Navigation Lights

[pbryant]

Captain pbryant.
I've advanced ignorance of anything electric beyond toggle switches.

Want nothing but led lighting on my Ariel. Don't believe there is an alternative.
Led seems to be where we are headed. Soon other forms of making light by wire will be obsolete.

Maybe the VHF has to change? Not until the Federation of Planets approves subspace communications or we learn how to modulate gravity waves. By then, our boats will be powered with dilithium crystals.

Does it look like this is happening? Sure. In geological terms, another thousand years is only an eye blink away.
What other choices for communication is happening? None that I can foresee. You can always try Morse Code by signal light...

Is it the wiring that causes the problem or only the diodes? Neither, though the wiring can act as an antenna, making the problem worse. The problem is caused by the switching regulators installed in the LED lamp housing - inside the lamp base. Unless federal regulators force them to filter the supplies (not done here in the US), the switching supplies act like spark-gap transmitters -- which were outlawed nearly 100 years ago because they too wiped out the entire RF spectrum. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter.
Is there a way of shielding or containing the led switching chips from broadcasting RFI? Filtering: yes. Shielding is less effective. You can wrap the lamp in aluminum foil - but until someone invents transparent aluminum, it defeats the purpose.
Lead shielding. Potting. Isolating ideas. See above.
Source for CE certified products and lighting? Are these really protected with a 3cent capacitor? Source: Anything marketed in the EU with a "CE" emblem. ]The European Community has set RFI standards for LEDs. The US effectively has not. There are several cheap ways to greatly diminish the RFI - but only in manufacture - not retrofits, including adding a filter capacitor to the switching supply. But the manufactures don't bother where it isn't required -- the US. I suppose they think greed is good.

My house is 100% led - so there are dozens of transformers everywhere - phones and media reception seems unaffected. But often have to step outside to answer cellphone. House has a metal roof. Household LEDs don't usually have the same noisy DC-to-DC switching supplies built into the lamps. But you might try an experiment: Turn all the LEDs off and see if your cell phone suddenly works.

Is there an RFI clean way to install marine wire and toys? Until the US requires certification, all you can do is in sutu testing: install the light, test it, if it wipes out your radios replace it with something else. Retest. Or look for the European "CE" certification. I've had to return half the LEDs I've tested. Some of the cheapest ones are the quietest. If you place an LED near your VHF antenna (like a tricolor at the masthead), it needs to be VERY quiet. There is no workaround because of its proximity to the antenna.

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