Lately we have ben getting a lot of noise on channels 5 & 6, usually at certain times of evening and night; almost never during the day. This interference usually lasts about fifteen minutes, then cuts off. Is this something caused by my neighbors? Can I call the FCC to track it down? It's really f****ng up my videotapes.
Ron
Ron hath wroth:
The FCC will send you a color broshure detailing several mostly useless options. Basically, unless you can identify the source, and they're obviously in violation of some rule or reg, you're on your own.
Best bet is to identify the source of intereference with a directional antenna and a portable spectrum analyzer. If that's too messy, try running around the neighborhood with a battery operated TV receiver and look for the strongest areas. It's going to be quite a rush because you only have 15 minutes to find the source.
Assuming you're talking about over the air channels, and not cable or satellite channels: CH 5 76-82 MHz CH 6 82-88 MHz Hmmm, you probably can also hear it at the bottom of the FM broadcast band.
With the information you've supplied, I can't even begin to speculate what the RF source might be. A 15 minute single run in the evening kinda sounds like a microwave oven cooking dinner. However, those operate a 2400MHz and are unlikely to cause problems on TV ch 5 and ch
"Certain times of evening and night" implies that you know those times. Could I trouble you to disclose them? Also, any particular pattern on the TV screen?
Anyway, if you don't have the equipment or transmitter hunting skills, try asking for help from the local ham radio operators.
Incidentally, video tapes are kinda like old technology. You might want to look into recording the shows on a hard disk with a DVR, or a DVD burner.
Hmmm, I can get 8 hours on a single videotape; what can I get on a DVD disk? One hour of recordings at most, if I had seen rightly the last time I was at Target. Not even comparable... So I think I'll wait till the new tehnologies catches up with the old. :-)
As for the time issue, I don't have a schedule of times, just that the problem is intermittent from around 6:30 to 10:30 PM, with no problems before then and none after those hours, but nothing like clockwork.
Ron wrote in news:1193287345.405529.209450 @v23g2000prn.googlegroups.com:
You can get at least 20 hours on HDD based DVRs.
If you have OTA, the lates TiVo does anout 160 hours at its basic mode for analog SD, plus can tune digital/HD channels, although it sosts about $200, and has a monely fee.
hi, dont know what software u using, but i can get eight , 45 minute episodes on one dvd. also , how on earth can u say , one hour at most ???? when most movies that are on dvd are always longer than 1 hour.
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