To be honest, no. We have slapped ferrite cores on practically everything, and the magic CE marking, which frankly means nothing at all, is usually just a label, applied at will by the manufacturers.
The HF bands are so full of crud nowadays that many people with less than wonderful antennas really struggle. The other day I was programming some radios with low band VHF channels - the 70MHz amateur allocation, plus for one customer, a frequency in the 80MHz band used here for race/rally communications. I programmed the radio and to check it, I dialled it up on my scanner in the office which usually monitors VHF marine band. Full scale on the meter, not just on the rally channel, but across the entire band. I’d never noticed. I stuck an extendable whip into the analyser and what a mess the 70 and 80MHz band is. I’ve got one of those RF explorers, so I stuck in the rally frequency centre band and wandered around. The wall-wart power supplies are the main culprit but my internet hub is crazily noisy, as are two computers out of the 7 in the office. The best ones are in metal 19" rack cases, and the worst is a plastic case Dell. I have a Ring alarm, and that’s definitely a source of noise, but not too bad. Two DECT wireless phones are also quite noisy. All these items have the CE marking on them. The scanner is connected to an outside marine band antenna, and with that connected to the analyser, the band starts to get noisy around 87MHz and then as the frequency drops noise rises worryingly. I’ve not noticed this before. I pulled out my marine Icom HF rig - like the ham ones but receive and transmit everywhere, and connected to the only antenna available that has any HF performance, 2182KHz is S9 noise, and this repeated through the HF bands.
What a mess! I’m glad I don’t use the HF bands - finding’s anything louder than the noise is very hard. It does seem our two countries have let this creep up, and are now powerless to do anything.
I’m sorry to hear that the UK “noise” problem is apparently as bad as it is in the U.S.
These cheap wall warts (switching power supplies) are, as you say, responsible for much, but certainly not all of our noise problems.
Our noise problem began decades ago when the country began to convert incandescent street lights to mercury vapor, then sodium vapor and now just starting to install LED lights.
Those millions of “noisy” street lights were, I believe, the beginning of the problem. Now, virtually every new “invention”, only adds to the problem.
Our FCC is now wringing it’s “collective hands” over the dilemma they created due to their failure to regulate the industry.
If it’s used and applied right, mixing multiple D&A transmission in a multiplex is very effective and not particularly intrusive - I mean it’s been done successfully on many levels in broadcasting and telecoms, but we’re talking kit where even the cheapest module has a three-figure cost and a certification test procedure that makes meeting certification look like achieving a moon landing.
About a dimension or two from the real nasty stuff we just end up accepting because nobody gives a ■■■■ enough to say ‘enough is enough’’ and kick the peddlers and importers of phony so-called EMC compliant gear where it really hurts.
As for SM PSUs, and the simple reality that even the best examples out there are only suppressed up to a point way sure of where the line should sit, and the mad souls who actually drive HF transceivers and linear with the ■■■■ spawn supplies - I guess it shows they are as deaf as they disregard other radio users.
It’s bad enough anywhere, but on wavelength where those SIG’s really migrate over distance - that’s radio ■■■■.
Back in the day, we’d have spent daft money building a heavy duty PSU and wouldn’t dream of a half-assed SM basis for HF equipment power. How things have changed…
