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Horrible buzzing noise on AM/LW - help!!!
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For the last 10 years or so we've been suffering on and off from what I can only describe an extremely irritating and very loud humming / buzzing noise on Medium Wave and Long Wave.
I can remember the night it started and since then it seems to come and go every few months.
We had been free of it for quite a while but unfortunately it came back again last night and quite frankly makes listening to anything on AM/LW intolerable.
Has anyone heard of anything like this before or know any way to get rid of it?
I can remember the night it started and since then it seems to come and go every few months.
We had been free of it for quite a while but unfortunately it came back again last night and quite frankly makes listening to anything on AM/LW intolerable.
Has anyone heard of anything like this before or know any way to get rid of it?
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It could also be a neighbour's equipment, so try another room for your radio.
Not as daft as it sounds.
Assuming you're listening on a radio running off batteries, when you've got the noise, do just that.
It's a first step, if it stops, you'll know it's something in your house, maybe a sticky thermosat on the central heating.
It maybe street lights, or poor ADSL connections.
Haven't noticed this for a long time, but street lights used to produce a ridiculous amount of interference on AM. Possibly in some areas they use an older design?
Try switching off your neighbours electric too. Just tell them you're trying to tune-in to RTE1 on LW, I'm sure they'll understand!
If you have changed your bulbs as described, in the interests of satisfactory AM radio listening, I would recommend you try changing them back to filament lightbulbs.
Failing that, just try listening to your radio in the dark!
I've never known the bands so clear of pops, whistles & hum.
StereRowe
If so where can you buy cheap DAB radios from?
Yep, go and buy DAB. When you have got tired with it, use it as a door stop or paperweight....
It could be from a neighbours computer radiating through the mains, so have a listen to this recording and see if it's the same noise.
its caused by a change in atmospheric conditions, it will always happen about 6 weeks before the clocks are changed, both for winter time and for summer time
you havent told us which station you are trying to listen to but I can guess,
Yep, upgrade your AM quaility and get DAB...however if you ever move on to FM use the DAB radio as nice looking door stop.
Yes mate that's the exact same noise we get!
We've only had a computer since last Christmas so it could be one of our neighbours then.....
Not heard that one.... So don't think so.... Although spacial weather can have an effect on hf frequencies.
I suspect the cause here is electrical interference from power supplies or lighting or an external source nearby.
I had the problem for ages and never did find the cause. It went away one day and has been quiet since. MW/LW isn't good here anyway but at least the interference I suffered vanished.
There are 2 ways interference can reach your radio, one is through the mains and the other is through the air to the antenna. A quick and inexpensive way to check is to use a small battery powered radio tuned to the interference you are experiencing, cart it around your property holding it near to light fittings and other equipment in use (or on standby) to see if by switching off suspected equipment causes the noise to stop. If the interference is much less in your garden or out in the street, away from a lampost, you can guess the interference is not atmospherics but generated from within. In my case I discovered an old VCR and a computer picture scanner, when on standby, were causing a dreadful racket on MW and LW. These are now kept unplugged when not in use. Thermostats can be a problem, they can sometimes cause a crackling noise for a period just before the circuit breaks and sometimes when the switch closes too. Mains interference can be minimised by using a filter, you can buy some that plug in line, or you can get ferrite devices to fix to the cable.
I invariably find that using a car radio in the countryside, away from overhead power cables and the engine off, there is very little background noise and weak stations come in correspondingly better. This is how it was everywhere 40 years ago! Cue violin music
Hope this helps a little -
I dont kno much about it but thats the pattern I have noticed with it in the past
Another source of interference that I've come across emanates from Digital Freeview boxes. These sound more like a rasping sound and tend to affect the Shortwave bands more than Medium and Long Wave.
As a previous poster suggested, DAB is the way to go as the Digital signals are not affected by this kind of mains interference (the exception being some kind of electrical discharge or spark which will disrupt a Digital signal).
If you do decide to buy a DAB radio, leave it until Christmas as there should be more DAB+ radios available by then.