We discovered recently that our microwave oven interferes with the OTA TV.
We’ve only use OTA for Jeopardy! so this is of no consequence. The antenna is an RCA ANT700F from Walmart. The microwave is perhaps 30 feet away in a different room. When both are on the TV is just a screen of digital nonsense.
Is this commonplace, expected, typical?
It’s fairly common. Your microwave is basically a several-hundred watt 2.4 GHz radio transmitter. It’s just that instead of an antenna, it keeps the radio waves inside the box.
It’s normal for a microwave oven to leak radio waves a bit. Interference with OTA TV, wi-fi, cordless phones, wireless headphones/speakers, and sometimes cell phones is common.
If you have an old microwave that’s been beat around a bit and it leaks more than it should, that will cause even more interference.
ETA: Moving your TV antenna around, especially changing its orientation, may reduce the interference a bit. Then again it may also reduce the signal that you are trying to watch.
Thanks.