Neighbor's Stereo System Interferes With CH2 TV Reception

A guess - maybe it's mechanical interference - neighbor is causing some component in TV to shake/vibrate. Can you lift TV off floor/ stand/furniture and cause interference to stop?

---Pete--- wrote:

If your neighbour's signal source is FM radio, build a powerful 10.7MHz FM transmitter to jam all FM reception. Years ago I did something similar for the UK TV 6MHz sound intercarrier using an LS629 TTL VCO. The purpose was to broadcast the racket made by the mental case in the flat above to every TV in the street! For the 6MHz system the TTL VCO was run at 12MHz and divided by a 74F flip-flop to produce 6MHz with equal M/S ratio, further 74F gates were used as buffers to drive the bases of a push-pull pair of power transistors and an RF toroid, the secondary was wired across the neutral & earth to induce the RF in the mains wiring - it worked rather well, but mains spikes killed the transistors quite often!

Some modern integrated stereos - notably Sonys, and most home cinema systems, employ a switch mode power supply. Loaded very hard, with huge bass, it's quite conceivable that such a supply might radiate excessive crap, at a frequency which is closeby your TV channel. Surely there's some department you can complain to on the noise grounds alone, let alone the RFI ?

Arfa

------ Your explanation makes the most sense. We are in separate homes so I know it's not vibrating my TV set. I figured it has to be something in his home radiating RF and the switching power supply makes good sense because, when it gets to that level where it interferes with my TV, I can hear the distortion in the music. This guy has no ear for music and seems to just like the loud thumping, even though it's all distorted. I'm dealing with an large adult male who I suspect has the mentality of a 12 year old. Add some alcohol, and you can imagine what I have to contend with.

------ Noise problems are very difficult to solve when the perpetrator refuses to respect their neighbors and the authorities. I already had the state police out here and the problem continues. I'm now gathering info and data because it will most likely go to court to get any meaningful action or fines imposed. If I can prove damages, I might be able to get some monetary compensation too.

It's horrible to live next to such such rude and inconsiderate people.

---pete---

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I think he's playing CDs.
So jamming is not possible.

---pete--

That may not be exactly true - I remember some months ago my CD player started going silent intermittently, I happened to look out my flat to find the fuzz were raiding the bloke on the other side of the corridor, every time they used their radio my CD muted!

I see your dilemma. We have such people here too, and it's getting worse. Have you thought about playing the RFI angle with someone like the FCC ? Over here, interfering signals are taken very seriously. Imagine if such a signal popped up on an aircraft comms channel ...

Arfa

If your'e Reeeealy lucky, some of your neighbors friends will come over to his house for a party; the guns will come out, and PoP, PoP, PoP- no more neighbor or rap music. JR

---Pete--- wrote:

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        Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth

snipped-for-privacy@snip.net (---Pete---) wrote in news:448eb552.31404968 @news.verizon.net:

First figure out where the interference is entering your tv. If you short out the antenna terminals, does it go away?

If not, try putting a line-filter between the wall receptacle and your TV's power cord.

If so, it's entering either at the antenna or the downlead. You might consider moving the antenna to the area of your roof that's farthest from the neighbor, and/or changing from twin-lead to shielded downlead from your antenna.

The whole field of radio-frequency interference (RFI) of TVs is an interesting one and books have been written about it. See, for example, The ARRL RFI Book,

It's for radio amateurs, but the underlying principles apply to your case, and are completely understandable by a technician like yourself. (For example, your neighbor might be radiating at a much lower frequency than channel 2, but with a harmonic which is close to channel 2; this can be cured by putting a low-frequency filter on your tv's antenna input.)

I think building a high-power transmitter and aiming it at your neighbor's stereo in the hope of overloading the input stages of the amplifier is the best thing to do, even if it is illegal. If the streo dies every time he turns the volume up, he just might figure out to keep the volume lower. OTOH, some people just don't get it no matter what - hence the Darwin Awards.

H. R.,(Bob) Hofmann

If the offending equipment is actually radiating the harmonic ( or indeed a fundamental ) on a frequency which is affecting the specific channel, then no amount of filtering at the antenna, will remove it, without removing the wanted TV channel as well. On the other hand, if the interference is being generated by a mix product in the front end of the TV, as a result of a high field strength of interfering signal at a lower frequency, then the filtering suggestion may produce a positive result. The only way to know really is to jam a spectrum analyser on the feeder, and have a look just what's coming in near the affected channel, when the problem is present.

Arfa

------ First I need to gather my evidence and understand what's happening. Then I can persue the legal angles. --pete--

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Good suggestion!
All your suggestions were good. Thanks.
I can try a high pass filter to see it that helps.
I already have power line conditioning.

---pete--

----- Yeah, I see what you are saying. I'm not too concerned about solving the RF interference problem. I just needed to understand it. When the noise level reaches that level, I get bass audio levels coming through my walls at 66db. My normal TV audio listening level is in the 60 to 66db level, so I really can't watch any TV channel in comfort.

I'm hoping that if I do all the needed research and gather all my evidence and facts, I'll be successful at using the proper authorites and the courts to put an end to this.

Thanks for all the info and suggestions. I guess what I need now is some authoritive source or article that can explain how switching power supplies can radiate RF when oveloaded.

---pete---

Why not help it along a bit? Rap music seems to have heavily armed factions, so find out which faction your neighbour is and post party flyers to his house for a rival faction.

One of the easiest ways of obtaining a high power RF source is to saw the oven compartment off a microwave oven leaving the end of the waveguide open to air - it could overload the amplifiers input stages even when the amp is switched off!

(hint - use a very long extension cord!)

One of the easiest ways of obtaining a high power RF source is to saw the oven compartment off a microwave oven leaving the end of the waveguide open to air - it could overload the amplifiers input stages even when the amp is switched off!

(hint - use a very long extension cord!)

And, of course, you've tried this, right?

Only with a very long extension cord!