I often hear debate about solar power. Its always from some unenlightened idiot claiming its the death of ham radio and that no one should get it, because his guy on fox news says coal is the way to go. While there are some installs out there that are disasters, it does not have to be that way. Now this picture was taken early in the morning and we were not making much power, but even at half and full power the spec-an reads the same. The actual RF the inverter puts out is lower than -110dB which is the noise floor of my spec-an.
Now on 40m I cant hear shit all from the inverter on the IC-7410 which can hear a signal down to something like -130dB, the actual radiated RF from the inverter in the form of switching noise is rather low indeed. Even using a noise collector like the 1/4 wave vertical antenna I use on 40m, if there is no storm static I can turn on the pre-amps to help with chasing those weak parks signals.
My whole house is energy efficient, LED lighting, inverter fridge, freezer, washing machine, 3 air cons and not a single thing adds significantly to the background noise here. I will admit, I am in the middle of bum fuck nowhere and I do not have to worry about what crap electrics my neighbors use, but it does go to show that done right, things do not have to make noise.
When your power bill is essentially $0 each month and a solar system costs $5,000 to install, you really have to be bonkers not to have it.
Peace out
