A fancy "aviation" TSOd power unit is not likely to be any better. Any switch mode power supply will radiate like hell and some work should be expected to sort it out.
Newer Citations also have inverters fitted as standard, ours are used to charge laptops on a regular basis and never give any problems with other systems
That's probably because these are well sorted and somebody has checked them out in that specific airframe.
I've designed loads of power supplies and spent many days in EMC testing labs getting them through the CA and various other emissions tests. It really is quite difficult, and usually there is a spike of emission at some frequency and its harmonics. It's a matter of where this ends up.
VHF/UHF navigation systems (VOR/LOC/GS) are hard to interfere with because the signals are quite powerful. VHF radio is much easier to interfere with because the signal is very low power and it doesn't need much to break through the squelch level. GPS is easy to interfere with (the lowest power of all) but the frequency is high so there is less chance of getting harmonics that high up.
The standard of engineering on jets is also a lot better than on pistons.
VHF/UHF navigation system signals are quite powerful
I don't buy that.
Actually I once recorded signal strength of the GS throughout an approach, and sure, close to the runway signals are strong, but at the intercept roughly 10NM out, the GS signal was just a few dB above the KN75 sensitivity limit.
Granted, the KN75 isn't the most sensitive receiver.
Speaking of power sources for things like laptops, you may not even need an inverter. A few years ago I accidentally discovered that a power brick on my Toshiba laptop, rated for 100-240 V 50-60 Hz, would also work when powered with 28 V DC.
Or buy the right computer :) My current Samsung XE700 directly charges from the 12V board power. Interestingly, though, when charging, the HSI indicates one dot to the left when coupled to the GPS.
the HSI indicates one dot to the left when coupled to the GPS.
That is quite a subtle case of interference because it must be getting in on the lateral deviation signal from the GPS.
That is quite a subtle case of interference because it must be getting in on the lateral deviation signal from the GPS.
Yes, obviously. That output has a history of problems, there's an SB tuning it (which I should have applied).
I don't have any schematics, but I suspect it's not properly decoupled internally.
But given that this device is approaching end of life, and I'm navigating using the track error display on the device anyway, I don't want to investigate this.
