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For The Broadcast Engineers In The Audience...

W

WCWalker

Guest
While driving along the NY Thruway this weekend I noticed a clicking or popping noise on virtually every AM frequency. I noticed it started around Rochester and I could hear throughout Oswego County and Onandaga County heading towards Albany. Only the strongest AM signals were able to wipe out the noise but weaker signals were adversely impacted by the noise.

I did not hear this noise in CT, PA or OH but I also heard it on two separate days in most of central Indiana from the Indianapolis area west to Terra Haute into Illinois.

The noise is not coming off the power lines because I drove through rural areas of CNY and Indiana where I was at least a half mile from the nearest utility line and the noise was every bit as pronounced as if I was driving right next to the lines.

Is there some kind of RF test taking place?
 
Could this be a by-product of the wonderfulness we refer to as AM-HD?

Oh boy! Prepare yourselves for the opening of "El Grande Can-o-Worms!"

Mr. Savage, we're looking in your direction.
 
Now you guys KNOW I can't resist any opportunity to take a swing at IBOC-AM.

Unfortunately I do have to resist in this case. The symptom you describe isn't indicative of anything produced by HD-AM. IBOC produces a hissing or roaring noise like surf on steroids. This can affect adjacent channels day and night (depending on the frequencies of the stations involved) and in cases of asymmetrical sidebands or weird antenna loads, can also manifest itself co-channel (or, "self-interference" where the IBOC-AM station's digital fat thighs invade its own analog signal.)

Will, I'd suspect something is going on with your receiver. It could be something in the radio or it could be some kind of impulse noise being generated in the car and radiated through the wiring.

I would also suspect the antenna and lead-in. In this part of the country with extreme temp swings and road salt, antennas and the grounding bond with the car body take a beating. Might be worth a trip to a GOOD auto-stereo shop (read: NOT some high-volume big-box with 19 year olds running the install department.)

Good luck!
 
Bob. I wish IBOC was the culprit. Then we'd have another finger of blame to point at it. :D It closely resembles picket fencing that you'd hear on FM but in this case it is only on the AM band.

The car is brand new. Only a few months old. I just find it odd that the noise is prevalent in just a few areas and non existent in others. The fact that I am not hearing it in Kansas City now (or previously) clearly puzzles me. If I jumped into my car and drove back to Terre Haute, IN and east into the Indy area I'd hear it again. And the same could be said once I got back into your part of New York. Hmmm...
 
Ok. Okay!! OKAY!!! "It's the fault of IBOC-AM."

There! Is everybody happy??

Seriously though, Will, I'm at a loss on this one. I'd be tempted to tell you to take your car & radio back to the dealer and complain, but the localized nature of the interference seems to rule out a problem with the receiver. Since the car is new the antenna and lead-in are probably ok.

I'd suggest maybe your radio doesn't like TIS on certain frequencies. But then we'd be entering the realm of guessing, which doesn't help you.

Is the clicking/popping at regular intervals or is it random? Do you hear it on blank channels or only accompanying actual signals?

Anyone else have any ideas for Will? I'm stumped.
 
I have a five year old vehicle with a decent radio and I haven’t heard any clicking or popping sounds during my travels around New York. However I do hear that damn hissing noise from IBOC at night when I try to turn into some of my local stations. The ‘genius’ who came up with that idea should be drawn-and-quartered.
 
Robert Craig Savage, Owner-Operator, Attorney At Law, Service Tech. Cellino & Barnes could only wish!

Are you sure this isn't another episode of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" (heard Sunday mornings on WBFO and other fine NPR stations) or maybe it's a perfect write-in for the Car Guys, Click & Clack (aka, Chortle & Chuckle, heard Saturday mornings on WBFO, just before Jim Santella's Blues Show.)

Surprised nobody's blamed this problem on one of my favorites, an "intermittent." Sorry, couldn't resist her.

Just do what any self-respecting, experienced install-tech would do: Hit the @$#!& dashboard three times above the radio. If this time honored procedure works on a Gates Stereo Statesman console, it's sure to work on a new car radio.

There. Problem solved.
 
JimPastrick said:
Just do what any self-respecting, experienced install-tech would do: Hit the @$#!& dashboard three times above the radio. If this time honored procedure works on a Gates Stereo Statesman console, it's sure to work on a new car radio.
Click to expand...

Ah....the Sicilian way of fixing things. You should see my TV set.
 
I, also traveled on the NYS Thruway (from Herkimer to Rochester)this weekend and ran into a lot of noise on the AM band. Stations I usually listen to at the usual spots were almost unlistenable. Glad someone else noticed it.
 
Good. I am happy someone else heard the same noise. I knew it wasn't my radio at fault. Now, how do we determine the source of this noise?

Bob. The noise was not at all sporadic or even localized. The noise was uniform and heard over a large area. I heard it on virtually every AM channel except those that had a very strong local signal.
 
Therealjim, is your noise the same as Will's, e.g. popping and clicking which is overcome by strong local AM signals?
 
Tell you the truth I don't really recall. It seems like it was more static, but yes, there could have been the popping & clicking too. I just remember it to be very annoying. I can tell you I heard it on 1370WXXI,1390WFBL, 570 WSYR, 870 WHCL, 950 WIBX & 1150 WRUN.
 
Bouncing this off our consulting engineer, he blames the Thruway's proprietary advisory radio system.
Click to expand...

It makes you wonder if it has something to do with the NY Thruway Highway Advisory Radio.
Click to expand...

So, SirRoxalot wins the American Tourister luggage and the three night stay at Sheila's Sweaty Palms Motor Inn, Tonawanda... gratuities and taxes not included.
 
Bob. I am certain that I was well out of range of any TIS when I was driving along the Lake Ontario shoreline, yet the sound was every bit as pronounced in that area as it was when I was driving the thruway. Did your engineer pinpoint the specific cause for this problem?
 
Hey, you tryin' to take away my American Tourister? I started saving quarters for the "Magic Fingers" vibrating bed at the Sweaty Palms.
 
I'm that old gorilla in the 1970's television commercial that used to stomp on and throw around American Tourister and Samsonite luggage. ;D
 
Could it be a in-car cellphone or iPod charger? They often put out tons of electrical noise right into your car's electrical system.

Similarly, it could be your cellphone itself, with the variation in location caused by the phone automatically adjusting its RF output (even when a call is not actively being made, the phone is still "touching base" with the local towers and thus outputting RF) as you move around from tower to tower. This is especially true with TDMA/GSM phones (AT&T/Cingular, T-Mobile) and iDEN (Nextel). The latter I describe as a "fluttering static" sound that could be interpreted as what you describe.

Also, it could be any one of a dozen sources of RF noise interacting with your car stereo. WiFi, BPL, EMR from overhead power lines, TIS, etc. There's so much EMR out there and it's not easy to know how it'll interact with your radio. A lot of OEM radios used to be excellent FM tuners but the AM side was often neglected. I think that's still largely the case. You might try a big RF filter on the power lines to your stereo, although that may or may not really help.

Can you describe the clicks in more detail? Are they regular in time? Are they clicks, beeps, static, etc? Sometimes you can make a pretty accurate guess as to the
 
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