Picking-Up Radio Station..Help!!

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Esibanjack

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Recently moved to a brand new house and after setting-up and plugging-in I'm getting the local ESPN AM radio station coming through my speaker cabinets. I'm not getting the interference until I connect a guitar cable to the input jack of my Digitech 2112, and it exists weather or not the guitar is connected to the other end. Same result when connecting my wireless to the 2112 input jack. I've tried connecting the 2112 both to my Furman power conditioner and direct to the wall outlet, but no difference. Plugging the 2112 into an extension cord and plugging to a wall outlet 20 feet away made the problem worse. 2112 is running through a QSC power amp out to twin cabs. I also have an ART SGX2000 and the problem is not present when substituting it for the 2112. I've tried every guitar cable I have with the same result. One other interesting note is the problem only happens after the sun goes down; during the day it doesn't happen. Any thoughts on what I need to do to fix it? Bad input jack on 2112, perhaps?
 
Esibanjack said:
Recently moved to a brand new house and after setting-up and plugging-in I'm getting the local ESPN AM radio station coming through my speaker cabinets. I'm not getting the interference until I connect a guitar cable to the input jack of my Digitech 2112, and it exists weather or not the guitar is connected to the other end. Same result when connecting my wireless to the 2112 input jack. I've tried connecting the 2112 both to my Furman power conditioner and direct to the wall outlet, but no difference. Plugging the 2112 into an extension cord and plugging to a wall outlet 20 feet away made the problem worse. 2112 is running through a QSC power amp out to twin cabs. I also have an ART SGX2000 and the problem is not present when substituting it for the 2112. I've tried every guitar cable I have with the same result. One other interesting note is the problem only happens after the sun goes down; during the day it doesn't happen. Any thoughts on what I need to do to fix it? Bad input jack on 2112, perhaps?
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Either a design flaw or shielding gone bad on your Digitech is causing it to pick up the RFI you are experiencing. If I recall correctly, AM signals do get stronger after sundown. A quick fix might be to get a pair of toroid doughnuts and wrap your cable ends through them a few times. It has worked for me in the past.
 
You may be near a station repeater those things are always set real high until someone complains.

The next town over from me had one and once you got to with in two miles of it that was the only station that you would pick up from one side of the dial to the other. These things are small and can be anywhere I finally found it in the attic of that towns country club. they were being paid to house it there and I shut it off and the next week someone from the station came by and turned it back on .... that's when a lot of people started to complain that they thought that was the only station that could be picked up in that valley and had enjoyed all of the other stations that had been masked.






:cool:
 
Try the toroid coils or maybe even a ground lift box with a one to one transformer. The guitar cable is acting as an antenna, and you need to isolate the induced current off of the shield. You may even have marginal success with a shorter guitar cable (which doesn't match the AM wavelength as well)...

Try that stuff first... I used to live in the shadow of a bunch of high voltage primary lines, you know in the 10,000 of volts, what a nightmare. I had to face east to play my guitar with out any ac hum being induced to the pickups.
 
MOFO Pro said:
Try the toroid coils or maybe even a ground lift box with a one to one transformer. The guitar cable is acting as an antenna, and you need to isolate the induced current off of the shield. You may even have marginal success with a shorter guitar cable (which doesn't match the AM wavelength as well)...

Try that stuff first... I used to live in the shadow of a bunch of high voltage primary lines, you know in the 10,000 of volts, what a nightmare. I had to face east to play my guitar with out any ac hum being induced to the pickups.
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That goes with our saying MOFO ... it's only proper Feng Shui!!!! :D






:cool:
 
I had this exact same thing happen 20 years ago with a digitech FX unit. It was really sporatic. It always reminded me of that episode of Gilligans Island when he was picking up radio in his mouth.

Sorry, useless post I know. I was just sayin'.
 
TetraFish said:
I had this exact same thing happen 20 years ago with a digitech FX unit. It was really sporatic. It always reminded me of that episode of Gilligans Island when he was picking up radio in his mouth.

Sorry, useless post I know. I was just sayin'.
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Yes but can you remember what was on the radio station?






:cool:
 
moresound said:
Yes but can you remember what was on the radio station?






:cool:
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News reports on the approaching Typhoon. Or where you talking about the rado I was picking up, in which case no I can't remember. It only hapened to me a few times, I saw the GI episode about 30 times.
 
TetraFish said:
News reports on the approaching Typhoon. Or where you talking about the rado I was picking up, in which case no I can't remember. It only hapened to me a few times, I saw the GI episode about 30 times.
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Yeah ...the G.I. episode.
I watched those reruns till me TV wore out. :rolleyes:






:cool:
 
Rfi

The RFI problem may be coming into your setup on the 115vac Mains lines of your house/apartment. Sometimes an isolation transformer will work. It a large transformer that has 1 to 1 turns ration, rated above 1.5 KVA that filters out RFI in the process and at the same time isolates your system from the house ground.

A futher more expensive solution would be to get a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter and a 12 volt, or two, deep cycle battery(s) and completely isolate your studio from the Mains. Recharging the battery(s) on a regular basis will keep everything in order.

These pure sine wave inverters are expensive. I don't know if a commonly available modified wave unit will work, but perhaps a trial would clarify that issue. If it works you'll save a few bucks and at the same time be using a much less complicated inverter circuit. My experience is that once the warranty is up, these Chinese made pure sine wave units are throw-aways should they fail. A case of the usual US company putting their label on a Chinese product, then having no-one on staff that knows anything about the product other than what you can read yourself in the manual.
 
Never forget the first audition I did with a computer based MIDI band. It was 1983 in Waikiki with a Commodore 64.

As soon as I turned on my computer monitor I got the "General Hospital" logo, and way, way in the faded background was my sequence info "start/stop/song select" etc.

We did the whole audition with General Hospital playing on my monitor. :(
 
About 10 years ago, my friend and I worked out a vocals and bass guitar duet for a christmas carol service. We really worked hard but because she'd sung with me on my stuff, often just to bass and drums, we worked well. There was meant to be a point in the song where the volume drops and the guy preaching starts to say something important about the real meaning of christmas, blah blah. My friend and I just got to the point where the levels dropped and I'm stroking the strings when suddenly "Musharabi ! Changuulam ep zprempto guzhnegum !" or something came through my amp ! I nearly collapsed laughing and while the preacher regained his composure, my friend motioned to me to keep playing. So we did a bit and when the guy came to talk again, "Kerimokeshke ! Zarpun hecvesa mytolo esafan tarnosc !". After the third time, there was no pause, just a continual stream of radio coming through my amp. Not being a christmas person (I was playing under duress at the time !) I thought it was hilarious. I dined on those 'Radio Bulgaria' jokes for quite a while after !
 
Thanks for all of the advice, I truly appreciate it. I tried the toroids (both snap-on and doughnut type) and they made no difference. I'm going to completely tear my rack apart and isolate the 2112 by itself to eliminate the possibility that the issue is being caused by something it's touching. If the condition persists then the next step is to replace the input jack. The unit is making a bit of "noise" (ie: hiss, crackle, pop) just after the guitar cord is pulled out of the jack so I'm hoping it's the culprit.
 
Earlier this year I was trying to record bass in my kids' room and I was miking the amp and I was getting all this radio interference and I was getting a little irate. I stopped for a while, moved it about and everywhere was the same - except one spot. Maybe there's one spot where you can get a clean signal. I don't know why it worked there. An inch either side and it was awful.
 
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