1. posterid:1899609
  2. Amel 54 masthead tricolour light

Re: Amel 54 masthead tricolour light

Matt Salatino
 

Several years ago, on our previous boat, we installed an OGM LED combo anchor/tricolor mast head light. OGM was supplying to the military, who subsequently put out a warning about LED navigation lights creating radio interference.
Whenever the anchor light came on (photocell controlled), we had to squelch the VHF radio, quite a bit. The LEDs made quite the racket on the VHF, significantly reducing its range. 
We had this problem until we replaced it with  Signalmate unit. It was radio silent. 

~~~⛵️~~~Matt Salatino A50#27, Speed of Life

On Feb 8, 2021, at 10:20 PM, Mark Erdos <mcerdos@...> wrote:

If there is any noticeable RFI caused by an LED, a snap on ferrite at each end of the power source should do the trick. If possible buy only LED’s with a FCC Part 18 compliance rating. It is worth noting a few year ago, ARRL published a white paper on RFI and bulbs. It was found “bulbs have generally not proven to be a significant source of RFI”

 

 

With best regards,

 

Mark

 

Skipper

Sailing Vessel - Cream Puff - SM2K - #275

Currently cruising - Tahiti, French Polynesia

www.creampuff.us

 

From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io [mailto:main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io] On Behalf Of CW Bill Rouse
Sent: Monday, February 8, 2021 4:51 PM
To: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io Notification
Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] Amel 54 masthead tricolour light

 

This is what I installed in Aqua Signal 40. It is from Dr LED and I believe that it overcomes most if not all of the issues that Bill K described.

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CW Bill Rouse Amel Owners Yacht School

Address: 720 Winnie, Galveston Island, Texas 77550 

 

View My Training Calendar

 

 

On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 6:47 PM Karen Smith via groups.io <karenharmonie=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

I know people do it all the time, but it is generally a bad idea to install LEDs into red and green navigation light fixtures designed for incandescent bulbs, like the Aqua Signal Series 40.

LEDs retrofitted into these fixtures typically do not give the designed brightness with the colored lenses.  "White" LEDs are not truly broad spectrum white light, but actually produce a series of narrow cut frequencies that, when averaged together by our eyes, appear to be white.  The problem is that these bands do not necessarily line up well with the colored lenses that are used to filter the light from an incandescent bulb, so less light, sometimes a LOT less, gets out of the lens than would be true with an incandescent bulb of the same nominal brightness.

You will rarely get the hoped for designed life out of an LED retrofitted into a fixture that is not hermetically sealed.  Lastly, there is the issue of VHF radio interference that is frequently poorly controlled with retrofit bulbs.

If you want to go to LED bulbs, and that is certainly a very good idea for a lot of reasons, it is far better to switch to a fixture designed for them.

Bill Kinney
SM160, Harmonie
Charleston, SC, USA

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