GFCI & RF
#1
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#3
Skampy, you bet RF will trip a gfci. In our factory the hand held radios we use for communication on the plant floor are often tripping out our gfci's located in our PLC cabinets. This is pretty much a weekly occurrence. You get within 3 feet of a gfci and our radios will trip them. I've won many a coffee proving this to the unbelievers. If you watch the gfci it will actually vibrate the test and reset buttons when you key the radio to talk, then bang the gfci trips. I dont know the total frequency range that will cause this but our radios will trip a gfci in a few seconds.
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I built a unattached garage in my back yard this summer. I recently put up a 40meter dipole. As soon as I key the mike or code key on my tranceiver (which is located in my house) it trips the 3 GFCI's in the shop.
I see Lowes has a 15A Cooper brand GFCI with "improved radio freq filtering" but I need 20A. Packaging on the 20A doesn't have any such wording.
So you can trip them with a handheld, huh? I'll have to take my handheld into the stores and try it. Probably set off an alarm & end up in the slammer!
SteveS
I see Lowes has a 15A Cooper brand GFCI with "improved radio freq filtering" but I need 20A. Packaging on the 20A doesn't have any such wording.
So you can trip them with a handheld, huh? I'll have to take my handheld into the stores and try it. Probably set off an alarm & end up in the slammer!
SteveS
#5
I doubt that you really need a 20-amp receptacle. Do you really have anything that has a 20-amp plug on it? You certainly do not need a 20-amp GFCI just because it's a 20-amp circuit (in the U.S.).
Last edited by John Nelson; 11-20-04 at 09:12 AM.
#6
I've been a ham myself for 40 years and have seen some strange stuff. A GFCI tripping on RF wouldn't supprise me at all. I might be inclined to try a small toroid over the wires coming into and out of the wires connected to the GFCI's in question. That might act as enough of a RF choke to keep the GFCI's happy. If you can alter the location of your dipole slightly you may find a position that will work as well. Try a balun in the center if you don't already have one installed. That will remove the RF from the feed line, maybe that's the true cause of the problem. Back when I had a two-way radio shop we had a sheriff's car come in with a problem. Every time they keyed the microphone on the two-way the car's engine would quit. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of, but the only thing that actually worked was to remount the antenna in a location on the trunk lid instead of on top of the roof. The RF was getting into the cars computer and it was like shutting off the ignition switch when the mic was keyed, not a good situation when you are giving chase to someone.
Last edited by jughead; 11-20-04 at 10:33 AM.