satellite dish interference on pickups

[saintethel]

I've posted on elsewhere on the internet about this problem but haven't really got anywhere solving it, however I found a similar problem to mine on these forums so I thought perhaps someone here might be able to offer me some advice here.

The similar problem was to do with RF interference, but I think mine is slightly different.

I am picking up the signal from a satelitte dish that has been installed on the roof of the flats I live in. I live on the top floor so it I am pretty close to where it is situated.

The amount of signal I am picking up is strong enough to be heard on quiet passages of guitar or bass and when compression goes on, it becomes very noticable, especially across the decay of notes.

I've tried moving my gear to different rooms in my flat but still pick up the signal. Also tried different leads, DI boxes, mixers but it is still there and I'm sure now it is the pickups.

I've tried using a noise gate to cut it out but I have to set that very high to cut the signal out and it also cuts out some of the decays of guitar/bass notes so it isn't a solution.

I am using a usa strat and precision so the pickups are the standard ones for those models.

My question is, is there anything I can do to block the signal? Or would different makes of guitars with different pickups not pick up the signal?

Although I've been playing/recording for 20 years I amn't that clued up on the technicalities of equipment so sorry for my ignorance on pickups!

I've asked the one neighbour who uses the dish whether they'd be willing to go down the cable route but they are refusing to consider it due to the cost.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm feeling quite upset at this situation as recording and noodling about on instruments has been my main love for all these years and I can't play anything now on the guitars/bass now without being aware of the signal coming in.


Thank you.

 

[dementedchord]

you can actually hear a program??? i would think that the signal would be high enough that that would be impossible... possible solutions... humbuckers would help... or there's this thing called a faraday cage... cool but impracticle... imagine lining your apartment with a wire mesh (which acts as an antenna) and then grounding it...

 

[Farview]

It's not the sattelite dish.

1. The dish recieves signals, it doesn't send them.

2. The signal from a sattelite is digital, so unless you have a converter box in your strat, you aren't hearing TV shows from the dish.

It's probably a bad ground. I have a wah pedal that picks up radio stations.

 

[saintethel]

It's not the sattelite dish.

1. The dish recieves signals, it doesn't send them.

2. The signal from a sattelite is digital, so unless you have a converter box in your strat, you aren't hearing TV shows from the dish.

It's probably a bad ground. I have a wah pedal that picks up radio stations.

OK well at least that's encouraging that it isn't directly the dish. I know though that it is definitely what is being watched via the dish that I am picking up on though as I have confirmed what I am hearing is the same as what a neighbour is watching.

Where would I look for the bad ground? In the flat/apartment's electrics? The signal comes through regardless of which guitar I use, what cable I use and which DI box I use. I've tried several combinations of box, cable and input and the signal is still there. Or is it likely that both my guitars and the bass suffer the same problem?

Thanks for your help.

 

[saintethel]

you can actually hear a program??? i would think that the signal would be high enough that that would be impossible... possible solutions... humbuckers would help... or there's this thing called a faraday cage... cool but impracticle... imagine lining your apartment with a wire mesh (which acts as an antenna) and then grounding it...

I know about the faraday cage. Yeah it'd be very cool

I can hear the programme yes and I have reasonably clear recordings of whatever the neighbour 4 floors down is watching at the time. Earlier on today it was Gospel/Bible show.

I'm trying to play my guitar and meantime some guy is extolling the virtues of sin free life to me and trying to sell me a bible via a free phone number...

...very Robert Johnson and very weird it was.

Last night it was CSI something or other.

 

[dementedchord]

if i was gonna bet on a ground problem... my vote is for the sheilding on the controll line from sat to convertor...

 

[Farview]

It's got to be the building ground. The signal between the dish and the converter box is still digital. It's not an analog signal until it gets to the tuner. It has to be the signal after the tuner because he is hearing the show that the person is watching.

 

[superspit]

It's not the sattelite dish.

