I got a knock on the door last week. It was a close call. I’ll tell the story in the video below.
If you’re a grower, and you have digital ballasts, you need to check them to see if they emit RF interference. If they do, ANYONE with an AM radio, could drive by your house and detect the interference. The interference COULD be from another device, but you’re giving people a REASON to come knock on your door.
If you find you’re broadcasting RFI, you should consider switching to magnetic ballasts, which don’t put off RFI. Some of the newer digital ballasts are FCC compliant, but still give off a small amount of RFI.
Don’t give people a reason to knock on your door, especially if you are in a non 420 friendly state. Take care of your RF interference problem; don’t make the same mistake I did.
This subject kind of gets me off into another subject, that is worth talking about. I continue to see stoners driving around, smoking pot. They think it’s “cool” I guess? I mean, why else would they smoke while they drive? Are you so addicted to pot that you can’t wait until you get to your destination???
Don’t give the police a reason to pull you over, especially when you have weed in the car. Are you looking to take a “vacation in bracelets”? Many of you stoners, LOOK like stoners, and if you think the police don’t “profile”, you’re in denial. If I’m a police officer, and I suspect you are smoking pot, I’m much more likely to pull you over, if you LOOK like someone who smokes pot. Yeah yeah yeah, you whiners will say, “Lots of Dr’s and Lawyers, and clean cut looking people, smoke pot too.” And yes, that is true. But I promise you… if you go to the DMV and pull aside 10 dudes with long hair, beards and tattoos, and a separate group of 10 finely groomed people in button down shirts, which group do you think will have the most amount of pot smokers? Bottom line, People who LOOK like stoners, usually ARE stoners, and they are more likely to be suspected of 420 activities.
I kind of got off on a rant in this video. My point is, if you want to “look” like a stoner and draw attention to yourself, that’s fine, just don’t do anything illegal, (whether you think it should be legal or not).
Nice video, That would have made me very nervous! I’ve heard about the interference with digital ballasts before.Sounds like you played it very cool. Glad I still have the tried and true old school magnetics. Keep the videos coming capn!
Easy to overcome with some chicken wire…..make a mini faraday cage around the ballast and it will shield all RF.
I’m curious if this was just an issue of the make/model of the ballast. I’ve heard mention that ballasts like the Phantom II have held up very well for people and have listed right on there amazon product description that they are FCC certified for minimal electrical interference.
>>>FCC certified
I agree they are getting better about this. Surprisingly, the Hortilux GOLD ballast ($250+) is even worse than the old galaxy ballasts. I emailed Hortilux, but they had no comment. I do not know if the newer FCC rated ballasts, have NO RFI, or just reduced RFI, so I played it safe and went with magnetics.
thanks brother!
Damn dude, that’s a helluva nerve wracking curveball! Not sure if it’s applicable, but you might want to look @ an aluminum or other metal type- box to enclose the ballasts in. The metallic layer shields EMF from escaping or penetrating inside. A small example of the concept at work is the foil lined pouch used for shielding electronic sensors like an automatic toll-road device for vehicles. Good luck!
Good to know! Who would have thought.
Thanks brother. Great info
Listen up children, and listen good.
All your digital ballasts put out tremendous amount of RFI and cam literally be heard for miles with a handheld shortwave radio
The best thing that can happen to you is when an Amateur Radio operator ( a HAM) finds you, knocks on your door and tells you about it.
When that happens – and it will- be very polite, do not lie, and straight admit you have light ballasts, you can tell him you’re running a photo or video studio and are using the lights for that (yeah right throuought the night… ) ok tell em you’re making porn movies but do not deny using light ballasts and simply ask for help
Amateur radio operators will always help you solve the RFI completely and for good because we like the problem to go away and don’t give a shit about your grow operation.
Remember you stand out like a sore thumb for miles and only a Ham operator can make you stealth so keep that in mind
We will find every last one of you easily and your only bet is to cooperate
for proper installations start with really really good grounding
one or two 8 foot grounding rods with heavy gage copper multistrand wires as short as possible close to your main electrical point where your ballasts are plugged in
no multiple extension cords plugged into each other
every cable into and out of a ballast module must have several – as many as possible either snap on choke ferrites or ferrite rods or ferrite donuts with maximum number of turns of the cale
use quiality emi/rfi line filters for evey ballast
all ballasts grounded to one point all wires short as possible
in some cases you might have to install braided shields over some wires running to the lights from the ballasts
in some cases you’ll need to install 0.01 micro farad bypass capacitors in few places
your local ham radio operator will help you if you help them
don’t be dumb, ask for proof they’re a ham and don’t lie