Can an airplane flying overhead affect radio reception on the ground?

[MarcB]

Got a bit of a strange question. Can an airplane flying overhead affect radio reception on the ground? Here's the story.

Yesterday afternoon around 12:30PM I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of my job having lunch. There was nothing really good on the radio and I was dial flipping. I was listening to Soft Rock 106.5 WBMW, which is licensed to Pawcatuck, Connecticut. I'm all the way in Bristol, Connecticut. Reception was staticy, but listenable. I happen to look out my window and see an airplane flying overhead. All of a sudden another station completely over-rides WBMW's signal. This lasted maybe about 45 seconds, so I wasn't able to identify anything. As the airplane got further away WBMW's signal came back.

 

[FredLeonard]

Sounds like maybe some using a SiriusXM receiver which plays through an FM radio (or maybe a smartphone playing through the FM radio) drove or parked close to you briefly. I've had that happen: Pull up to a stop light and all of a sudden I hear Howard Stern.

 

[TheDingo]

it can, usually its in the form of rapid fading in and out, getting faster, then slower, though if the plane is in just the right spot, it could reflect a signal thats too high up to normally recieve on the ground back down.

 

[unitron]

It may or may not be the explanation for what you experienced, but radio frequency signals can certainly bounce off of airplanes, especially metal ones, and under the right circumstances I don't see why they couldn't block them as well.

Early televisions, which tuned station both immediately below and somewhat above the FM radio band, had to have reflection from airplanes taken into consideration in the design of their tuner's Automatic Gain Control circuitry to prevent "flutter", but I'd have to dig out an old textbook to give you a more detailed answer about that.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Yes it can, and does. Large wedge shaped swaths of metro areas are affected when they are on the approach and departure paths from airports. A listener in Dallas reported no HD reception 8 miles from Class C FM towers, 60 dB swings in signal strength. I've experienced it on analog FM as well. When I lived in Midland, reliable Dallas FM was possible with a yagi and a good tuner. The only problem came with fights into and out of the Midland airport. Most flights were in the afternoon, and the signal swings made for difficult reception on otherwise good signals.

Yes - I did just do a subtle comparison of HD reception ranges to analog reception ranges. To be fair, away from the approach paths, Dallas HD goes about 70 miles, more than enough to cover the whole metro area, except for airport approach and departure paths.

 

[anotherguyTN]

I've had the same situation with satellite radio coming in because of someone's transmitter on with them being on the same frequency as I was driving through the parking lot or another car passing me on the street. It was crazy listening to possibly something else on my mp3 transmitter and all at once car passes me then I was hearing Howard Stern or something similar. That's why I usually try to keep my transmitter when I use one on 87.7 if possible so it's not as likely to pick up someone else's transmitter.

I also used to have a similar crazy situation in the 80s and 90s on the drive to Jackson TN on AM 1210 out of Memphis. it was WGSF and had a CCM format at the time. Usually this signal had gone out 10 miles earlier but there was a set of major power lines that was running from Memphis to Jackson and also ran past WGSF's tower array at the time. I could go from a totally dead signal to a strong signal when I was sitting under those power lines. Later in the 90s WGSF moved their tower array and the strong signal under the power lines ended.

 

[radioman148]

Years ago before cable-TV was prominent I could always tell when an airplane flew overhead when I was watching TV. The signal would always flutter--especially on older sets.

 

[cyberdad]

I used to have a cheap fm modulator that operated on 88.1 that I hooked up to my ipod when driving. It put out a really weak signal, and I'd frequently get someone with a better modulator pull up along side of me (or approach me from the opposite direction) and completely blow out my modulator's signal. Almost always with audio from Sirius/XM Happened 2-3 times a week, sometimes more. It got to a point where I was even able to do my own little survey of what people were listening to....usually either Howard or 90s on 9. Not to mention that I was passing other drivers not because they were going to slow....but to get away from what was being broadcast from their vehicles!

I solved the problem when I got a pair of Whole House FM transmitters and put one in the car. Which were strong enough to drown out other motorists modulators, but also probably powerful enough to turn me into the guy disrupting others' listening! That was back in the day...nowadays I connect audio via cable input or bluetoooth.

 

[gar hi]

Got a bit of a strange question. Can an airplane flying overhead affect radio reception on the ground? Here's the story.

Yesterday afternoon around 12:30PM I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of my job having lunch. There was nothing really good on the radio and I was dial flipping. I was listening to Soft Rock 106.5 WBMW, which is licensed to Pawcatuck, Connecticut. I'm all the way in Bristol, Connecticut. Reception was staticy, but listenable. I happen to look out my window and see an airplane flying overhead. All of a sudden another station completely over-rides WBMW's signal. This lasted maybe about 45 seconds, so I wasn't able to identify anything. As the airplane got further away WBMW's signal came back.

It's called aircraft (or airplane) scatter.

I used to notice it all the time back in the 70s when I would watch the New York TV channels from 80 miles away. The reception was snowy but easily viewable.

When planes were coming in for a landing to Philadelphia International over our area, the picture would first start to pulsate slowly from better to worse and back and then it got faster.

If the plane passed over at the right place, the channels from Baltimore or Washington would suddenly come in and completely wipe out the New York channel for a few seconds at a time and then it would quickly go away.

For example, I used to watch a lot of channel 11 from New York and the planes would make channel 11 from Baltimore briefly take over with a much clearer picture than the New York station.