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GFCI plug damaged from radio.


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2 minutes ago, WRUS537 said:

I was checking a couple of MURS radios today and was transmitting in my kitchen, the wall GFCI Plug started to buss when I transmitted and no longer works.

Anyone ever have that happen to them?

I’ve heard of it happening with ham radios but usually higher power than MURS. 
You might check to see if your GFI is truly grounded. Sometimes GFIs are installed in lieu of a ground wire in older homes. 

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My 5 watt HT transmitting on 467MHz will turn on my wife's headlamp she uses to walk the dog at night.  It has turned on my stove, thankfully it is a 2 step process to activate any burner.  My 25 watt mobile radio on 467MHz will activate my neighbors motion detector light.  In my shop, again at 467MHz it will activate my Fein Dust Extractor which has a tool activated port.  None of this happens on 462MHz.

My buddy has a Kenwood HT and when he's transmitting near his garage flat screen it freezes the picture.  When he unkeys it resumes.

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My two Motorola XTL5000 Dashmount radios I use for my base units would pop the GFI circuit in my Shop/Garage. The electrical power part of the outlet is on a dedicated 20-Amp circuit and that GFI only affected two outlets on that grounding circuit. The other GFI was not affected. My repeater station did not affect the GFI circuit. My repeater antenna is obviously outside above the roof and my radio base station antennae are above in the attic.

I had the GFI circuit outlet controlling that grounding system taken out and replaced with a non-GFI outlet.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/28/2024 at 12:51 PM, WRUS537 said:

I was checking a couple of MURS radios today and was transmitting in my kitchen, the wall GFCI Plug started to buss when I transmitted and no longer works.

Anyone ever have that happen to them?

Yes.  It's a known fault with certain AFCI/GFCI breakers, but this is the first time I've heard of it impacting a receptacle.  I want to say it was Leviton, but don't quote me.  

They were surprisingly cool about it, however -- any RF damage or even RF sensitive breaker will be replaced no questions asked forever, after an investigation carried out in conjunction with the ARRL.

Before this, one ham in a car could cut power to entire housing developments at a time built with the effected breakers!

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When PG&E first started putting in “smart meters” they had a frequency that was tripping early GFCI breakers (Zinsco to be exact). Some homes had to be fitted with newer GFCI outlets to replace these breakers. My understanding is they later changed their operating frequency. There were RF issues with early arc fault breakers as well which the breaker manufacturers addressed in second generation arc fault breakers. 
While some GFCI outlets have been installed in non grounded homes it is not and does not provide grounding but rather for ground fault protection, nor should it be used as such.  The GFCI looks for a difference of current between the hot and neutral and trips if it becomes too much (I believe around 3 milliamperes). I have seen surge suppression plug strips catch fire when they were hit with a surge but had no ground to suppress to. Energy has to go somewhere. So just a note of caution there. I would not plug a surge suppression into a non grounded circuit. 

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On 11/10/2024 at 9:45 AM, LeoG said:

The best I got is my stove turning on.

I actually burned out a lead-acid battery charger plugged into my living room outlet when I "test-fired" a two watt MURS radio a room over.  Never worked again, and since it was a seasonal product, Home Depot couldn't refund or replace it, which was awful annoying.

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