I transcribe from audio tapes a lot, and have various transcribers. I also live quite near a huge transmission tower that has a TV station and at least one radio station broadcasting from it.
I’ve not had this problem until recently, when I pulled my microcassette out of storage to use for some tapes (hadn’t used it since I moved here several years ago). No matter what I do, I get audible and vastly annoying interference from the hip hop station broadcasting off that tower. It’s worse in the evening, for some reason, but it’s just annoying background all the time.
Not being gifted in the electronics line, I assume it has something to do with the power cord acting as an antenna, but haven’t figured out what I can do to make it go away. Any suggestions? Anything at all? Before I go mad and rip my hair out in frustration?
It’s hard to where the interference is getting in without some test equipment. It could be the power cable and it also could be that your audio equipment isn’t well shielded against the RF.
Is this and FM or an AM station?
If it is the power cord you need an interference filter that discriminates against radio frequencies that you are picking up. Such a filter needs to be mounted right where the power cord enters your equipment.
If the problem is lack of shielding in your equipment you are pretty much screwed without a fairly elaborate shielding system and you’ll have to arrive at that sort of by trial and error.
You might contact the radio station management and see if their technical people can give you some help. Some station are quite cooperative if they are interfering in their neighborhood.
There’s not generally a lot you can do in this sort of situation. If the RF is being picked up by the power cords, you can try some snap-on ferrite chokes on the cords. You can get those at a Radio Shack. However, if the interference is being picked up by circuit traces in the equipment itself, then you’re pretty well out of luck. About the only thing you can do in that case is to try relocating the equipment into a different part of the house and see if that helps.
You can complain to the radio station and to the FCC if the station brushes you off. Stations are required to keep there transmitters operating within certain power and frequency parameters to minimize interference problems. If this is a recent problem, and the station has been there for a long time, then it’s possible their equipment has gone wonky repairs will fix the problem.
Are you saying this problem occurs on only one piece of equipment? You could try grounding it by running a wire from the metal body to a radiator or some other grounded item. You could even ry using it in a small metal box – like a cheezy Faraday cage. The effect would not be complete because you’d need a poewr cord running into the box, but the idea is to interfere with any signals that are getting into to your equipment, and it might not be your power cord that’s causing the problem.
This is a situation where a tinfoil hat (on your gear) might make a difference.
I think it’s an FM station, but I can’t hear it well enough to know which one it is, unfortunately. I just know that the interference gets dramatically worse after dark.
My hubby is out of town, who’s the one in the family who understands this stuff, , but he suggested trying a little tinfoil wall, which actually helped somewhat – it reduced it from maddening to just obnoxious. That’s a good suggestion to contact the radio station management, but I’m not sure it’s worth going to all that trouble – I don’t use this equipment very often, and we’ll be moving in a few months anyway. Relocating within the house really isn’t an option since this is my office and I have all my other equipment here.
It sounds like the cures you guys are suggesting are more trouble than I probably need to go to, since I’ll only need to use this equipment for a couple of days every couple of months, so I guess the tinfoil is probably as good a solution as it needs. But I appreciate the input!
Well, the clues that 1) it’s worse at night and 2) you can actually discern the interference as hip-hop tells me that you are receiving Amplitude Modulated radio interference.
That’s AM.
Now, if a “tin foil wall” works, then try five more walls and building a tin foil box.
Use a cardboard carton and line the insides and outsides with foil.
Or, put your mini cassette in your car, and drive to a nice park or library or something and do your transcribing there. Distance is the best cure when it comes to interference.
Chances are the signal is being directily detected by the audio gear and the station is within their legal limits.
I wouldn’t start off by calling in the law and alienating the station. In any case, a person will probably raise a bunch of kids and send them through college before you could prove that the station is out of bounds with their signal.
However, it might help to talk to their technicians and explain your problem. They might have a few suggestions. As I said, some stations want to be good neighbors and will help if they interfere irrespective of the cause of the interference.
Tinfoil wall where? On the power cable or around the chassis? In either case it might help if you connect the foil to your electrical ground. That’s the center hole, sort of round, in the wall socket. You know, there are two side-by-side slots with a roundish hole in the center below them Sort of looks like a face with a mouth opened in surprise. The system ground is the open mouth. Use a relatively heavy, #12 stranded wire (that you can get from a hardware store) ground connector and make it as short as possible.
If you are unsure of which is ground on the socket, don’t mess with it. Just live with what you’ve got until hubby returns.