A friend of mine is looking to purchase a home theater system - I obviously am urging him to not purchase BOSE and look at the Axiom line. However, he mentioned to me that his neighbor (attached house) uses a high powered antenna for his ham radio that causes interference on his electronic equipment (he has a license for it)- is there a concern that this high powered interference would be picked up by the speakers (magnets and all) and cause sound issues and even damage? I'd hate to see a set of nice Axioms go to waste....
People still use ham radios? I hear the internets tubes are much better :P
Warning: Uneducated opinion follows...
I would suspect your friends AM/FM radio reception will be awful, but I would hope it wouldn't actually interfere with signals that are not being transmitted through the air (i.e. a cable from receiver to speaker)...
Well, this is what I was going to write until I read these two stories... unreal. I'd go nuts if this guy was my neighbor...
What to do with Electronic Interference Problems Electronic Interference News Story
If your friend knows the frequency of the equipment which is picking up interference please let the operator know. He will do what he can to find the source of the interference and correct it. If your friend dose not know the frequency, let the operator know the time and days of the problem. He will most likely know what band and/or frequency he was operating on at the time and will know where to start looking to resolve the issue.
If he cares to try, that is.
Unfortunately some people just don't give a ....
I wonder if it is possible to talk to the licensing agency to see if there is some recourse that way, just in case the operator doesn't do anything.
All of the operators I know do what they can to minimize interference issues with neighbors. Licensed operators are not the same people you might here trash talking on overpowered CBs. Operators are required to comply with FCC regulations regarding interference. If he refuses to address the issue notify the FCC. If he does not comply with their requests the FCC can suspend or revoke his "privileges". If he operates without a license he can be arrested and his equipment confiscated.
Isn't it amazing the breadth of the knowledge that is represented on this forum? I've almost never seen a question asked, no matter how obscure, that doesn't eventually get a handful of very informed answers. You guys are awesome. (Now everyone join me for a round of Kumbaya...)
Thanks fo rthe info Kyle
.....Kumbaya....
For anyone who may be interested in the FCC regs that Kyle mentioned and were also mentioned in Jason's link(but be warned that they can be almost as unintelligible as, for example, a Denon manual), this area is governed by
Title 47 Code of Federal Regulations Part 97 and emission standards are specifically covered in
Sect. 97.307 .
As a licensed ham radio operator, I can tell you that most hams will try to solve the interference problem even if they are not causing it. There are some simple solutions for both the ham operator and the stereo/ HT listener.
Unfortunately, we live in a hot RF environment. The energy is everywhere from microwave ovens to energy saving street lights.
Your friend should contact the ham, in a friendly manner, and start the problem solving process.
Thanks for the knowledgeable responses!
I remember a DSL customer who had a really hard to diagnose trouble with his high speed internet every evening at the same time. Once we discovered it was electrical interference, he immediately blamed his ham radio operating neighbor but when we called the operator up to politely ask about his usage habits, he was quickly dismissed. However, he helped us discover that it was actually a frequency sometimes put out by powerful welding equipment. The real culprit was his other neighbor working on restoring an old farm truck frame.