Radio GaGaa!! HELP - NOISE POLLUTION

[TheTweakFreak]

My MB rack setup has become a fantastic radio. It is clearly playing talk radio on certain presets. All tubes and cables on the rack rig have been inspected, checked and replaced (cables) even though they were fine. Swapping my Mogami guitar cord w/a lesser quality (but not total crud) braided cord cut the noise almost in half. Cheaper cord, less of an antenna? I still have talk radio crapping on my tone-badly on certain presets. All my guitars are properly shielded and wired.


I have a freakin radio station **** near in my back yard. Problem isn't normal radio transmission interference. The station was forced to put in another tower to pull their overpowered signal down to FCC legal limits (something like from 40k down to 10k watts). So the tower pulling, not transmitting, seems to be the culprit. It causes expensive fire alarms to go off all through the neighborhood for no reason. Naturally, that only happens at around 3:00 AM. Only the cheapest alarms on the market are immune! And neither is my rack rig. Plug cable into any device means cord becomes an antenna. That is the reasoning behind me trying a cheaper guitar cord... It worked ok for the fire alarms so it was worth a shot. Maybe I'll hook up with a couple of guitar strings wrapped in toilet paper. :roll:

Does ANYONE know how I might be able to remedy this abomination of tone microwave interference? Anyone have any innovative ideas short of foiling my entire house? :shock:

-Mike

 

[lesterpaul]

I had a huge problem as well...my house is loaded with dimmer switches-after a couple of days troubleshooting,I determined my switches were acting like a gateway to all types of noise-radio..60 cycle hum...furman power conditioner didnt help...bought a HUM-X -didnt help-looked into replacing switches...$$$too many of 'em...I just make sure the darn things are off,which isnt so easy when the wifey is at home-might want to check into an isolated transformer type power conditioner or a Decimator-I know it does wonders with 60 cyle hum-wouldnt it be nice if our boogie signals were picked up by the radio stations?what fun we could have jacking up the master

 

[tramp]

Just make sure you play in a Faraday Cage !!...I heard when Chris Rea played the Kremlin he reported that his strats were so quiet, and wondered why...only to find out the place was within a Faraday Cage to keep out electronic spying............ :shock:

Nice but I imagine not practical!!

 

[TheTweakFreak]

LOL! Faraday Cage!! I Love It!!! It makes more sense than my thoughts of wrapping the entire house in tin foil. The entire populous around here is probably being slow cooked, microwave style. ::::sniff sniff. do i smell bacon?:::: :twisted:

I would mind the radio station playing through my rig a lot less if it were not AM talk radio. Is putting up w/this with a rock station cutting in asking too much? But NOOOOOOO. It has to be talk radio. And to add insult to injury, the station in my back yard causing the problems is a country station. Do I hate or despise country music? No. But in general, I just don't care for it.

I don't suspect there are many inexpensive, practical solutions to this sort of anomaly. I suspected that when I posted it. I was hoping that maybe we have someone with more than basic knowledge on such issues. Like most things, I know just enough to be dangerous.... to myself and maybe others. It is a situation where the remedy, if there is one, is beyond my knowledge. I have tried everything I could think of, within reason, and had little to no success. I'll be patient - wait and see if anyone has some ideas. In the mean time I'll be stocking up on the Reynolds Wrap.

-Mike

 

[TheTweakFreak]

Just a follow-up on this situation....

I decided to do a two-fer and take a chance of changing tubes to see if it would at least reduce the problem to a manageable level. It's a two-fer because I was just about due for some replacement tubes anyway.

I consulted Doug @ Doug's Tubes. Explained in detail what the deal was. Had him suggest tube swap options. I ordered replacements for every freakin tube in the rack. 4 power section tubes and 3 preamp tubes for the MB 2:50, one preamp tube for the Prophesy II. After getting these in just a couple of days (thank you for the super fast service), I retubed the rack. PROBLEM SOLVED! Only have 1 preset that has a "hiss" and it's a high gain preset. This is the preset that had the worst radio interference. The overall sound is more aggressive but still smooth. More importantly, NO MORE RADIO GAGA BABY! WooooHoooo!!!

Thanks to Doug for the informative consultation and the fast service. You will be getting a piece of my wallet whenever it's tube time.