Is there any way to send some sort of signal that will interfere with speakers about 10-20m away?
I have a problem with neighbors who play stereo very loudly (particularly bass) let into the night and would love to get hold of some device that could send some signal that will interfere with the music so it becomes unlistenable - sort of like a jammer for mobile phones.
I guess if such a device is possible, it could be somewhat illegal but at 2am in the morning, being bounced around in bed by bass reverberations, such niceties are not considered.
Yes, it is called a telephone. Use it to call the police (try 911) and hold it up to transmit the offending sound to the PD so that men with truncheons and guns can raid the neighbors.
I have tried the telephone and a) the neighbors don't answer (they probably can't hear it ringing) and b) the local men with truncheons listen politely, promise to attend and then continue to do what they were doing before I called.
Do you have a view of the equipment through a window? If so you could possibly use a matching IR remote control (upped in power level if needed) to secretly control the gear. Not only will it lower the volume to your desired level but it will also drive them nuts, and possibly make them send it in for "repair". If you can't see what gear it is through the window then make an excuse to get yourself invited in for a minute to take a peek.
You don't say whether they're playing radio, or a local music source (e.g. CD or MP3).
Interfering with radio is possible. It's a bad idea, as (1) it's illegal and you could face fines of many thousands of dollars and (2) you could easily affect people other than the ones who are annoying you.
Interfering with CD or MP3 is also possible, but is vastly more difficult. Doing it by direct emission of some form of electromagnetic energy would require extremely high power levels. Doing it with any form of homebuilt apparatus would, I suspect, put you at serious personal risk of injury (electrocution, fire, metal objects flying through the air, radiation-induced mutations which result in the loss of all of your hair and do _not_ bestow any form of super-powers, etc.) in addition to the legal problems previously mentioned.
My advice is, don't try it. It's unlikely to succeed, and the consequences of trying could be anywhere from annoying to extremely unfortunate (death being among the latter).
Well, I'd start off a _bit_ more gently than that... possibly a polite letter to the neighbors, possibly a complaint filed with your city's code enforcement division or neighborhood-arbitration service, etc.
Using '911' for non-emergency calls is usually frowned upon. There's usually a better number (sometimes 311, sometimes direct-dial) for filing a non-emergency complaint. You _do_ have a valid reason to complain, I think - cities generally have laws against disturbing the peace or creating a noise nuisance in a residential neighborhood.
A few years ago my wife and I were renting a home near here. Tenants of a house across the street had a habit of holding very loud parties on weekends. We, and several other neighbors ended up reporting this to the police (non-emergency) and on a couple of occasions the police showed up to tell them to turn it down. Finally, one weekend, we saw people starting to arrive for another of the same, called it in, and two police cars arrived about a minute after the music started to blare... and apparently ordered the tenants to cease-and-desist immediately. The party never got started, and they never tried another.
So, it may take a few calls, on a few different nights... but if your neighbors persist in creating a nuisance, and if they develop a history of multiple offenses and complaints, your local government ought to take effective action eventually.
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Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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