LED lights and Radio noise?

[TedK]

Rather than pay a couple of hundred bucks for TSO'd LED landing and taxi lights, I bought a couple budget PAR36 LEDs online. They seem to add a fair bit of noise to the radio. Anyone had a similar problem and found a solution?

ted

[Jim Heffelfinger]

Ted , I am guessing here a bit since I do not have specs of the specific "bulbs". All LED systems use some sort of a current controller and they vary from a resistor to switcher power supply. I am guessing you might have the latter. Since you unlikely have shielded cables to the lamps the switcher frequency (or a harmonic) is radiating either directly into the radio or via the power lines to the buss. A solution - and an easy one - is the use of ferrite beads. Here is a link http://www.mglavionics.co.za/efisacc2.html
There are direct sources for these beads as well. The clamp type beads although easy to install are not as effective as the closed.
Hope this helps
Jim