What is RFI?
Have you heard someone growing marijuana say they’ve gotten a visit from the police and it was oddly just before harvest? If you’re growing marijuana and using HPS (High Pressure Sodium) lamps and ballasts, you may be playing your local police department’s favorite tune. A HPS fixture, more to the point, the ballast, could be leading law enforcement right to your door. These ballasts are emanating RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) and this RFI can be detected with ham radios. Police are reportedly utilizing ham radios to listen for electromagnetic interference (EMI) and pinpoint the exact location of a grow operation as easily as turning their radios on to an AM station.
Could this ballast get YOUR door kicked in?
For example, in California, a grow operation located next to a California State Fire Agency caused a continuous hum over the station’s call-box speaker and interfered with them receiving radio broadcasts over their station’s PA. The interference can sounds like pops, whistles or buzzing sounds. 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.”
One amateur ham radio operator tested several HPS lights with ballasts to test for RFI. He found that one light and ballast would cause interference up to 700 meters. Each HPS light and ballast set would increase the amplification of the RFI.
How Can I Prevent This?
You may ask yourself, “How can I eliminate the possibility of my local law enforcement locating me and my grow operation?” You can solve this concern by switching away from a HPS lamp/ballast set to a more efficient method of light; such as LED (Light Emitting Diode). In addition to being vastly more energy saving, LED lighting fixtures contain no RFI to alert authorities to where you grow. By choosing the right LED, like Lush Lighting LED fixtures, you can also increase the value of your crop and fuel photosynthesis better than ever before.
Bless You for printing this information. What you did not mention was that any device associated with grow lights that has a VALID (not counterfeit) placard stating FCC APPROVED DEVICE should not cause RFI interference. All devices must have an FCC placard or the seller is liable. Right now, our national amateur radio organization is actively pursuing sellers rather than users.
There is a moral side to this. Users want others to understand their right to grow without interference from others. Amateur radio operators also have a right to conduct local and global communications without interference from grow lights. And our radio communications often are high helpful in emergency situations. (Most recently, our radios were used to reach rural areas affected by Ecuador earthquake.) The difference is our use is both licensed and protected by the Federal Communications Commission.
http://www.arrl.org/grow-light-rfi
Thank you very much, Rona, for your added information!
Renae Johnson
Wow so all you out there with illeagal grows now have yet another way to get busted, you would thing with FLIR on forward looking infrared , plus thermal image . Now they are going old school, it works my dad has been a ham for 50 years and this method works.
I also found on these hobbist kits with the switchable ballast 250watt to 400 hps and a t-5 veg light , the emf fields from both of these interfere with wifi signal as well, so if your neighbors are complaining about their wifi , now you know why so before you get cable people ect might want to get better shielding, it also helps to use the shortest lines possible from outlet to ballast and ballast to lamp, the longer the cord the bigger the emf field you are creating and if your using extention cords just hang a sign letting everyone know whats not going on in your house.
Just figured id add that.
DJR
Very helpful thanks. God bless