Ham gets uppity over Digital Ballasts

Ham Radio operators are getting twisted about "illegal grow lights ballasts", call for federal regulators to stop their marketing and sale.

AUGUSTA, Maine – Ham radio operators say their frequencies are increasingly getting a harsh buzz from a component of the indoor lamps used to grow pot.

The American Radio Relay League has been filing complaints with the Federal Communications Commission over the past several years and wants federal regulators to halt the marketing and sale of illegal grow light ballasts.

Ballasts regulate electrical currents in lights and can disrupt radio frequencies. But ham radio operators say decriminalization of marijuana in states like Colorado has led to more large high-power grow lights in residential areas.

In Maine, retired Coast Guard officer Roger Johnson claims his amateur radio has twice been disrupted by nearby marijuana growers. He wants the state to step in, but other ham radio operators say the federal government should do its job.

http://www.news1130.com/2017/02/27/growing-problem-pot-lights-give-ham-radio-operators-a-buzz/

There was also the idea that DIgi Ballasts, or at least those without the correct shielding on the wiring, were doing the same thing to Police radios... and that upset PooPoo could effectively triangulate and thus tack down these grows...

It is an interesting aside that some products we know and love have been released to a clandestine market and do not comply with regular health and safety, product labeling, data sheets etc. laws and regulations.. Spanish and British Growshops have been getting heat over rooting agents, pesticides, and more recently

This seems to come every few years, different place same issue, very interesting that it keeps coming up, I believe in Maine it would not just be cannabis, but there are people who use lights to start vegetables and flowers.

mean while

mean while

ChaosCatalunya said:

There was also the idea that DIgi Ballasts, or at least those without the correct shielding on the wiring, were doing the same thing to Police radios... and that upset PooPoo could effectively triangulate and thus tack down these grows...

It is an interesting aside that some products we know and love have been released to a clandestine market and do not comply with regular health and safety, product labeling, data sheets etc. laws and regulations.. Spanish and British Growshops have been getting heat over rooting agents, pesticides, and more recently

Click to expand...

Usa British Canadian German goverments ect sell weapons of death !
All is relevent !

My post from different thread...the AM radio (cheapo ones) are good detectors of RFI from bad digital ballasts.

I was able to detect a bad digital ballast while standing about 20 feet from my property line and the noise got louder as I walked towards my front door. If your ballasts emits RFI that is detectable on an AM radio, then you really have a huge neon arrow pointing to your front door that says "I grow pot". Think about it. Going back to mag/cap ballasts now.

DocTim420 said:

From https://www.policeone.com/drug-interdiction-narcotics/articles/8224280-How-cops-are-catching-grow-ops-with-AM-radios/

How cops are catching grow ops with AM radios
Many ham operators can locate a grow simply by taking a radio and portable antennae out into their neighborhood and using the radio to triangulate the exact location of the grow

Feb 4, 2015

With the proliferation of indoor marijuana grows, the indoor “horticulture” industry has been booming. Chinese manufacturers are turning out indoor grow equipment at a rapid pace with little to no regulatory oversight or compliance. Because of this, there has been a significant amount of radio frequency interference (RFI).

Before we get into how to detect a marijuana grow with your car radio, you have to understand some simple mechanics of how a grow operates. To grow marijuana indoors, you need supplemental lighting necessary for photosynthesis. These lights may be fluorescent, LED, and for larger operations, high pressure sodium (HPS) or metal halide (MH).

The HPS and MH lamps may be 1000W per lamp and require a ballast for proper operation. These ballasts were originally magnetic but in the past few years have become electronic. These devices are subject to FCC part 18 rules but there appears to be a total disregard for the FCC rules. Many (if not most) electronic ballasts are manufactured in China and may have little ‘FCC’ stickers on them but there is no evidence of any testing for compliance having been done. Because of this, a large amount of RFI is interfering with nearby electronics. As an example, one grow next to a CalFire station — California’s state fire agency — caused a continuous hum over the station’s callbox speaker and interfered with them receiving radio broadcasts over their station’s PA.

Ham Radio Helpers
Reports have begun to flood into the National Association for Amateur Radio about interference with their ham radios from their neighbor’s marijuana grows. The most complaints come from California and Colorado, for obvious reasons. Many ham radio operators began to see a correlation with marijuana grows and this RFI.

One amateur radio operator located five marijuana grows near his house due to RFI alone! Many ham operators can locate a grow simply by taking a radio and portable antennae out into their neighborhood and using the radio to triangulate the exact location of the grow.

One industrious ham operator went to his local grow shop and borrowed several lights and ballasts to test for RFI. He found that one light and ballast set up would cause interference up to 700 meters. From our experience, we know that most indoor grows have more than one light and ballast, which would amplify the RFI.

Pioneering Field Use
One narcotics officer from the San Francisco Bay Area turns his car radio to 560 AM when he checks out potential indoor grows. He’s checked out seven indoor marijuana grows since learning about the RFI issue. All seven times, the car’s radio showed significant interference from the ballasts inside of the grow location.

One ham radio operator described the interference this way: “It can be pops, it can be a buzzing sound, whistles — just all kinds of different noises that we'll hear.”

Tom Thompson, a ham radio operator, told a Colorado newspaper, “If I can track this down, anybody can track this down. If I listen long enough, I can tell when they turn the lights off... You can tell exactly when the harvest is.”

This method of finding marijuana grows isn’t fool proof, but it can be another useful tool in your toolbox.

Click to expand...

Andyo said:

Usa British Canadian German goverments ect sell weapons of death !
All is relevent !

Click to expand...

Yes ! But all are properly tested, registered and labelled weapons of death

They all have proper RF shielding too I would imagine

ditch the parking lot lights already.

LED does not need a stinky ballast. DYI, COBs, heatsinks and drivers is all you need.

Less heat, less watts, less problems, more light.