mean like when the old cell phones had poor reception, and you would jiggle the thing around. I had a radio that would only work well for AM when angled a certain way, and on top of a small chunk of wood.
Can't hurt, in any case to try.
Can't hurt, in any case to try.
ScaldedDog
Well-known member
Can you post up a pic of the ballasts? Also, search this topic over in the Electrical forum. Lots of info there.
Mark
Mark
cowboyjosh
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2010
- Messages
- 1,066
Its likely not so much a grounding problem as it is with a ballast on the fritz. I recently started having problems with my Bose Wave radio in the garage not picking up a thing even powerful Denver radio stations like 98.5 KYGO and 97.3 KBCO that have killer 100kw signals, so I swapped out all ballast in my 9 lights in the garage and the problem went away. Use Phillips Advance Ballast for any replacement, they tend to be the best. Many fixtures from supple houses, HD, or Lowes all seem to have cheaper generic ballast by no name companies like American Ballast that last maybe a few years before petering out.
scuba0459
Well-known member
An easy way to find the fixture that is causing the issue is to take a small AM radio! Tune it to a blank space and then go from fixture to fixture until you find the fixture that causes the most buzz.
Radio Flyer
Well-known member
Ballast.
can you turn the lights on one at a time?
can you turn the lights on one at a time?
rwhite692
Well-known member
As Radio Flyer noted, you may just have one ballast going bad....
Also the ballasts used in most cheap fixtures available at Lowes, HD, etc are quite high in THD. You will need low THD ballasts if you want to completely avoid RF noise from your ballasts.
Also the ballasts used in most cheap fixtures available at Lowes, HD, etc are quite high in THD. You will need low THD ballasts if you want to completely avoid RF noise from your ballasts.
I had the same problem when I swapped out a few lights in my garage. I moved the radio over to the other side, different room, and ran new speaker wire.
what is a good ballast to use then for t-8 bulbs?
I think the best thing to do is check out a higher grade T8 light. See what your local store carries, go online and email their customer service and inquire about radio interference noise. They should be able to tell you what you need to know.
These lights are from an Electrical Supplier. The problem occurred from the time that they were installed. All the lights are on their own circuit but 6 are on one switch & 2 on another. It doesn't matter which ones I turn on so if its a bad ballast it has to be 2 of them 1 on each switch. I plugged a portable in with a 100' chord & as I walked away from the garage the hum went away. Next I am going to try an outside antenna.
carpenter383
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2010
- Messages
- 43
I have the same prob with 8ft t12 HO lights. I've heard there is some kind of filter you can install which filters the ballast's interference. An outside antenna should work too though.
i actually bought 12- t8 fixtures and off hand i forgot the ballast info but it was off this site that I found the info on what to look for. It was a 4 letter thing to look for on the ballast. Ill peek when i go back out there again. As soon as they go on I get interference with the radio. The lights are all on there own circuit also.
They do make a inline filter I have not yet tried it nor do i know the proper name for it. But I also thought of a antenna located up in the attic of the garage.
They do make a inline filter I have not yet tried it nor do i know the proper name for it. But I also thought of a antenna located up in the attic of the garage.