As someone who has designed and built switching power supplies, the article brought back funny memories.
It's so easy to make an SPS that is essentially a disaster for all RF spectrum around it. In fact, some of my early SPSs, I could "detect" they were on because the noise coming out of a radio receiver nearby would change when I turned the supply on.
OTOH, it's pretty easy to take measures that ensure the RF is kept under control. Shielding is important, but first make sure your circuit doesn't make excessive amounts of RF to begin with.
> As someone who has designed and built switching power supplies, the article brought back funny memories.
Myself also. I designed switching power supplies for the Space Shuttle, some of which were meant to power fluorescent lights. NASA wanted dimmable fluorescent lights in the crew quarters, but they also wanted no EMI. Well, they got both -- I figured out a way to dim the fluorescents using a magnetic amplifier instead of the semiconductor switching methods that were common at the time, and (as I intended) the magnetic amplifier created no interference at all.
I have this feeling that in this case the neon tube or wiring on the sign is 'bad' and also unfortunately working unusually well as an antenna. Considering that unit might put out 30 Watts, if a fraction of that ends up at RF it'll cause problems for radio's around it. It'd be interesting to probe that sign with a high voltage oscilloscope probe.
TL;DR: Wireless power switch, if you put two of the wireless switches next to each other - they both stop working because they interfere with each other.
Sold every day at Bunnings (australian home hardware/etc store) by a major brand (Arlec)
It's so easy to make an SPS that is essentially a disaster for all RF spectrum around it. In fact, some of my early SPSs, I could "detect" they were on because the noise coming out of a radio receiver nearby would change when I turned the supply on.
OTOH, it's pretty easy to take measures that ensure the RF is kept under control. Shielding is important, but first make sure your circuit doesn't make excessive amounts of RF to begin with.