Fr24 Power supply HF Interference

[Jarod]

This is 2833 kHz with the receiver turned off/adapter removed from the socket:


This is 2833 kHz with the receiver turned on:


I sure hope it's the adapter. If it's not, does any one have any advice?

Later today i will go to a shop to get a new adapter.
So my receiver will be offline.
I will post an update.


P.S. the adapter is made in China.

[Jarod]

Update: Good news!

A few months ago, when i just got my FR24 receiver, the power supply of my internet modem broke, so the receiver was offline.
I got a new variable Volt/Polarity power supply and the modem worked again.
Now... i got to use this adapter to test the FR24 receiver and as expected, it's the FR24 power supply that is causing the massive QRM.

I woke up at 02:00 AM for some 0-30 MHz radio-ing. And i discovered the QRM was still there.
Usually when i wake up at night, all QRM is gone. During the day it's much worse due to TVs and other devices people in my apartment use.
But this night was the first time i still had the QRM around 2-3 MHz.
I already tried unplugging all my power before, even the main switch, but then the QRM was still there (Even before the FR24 receiver, so another cause).
That QRM disappeared a few months later and this new QRM slowly crawled it's way into my reception.
There have been days, when i got no QRM at all, even with the FR24 receiver. So the power supply was slowly breaking and tonight i finally "caught it in the act".

So long story short: The cause is a faulty power supply.

Message to mod: Please change topic to: Flightradar24 power supply is causing massive QRM on HF
(Or: My/Some Flightradar24 power supply is causing massive QRM on HF)

[Oblivian]

I believe that nzradar found a similar issue with his HF receptions.

[Jarod]

New power supply connect, problem solved!

[nzradar]

Hi Jarod,

I did indeed find that not only was the power supply causing a lot of interference but each element of the FR24 receiver kit caused the same problem. I started eliminating the interference by first replacing the 'low loss' coax that FR supplied with LMR400 albeit half the length (5m). FR24 sent me a new power supply but with a UK plug instead of AU/NZ so I had to add an adapter. The problem there was that the multiboard then needed tot be replaced to accommodate the wider footprint of the adapter so I rummaged around and found an older style board that suited the adapter. In doing that exercise I noted that the power board that I had been using also introduced some QRM. And finally of course the radarcape/beaglebone was also introducing it's own level of noise.

Things got to the point where my HF listening was being impacted by the FR24 receiver kit so unfortunately I've had to return it and lose my "F" status. Replacing the FR24 receiver is the same antenna, 5m of LMR400 cable an RTL Dongle stripped out of its case and an SMA terminated piece of coax wired directly into the antenna solder joints, a Raspberry Pi with dump1090 and FR24 feed software and a Nokia 5v cell phone charger. This set up creates no QRM that I can see on my networked Afedri HF receiver and HDSDR software.

Happy days.

[Jarod]

nzradar,

Hmm weird. Sorry to hear that.
I just tried to be sure, but the FR24 receiver itself does not cause any additional noise.
That said, i have a general 10dB higher noise floor than yesterday, also when turning off the FR24 receiver.
I live in a very high apartment building with the antennas on the roof, it's weekend now so a lot of people have devices enabled.
I can see the same QRM i had with the FR24 power supply, but on a much lower level, meaning they come from other apartments.

I also found out the power supply of my ALA 1530AL-1 loop antenna itself is causing QRM:


Luckily those were narrow QRM signals and if i needed to check a frequency i just unplug/replug the power supply and i'd get a 10+ minute free of QRM, because that QRM signal is moving (down in frequency).
I now have connected a 5v power supply (the original ALA power supply is 12v), but it seems to work.

I also moved the loop at bit more to the west yesterday, i will turn it back to the south later when the sun is up.
Edit: direction changed nothing, it's very wet condensed on the roof, maybe it's that.
The higher noise floor could also come from nature, but with the above screenshot, i got something to compare to in the future.
Edit: I indeed suspect nature today, all bands are acting different.

And to you, well sad you had to let the receiver go. Maybe my devices also create a little noise, but they could be lost in the overall noise.

Edit:
More info:
But the mini PC gives more QRM "waves" when tuning up in frequency, so lets say each 1 MHz a QRM/noise wave is visible.

I am now trying to restore my mini laptop, where i can play a bit more with grounding.

A lot is learned now. But damn what a QRM everywhere...


Edit2: My mini laptop is restored, the bloody memory module was loose.
I am now also powernet grounding QRM free, unrelated to FR24, but good info to know.

[Mike]

FR24 is using different power supplies for different parts of the world, depending on the power and plug. There has been a problem with one batch of power supplies, that was used and shipped many months ago, which resulted in different strange receiver behavior. The power supply that has been used after that is not known to create any problems.

For some unknown reason nzradar and one more feeder has been reporting some interference with new power supply, something that we have not been able to reproduce again. The FR24 receiver has passed CE and even stronger FCC tests and has proven to comply with all EMI regulations. If there are feeders with any problems they should always contact support so we can try to find a solution.

[Jarod]

I guess i didn't press submit... LOL.
Well... power supplies breaking is sadly normal these days.
They pass inspection and a year later they become useless.

