Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT Ipod/MP3 player question

What kind of interference (radio waves etc....) could cause a mp3 player to "flutter" during a song?
I've gone through 4 toll booths here in Dallas today, and every time I've gone through them, my Ipod would "flutter".
Just wondering.

Do those toll booths have FastTrak or RapidPass? If so, it's probably the RF field around the toll booths that reads the passes in people's cars.

Yes they do. But I cant figure out why that would interfere.

How is you iPod connected to your car: via tape adapter or FM transmitter?

Tape adapter.

Then here's what I think is happening:

The RF field emanating from the FastPass/RapidPass detector is creating a current on the tape adapter wire as your car moves through the field.

If it bugs you enough to want to fix it, you can get a couple small ferrite chokes from Radio Shack and attach them to both ends of the wire to filter out the interference. OR, you can try re-positioning the wire in your car so it is less susceptible to the field. I'm not sure whether parallel to the direction of travel or perpendicular to the direction of travel (or somewhere in between!) is best. (Sorry, it's been a long time since I had to do any EM Physics. )

I was just worried that it was harming my Ipod.
As long as it isnt, I'm not worried.
Thanks for the info.

It's not your iPod you should be worried about....

Where's tinfoilhat when you need him?

In reply to:

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Where's tinfoilhat when you need him?

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An electrical storm and an umbrella... it wasn't pretty... my condolences go out to Mrs. tinfoilhat.

Bren R.

" Its not your Ipod that you should be worrried about"
Everything else is already fried, so no worries there.