Plasma TV & RFI, how to shut them up?

[mitaux8030]

Hi all,
When I was choosing a new & moderately large screen TV, I had a list of criteria to fulfil... things like viewing angle, brightness & contrast ratio, ease of use, picture quality etc.
Within my price range, I ended up choosing a 42 inch plasma from Panasonic.

The only thing that I didn't consider - and probably 99.5% of people would never think or even need to consider - is RF interference.

I love to listen to radio... shortwave, scanning etc. You name it, I'm in to it. And 'noisy' RFI plasma TVs are terrible for radio reception, causing strong buzzing sounds to be received.

To try and isolate the problem, I've removed all cables into and out of the plasma, except the power cord, and turned the plasma on... the noise is just as bad as when all cables (eg antenna, video, HDMI etc) are plugged in. So I'm satisfied that the cables are not acting as an 'antenna' per se for this noise. The power cord got treated to some heavy duty ferrite clamp on RFI supressors, which hasn't helped either... so I assume the plasma TV chassis itself radiates the noise that kills my radio reception.

What could be done about it... short of going to a LCD TV (hate the picture of sub $5k LCDs, and I don't have that much money to spend!) or LED TV (again, not that loaded). Anyone got some practical advice?

[mickstv]

Hi mitaux8030, I have noticed Panasonic Plasmas seem to produce more noise than some other manufactures I've got nothing against Panasonic they show a damn good picture. The 50 inch LG I've got doesn't seem to cause any buzzing sounds but It does create some extra noise over the entire shortware band. Not much you can do about it.




Mickstv

[badboyheathy]

ide say its the switch mode power supply, i have a elcheapo satellite reciever with switchmode, and even without the receiver pluged in,just power supply, it blocks out SW,AM,and the low range of FM with a buzzing and squeeking sound,

if its the same thing,guess nothing can be done, everything has switchmode these days..

[porkop]

I suffered real bad from HF interference so I built my garage as a faraday shield, earthed the walls, roof, concrete reinforcement, tied it all together, ran the coaxes underground into the shack and kept the power earth and shack grounding system separate, only tied together by the resistance of the ground and it seamed to solve my problem and has renewed my interest in HF.

I used to have s9+20 noise on most bands, now worst is 160m with about s8-9.

Good luck

[autotuner]

I gave up on trying to suppress my 2 plasmas.
I now power them off phsyically , not just standby, when I want to play HF.

My house alarm seems to generate a good deal of cr*p on 6m as well.

[osci]

Just out of interest, is the noise produced while tv is in both standby & on modes of just while set is on?

[mitaux8030]

Drat, not looking good for keeping the plasma quiet then.

My Panasonic is quiet as a mouse when turned off in standby mode, its only when on/operating that it makes such a racket. The buzzing seems to change in sympathy with the displayed picture, though even a steady black screen will cause a nasty buzz.

[autotuner]

Mine are only when they are on and displaying..but in my case when someone else in the household picks up the remote and it doesn't work, then they know I am on the radio..
And heaven help he/she who powers on the set and causes my signal to disappear..

[TVguy]

G'day mitaux8030,
Unfortunately all PDPs generate huge RFI during the discharge and sustain phase (all the time). Nothing you can do about it.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTXlLxV_Xwk&feature=related]YouTube - Plasma TV QRM on HF radio[/ame]

[vk3rx]

G'day Mitaux

Sorry to say also - been there done that with an NEC 42".

Nothing getting into cables including mains lead. I believe the crud is being radiated by the panel itself, and the plastic back & sides offer no shielding. Same on standby.

Only thing I have found is my IC-7700 has better noise suppression capabilities that an IC-775, but only a slight improvement in the situation.

And don't get me started on the mess caused by our split system aircon .....

[mtv]

Yep.... it's a massive nuisance.

We can control our own screens to a large degree, but as those, especially in higher-density areas will agree, even neighbours' screens interfere.

[Uncle Fester]

Hi all,

I love to listen to radio... shortwave, scanning etc. You name it, I'm in to it. And 'noisy' RFI plasma TVs are terrible for radio reception, causing strong buzzing sounds to be received.


What could be done about it... short of going to a LCD TV (hate the picture of sub $5k LCDs, and I don't have that much money to spend!) or LED TV (again, not that loaded). Anyone got some practical advice?

- Amazing results can be achieved by building a tunable loop antenna for AM reception.

- For me there is nothing more relaxing than getting out in the fresh air in the evening with my SWLs and some cools beers, away from all the house RFI, wife, kids, etc, weather permitted.

[bulbous]

I got the shits with all the noise and digital crap on all bands to 432...so I moved to a hilltop with nearest neighbour 10km away....it's very quiet here !