Even... i found out, my ALA 1530AL-1 active loop antenna's power supply is faulty!
See this Narrow but annoying QRM signal, which of these were more than 1 on random frequencies, 3-30 MHz:


So you see, even the thing that should prevent QRM is causing it.
There is no one to blame here, but demand and supply. Cheap stuff. The best is to make your own 12v and 5v setup and connect your devices to it.
You cut off the cable and put your own connector on it to connect to your own 12v, 5v, etc, power supply.

At least i am blessed now:
- FR24 receiver power supply replaced
- ALA loop antenna power supply replaced
- Mini laptop working again (pulled out and put back the memory module, guess it was not connected properly) And this allows me to use my HF receiver without connecting to the power net grounding.
The audio goes via bluetooth and the internet via WiFi. If the audio is connected with a wire or internet via UTP, you are connected to the power net grounding and get QRM from that.

Sadly nzradar has already returned his radar, there should have been a solution for this. Even swap FR24 receiver if needed.
Maybe this can still be done...

[Birdie]

What do you expect from a cheap "Made-in-China" Power Supply made from cheap components ?

They " cut corners until there is no more corner to cut " - puns intended.

You should be happy it worked for 7 days.

[G8VXY]

I have a downer on anything electrical "made in China" the horror stories of the copy Iphone/Ipad chargers that are responsible countless deaths due to electrocution and house fires worldwide.

[Sam26K]

"I have a downer on anything electrical "made in China" the horror stories of the copy Iphone/Ipad chargers that are responsible countless deaths due to electrocution and house fires worldwide."

I hope you realise you posted on a thread that is 2 years old since your post? Truth be known, Apple products are manufactured in China and they do that well . Counterfeit products are still a problem with China, but the fact is most I-phones are in fact manufactured in China under a valid license.

[Sam26K]

I will never forget when Obama asked Steve Jobs to bring the jobs and cash back from China. Steve's reply, "Absolutely not!!!" Because of the ridiculous tax laws.
Look within if you have a problem keeping revenue inside your country. Steve Jobs and most Billionaires know that. Most American politicians are naive and clueless.

Donald Trump is the only one in politics that knows that business side, but his rhetoric scares me when he talks about arming everyone with nuclear weapons and punishing women for having abortions

[G8VXY]

"I have a downer on anything electrical "made in China" the horror stories of the copy Iphone/Ipad chargers that are responsible countless deaths due to electrocution and house fires worldwide."

I hope you realise you posted on a thread that is 2 years old since your post? Truth be known, Apple products are manufactured in China and they do that well . Counterfeit products are still a problem with China, but the fact is most I-phones are in fact manufactured in China under a valid license.

True...

But I have heard how companies with manufacturing plants in China have to send mangers over to China to stop them cutting corners.

I also know there are some really good and cheap products coming out of China.

But I also know there are a lot of fake goods of poor quality coming out of China too.

Case in point on another forum relating to my profession a fellow trades person was trying to identify a distributor for a certain product, he posted photo of it an I immediately ID'ed it as a product made by another manufacturer, when he contacted that manufacturer they sent round a rep within hour to collect the faulty item he had and gave him a free replacement, seems they used a company in China to manufacture for them until "Quality Issues" caused them to cancel the contract, so the Chinese company continued manufacture the products under a new brand name and market them themselves, the big issue here is the quality issue as the Chinese would source cheaper inferior materials and fail to do quality testing.

Edit in...

Possibly this thread is getting too political and off topic, but I am just warning people of the dangers of some products coming out of China particularly power supplies bearing in mind many of use will be using them unattended 24/7.

[G8VXY]

OK back on topic.

Probably over the past week I have been doing a lot of work to improve my receiving, which is "p!$$ poor" compared to the old AirNav Radarbox which is now only about half the range it used to have

The whole idea of using the FR24 set up was to use an inexpensive Raspberry PI, out of the way using only a few watts of electricity.

OK I have moved it to the loft and shortened the feeder, and hay presto ...it got dramatically worse.
The set up in the loft was to feed the power from a 12v DC source and convert down to 5v volts, the 12v source is a SMPSU (Switch Mode Power Supply Unit) 230v AC to 12vDC, this I built a few years ago to do away with banks of wall warts that power all my CCTV cameras, DVR, Router, Ethernet Switches, Backup drive, etc, the 12 to 5v switching regulator was purchased of Ebay.

This was a very poor reception, so changed the switching regulator for another (variable in and out with on board volt meter) somewhat better but still bellow par, then tried a number of wall wart power supplies, some are better than others but still my reception is down but I have come to the conclusion that the DVB dongle must be really susceptible to interference (ripple) from switching powers supplies.

Some ideas I have and hope to be trying out over the next few weeks:

• Smoothing out the the 12V power source
• Build a 12v to 5v liner voltage regulator based on the 78S05 voltage regulator with a big heatsink.
• Dongle power source, rather than using a USB hub, my idea is to modify a cable USB A Plug to USB A receptacle, cut the Pos and common the 0v from the RPI and feed the dongle from a direct 5v DC source probably incorporating a filter.

My conclusion is that power supplies are a big factor in the efficiency of a FR24 set up.

[Dushan]

My power supply died and now the FR24 supplied receiver won't connect to my home internet. I used a different power supply and the unit is on, the power, receiver , and GPS lights are on but the Ethernet cable lights are not on and I cannot connect to the unit with my browser.

Everything else works fine and nothing has changed. Plugging the Ethernet cable into the laptop computer works fine, so again it is not the cable or the cable modem.