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Re: VHO Lights & TV

>  Does anyone have any suggestions how to rid the snow from my tv?  Right 
now 
>  only alternative is to shut the lites off while watching those channels.
> 
Your VHO ballast is acting like a little radio transmitter.  This may or may 
not be simple to cure.  You must attack the problem at the source, i.e., at 
the ballast.  The best approach would be to replace the 2-wire cord with a 
3-wire grounded cord, and attach the green wire to the metal case of the 
ballast.  Filtration involves picking up a pair of 0.001 to 0.005 mfd, 600v 
Disc Ceramic Capacitors (once commonly available, but not so much these days 
of low voltage circuitry), and wiring one from each side of the 115 VAC 
terminals to ground, inside the case.  An alternate (and less effective) 
approach would be to pick up a couple of ferrite loops (Radio Shack probably 
carries them), and wrapping 3 to 5 turns of the 115 VAC lead through and 
through these loops.  They also sell RF filtered outlet strips for computer 
applications, but the last time I was at Office Max looking for one, they 
didn't have any.  You might be able to order one.  Look specifically for the 
words "RF Filtered."  Moving the TV and ballast to different rooms can help.  
You might also try a "High Pass Filter" in line with the antenna leads going 
into the TV.  Again, Radio Shack should sell these, but with the advent of 
cable TV, there is less and less demand for them.  There are more aggressive 
ways to eliminate this interference, but without having a background in 
electronics, you probably would not want to attempt them.  If all of these 
methods fail, you might want to contact the ballast manufacturer and see if 
they sell retrofit kits to modify the ballast to eliminate RF (Radio 
Frequency) emissions, or if they offer to do this service for you by 
returning the ballast to them.  Sometimes manufacturers are aware of their 
defective design (and it IS a defect in the design of the ballast!), but 
don't put the fix in every unit made because it would drive up their cost of 
manufacture, and they figure few people would even know what's causing the 
interference, or may not even encounter the problem.  Hence, they will supply 
you with the parts to effect the fix, or fix it for you, but only if you 
complain.