1. The dish recieves signals, it doesn't send them.

2. The signal from a sattelite is digital, so unless you have a converter box in your strat, you aren't hearing TV shows from the dish.

Yeah man, that's it....he got one of them new digital strats with the blue LED n'shit.



Ahhh sheeet......sorry.

 

[saintethel]

It's got to be the building ground. The signal between the dish and the converter box is still digital. It's not an analog signal until it gets to the tuner. It has to be the signal after the tuner because he is hearing the show that the person is watching.

Thank you for that. That's something concrete I can go with to the person who has the dish installed. I'll speak to them this afternoon and see if they can get the people who installed the dish to check that out.

 

[saintethel]

Just to keep anyone up on this in case they were wondering what was happening, or ever encounter a similar problem that seems difficult to solve.

After various discussions with various people and a number of blind alleys of trying to solve it we have established what is causing the problem.

The neighbour 4 floors down is going deaf and has had an induction loop system installed. It is on all the time and also her Sky system is on all the time whether or not the tv is on.

Through experimenting with switching things on and off we've worked out it is definitely the loop system for her hearing we are picking up. And so I have a costant commentry from some preacher thousands of miles away in Florida via the God channel.

Trying to solve it though is a different matter. We're hoing the deaf person's charity who sorted it out for her will be able to come up with some suggestions, although, before she got it installed she had to check that none of the other 14 flats in the block had either a loop system installed or residents with hearing aids as it'd have interfered.

I can hardly ask her to stop using the loop system so I'm hoping some sort of shielding system or something can be suggested by either the charity or some engineers.

 

[Linkzilla316]

Do you have any effects running into your amp? I had a Behringer chorus pedal that, when pluged into then effects loop or in the input, I would get radio and tv signals and I could hear a bunch of different shows depending on where the pedal was. Try removing them if thats the case.

 

[saintethel]

Do you have any effects running into your amp? I had a Behringer chorus pedal that, when pluged into then effects loop or in the input, I would get radio and tv signals and I could hear a bunch of different shows depending on where the pedal was. Try removing them if thats the case.

No, just even happens on plain old plugged straight into a mixer or a preamp and bypassing amps and pedals completely.

I think it comes down to the strength of the signal on her induction loop - the loop being a wire that runs round the skirting board of all the rooms in her flat and beams sound from her satelitte input box direct into her hearing aid.

I'm sure there must be a way of turning down the signal as it must be mighty strong to get up 4 floors to my top floor flat.

 

[saintethel]

I think a final post on this and maybe if anyone ever gets the same untraceable problem and they search on the same terms as this thread, they can read this thread and get some answers.

We had an electrical engineer out this morning who also knew his stuff about electromagnetism. He came along with a bunch of machines that read signals and was able to trace the strength of electromagnetic and acoustic signals etc.

Conclusion after 2 hours of testing various combinations is that the signal I am picking up on the guitars and bass is that of the loop irrespective of whether the tv is on. It is the actual sound of what is going on within the neighbour's flat I am picking up via the loop when the tv isn't on. And then when the tv is on, without any volume on, this signal is then joined by the signal being beamed via the loop.

The signal is then being transmitted via all the steel in the building - especially the metal communal staircase and the (defunct) under floor heating mesh which is embedded in the fabric of the building and can't be removed.

He checked my guitar/bass cables and my actual pickups and they are all shielded to an acceptable level.

He has been working as an electromagnetic and electrical engineer for 30 years and this is the first time he has come across this problem.

Nothing we could do bar switching the entire loop system off made any difference.

Due to the severity of the neighbour's deafness and the safety requirement of her needing to be alerted to various sounds within her flat quite apart from the tv, the loop can not be switched off. Or at least it can physically be switched off but neither she nor the deaf charity want it switched off at any point.

So I am left without a solution beyond electromagnetically shielding one room so I can make music in it which is too expensive. I am very angry about this now.

It seems now the only solution is to sell my flat and move, or give up electric music.