Dab Radio & Solar Panels.

[Frohike 10]

Hope I'm in the right section for this! Now, I don't know if anyone else has come across this, I have 3 radios in my house, 1 in living room, kitchen & dining room. All in good order. My next door neighbour has had solar panels installed on his roof. Now, I cannot get a digital radio signal on any of my radios. Has anyone heard of this happening before? Any advice would be welcome. Many thanks.

[Ghozer 112]

Have you tried re-tuning them?

If that fails, then yes, it could be that the panels are blocking some of the signal, but you would need to eliminate everything else first (such as, moving a radio to a new position, re-tuning, trying the radio(s) outside (on the garden etc)

It will also partly depend on where the panels are in relation to you / the radios...

[andysm 17]

Solar panels generate DC and a circuit called an inverter is used to convert the DC into AC. These inverters can create a lot of interference. There isn't much you can do about this, the neighbours could take steps to improve the shielding around the inverter but they would have to hire someone to do that and it isn't always effective. If repositioning the radios isn't effective I'm not sure what the next step would be.

[Frohike 10]

Thanks guys for the advice & info, much appreciated. Have tried doing a retune/scan & nothing. If I take one outside it works fine. Spoke with my neighbour, who is upset about it. He has contacted the panel company, who basically don't want to know!

Thanks anyway guys.

[Janus 28]

Apparently the converters can be shielded. It may be worth digging around for some topic specific info.

 

Online the issue of interference  is well documented by the radio hams.

[geared 306]

The radio works outside but does not work inside?  Surely the panels would interfere with reception in both locations?

[Janus 28]

I would guess the radio is picking up a stronger signal outdoors as the signal is not going through walls or the roof material.  There may be minimal distortion of the signal outdoors.

[Guest]

I thought electrical equipment had to meet certain guidelines these days for creating interference?