Samsung PN59D8000 Issues: interference complaint from neighbor

To begin My name is Paul and i just sighed up here to try and get some advice / help with an issue i am having with my TV.

Moving along, i bought the samsung PN59D8000 plasma at the end of september.

Now this is where it gets sort of complicated. My neighbor is one of directors of OEM or Operations of Emergency Management, they are part of the public safety and homeland security bureau. He operates and maintains a FCC regulated and licensed OEM ham radio repeater wich is used for communicating and coordinating all emergency management during inclement weather, disasters etc, they communicate regularly with coast guard, police, military etc..

On halloween my family and i were invited over for a halloween party they were having. I attended the party as i had no other plans for that night.

I ended up getting in a in depth tech conversation with my neighbor wich lead me to talk about my new tv purchase. As the conversation went on he asked me if it was a plasma in wich case i said yes.

He told my father and I that he had been experiencing severe interference lately that was completely wiping out the radio equipment for the past month, and that the OEM was looking into the matter of communication through that repeater being wiped out by some form of outside interference. They concluded that the interference was "Plasma Noise" but was unable to determine the location.

I collaborated with my neighbor to conduct a test, i would turn my tv on and see what happens and he would let me know the outcome via phone with one another. Well, it turns out it is my tv that is wiping out the repeater and communication whenever the tv is turned on.

Now heres where everything goes south. I received a phone call from my neighbor in november stating that i need to either return the tv (i couldn't it was outside of return policy) or stop using all together that it is interfering with government broadcast frequencies and that he will file a complaint and so on and so forth. I ignored his request as it was outside of anything i could possibly do.

Well, on january 3rd a Government officer came to my house to take a statement about what was going on. On january 12th i received a letter from the FCC Stating that i am interfering with government broadcasting and that i must cease use of the device as it is in breach of FCC standing or face fines. Then i receive a certified letter from Homeland security on january 13th stating if i dont cease use of the device causing the interference i can be jailed for interfering with government communications


I contacted Samsung immediately about this and forwarded the letters and information to them regarding this issue. I took 1 week just for someone to contact me back, then it took another 2 weeks for them to get a tech out here, just to have the tech say there was nothing he could do and leave.

I contacted samsung again and waited another week for someone to contact me back yet again just to have samsung state that there is nothing they can do, the tv is not defective and the television is not in breach of any FCC violation. This really pissed me off considering i have 2 certified letters stating if i turn the tv on again i can be fined or go to jail. on top of video proof of the issue thanks to my neighbor and a direct link the their website that states interfering with this specific frequency is 100% a violation.

I am still fighting samsung calling every day to try and get resolution for this issue, but samsung doesn't seem to care in anyway what soever. I filed a complaint with the BBB about this and also tried taking it up with the FCC to try and find other forms of getting resolution, but in the end it all falls on samsung.

Im not sure what else i can do, I have a 3000$ tv that i cant turn on or use in any way, that is now just sitting in my basement. The tv is 5 months old and i cant afford to sell it and loose everything i invested in it as the tv now is only 2000$ brand new and i am unemployed at the moment.

Sorry this post is so long, but i wanted to try and put every detail as possible.

another little tidbit of information is my neighbors house is about 20 feet next to mine and regardless of there tv was placed within my house it still wiped out all communications on the emergency band.

Here is also a video of the amount of interference the tv is generating the neighbor shot for me when i turned my tv on PN59D8000 Interference

I would also like to add a link the OEM website incase anyone had further questions regarding who they were OEM

Yes, i have the ferrite cores on the power cable and on all the hdmi cables. they make no difference with or without them.

I just want samsung to replace the tv, but they are saying they aren't responsible for manufacturing a television thats not fcc compliant.

I had the tv on a APC 1500 pro UPS and it didnt do anything to deaden the noise, i also ran it on a power conditioner that didn't do anything. we tried relocating the tv in different places as well and nothing seemed to change the amount of noise it produced

He has the UN65D8000, which is my tv but the led version and it doesn't cause a single bit of interference.

The only issue is the tv doesn't comply with rule part 15, the frequencies the tv are interfering with are outside the regulation of the manufacturing specs of the television. according to the fcc per part 15 of their ruling no consumer residential product should interfere within a set frequency band when in fact it is.

I contacted the fcc about this and they were able to inform me a little more, also unintentional radiants from consumer products is not aloud to exceed a 10 foot radius wich in this case its close to exceeding the 60 foot range.

There is definitely something wrong with the television cause it also causes my xbox to turn on and off randomly and it makes our cordless phones intermittently loose signal.

This is why im just trying to get samsung to replace the tv or repair it.

They all use ham radios and plasmas are well known for wiping out ham bands.

My neighbor is William Hackett This guy here He spoke with Richard lee who is the fcc compliant officer who alo stated that no consumer product can interfere with emergency broadcasting thats its a violation off fcc codes.

Correct, it is a fcc compliant device but is not holding true to the compliance, hence defective tv in my eyes.


This is why i have been fighting with samsung. The tv in this matter is clearly defective, possibly a 1 off issue just in this particular set or possibly a piece of something larger. possibly all models are not actually compliant to the fcc rule, who knows.

What im not understanding is just because a piece of paper or stamp on the television states its fcc compliant doesn't mean by some sort of manufacturing defects or error that it really isn't. This is why i dont understand why samsung is giving me such a hard time about it.

I thought of trying to find something else wrong to try and get it replaced but i already got to far deep into this to sporadically come up with another issue.

We already moved the tv to ever single place it would fit in the house. nothing helped.