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Author
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Topic: Picking up radio station through pedal
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Tom Campbell
Member From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 03 April 2005 03:05 PM
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I have an effects pedal (stonp box) that is picking up radio stations. I have tried it with various amps and shielded cables. Is this an indication that a capacitor is bad or do I need to line the inside of the pedal housing with shielding tape? If so, do I need to run a wire from the shielding tape to a ground?Thank you for any suggestions! |
John Daugherty
Member From: Rolla, Missouri, USA
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posted 03 April 2005 04:24 PM
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Tom, make sure the nuts on the jacks are tight and biting into the metal pedal case.
As a last resort, try soldering a capacitor across each jack. A value of 100-1000pf (.0001-.001mfd) should do it. |
Tom Campbell
Member From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 03 April 2005 09:14 PM
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Thanks John, I'll hit the electronics store tomorrow for the capacitors. |
John Daugherty
Member From: Rolla, Missouri, USA
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posted 04 April 2005 05:55 AM
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Tom, I just remembered another cause for your problem. It is possble for the power supply diodes to detect the RF signal and convert it to audio.
Do you use a power supply or batteries? If the problem is not there when you use batteries, try another power supply. ......JD |
Brad Sarno
Member From: St. Louis, MO USA
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posted 04 April 2005 06:05 AM
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Tom, what's the pedal? Some pedals have a real hi impedance, especially Fuzz type distortion pedals. I have a Voodoo Labs Superfuzz and it picks up radio quite a bit.Brad Sarno |
Jack Stoner
Sysop From: Inverness, Florida
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posted 04 April 2005 06:54 AM
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Probably the diodes they use for the clipping is rectifying RF. |
Tom Campbell
Member From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 04 April 2005 07:42 AM
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John:I am using batteries (9v) as the power supply. Brad: This pedal is a fuzz/distorition/wah-wah pedal. It is an early model Guytone, very well constructed/Japan. The stations I am picking up are Mexican (in Spanish). I don't know if they are AM or FM. Living here in Houston it's hard to tell if they are local stations or clear channel from across the border. |
Brad Sarno
Member From: St. Louis, MO USA
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posted 04 April 2005 09:36 AM
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Aha, they must be using mexican made transistors and/or diodes! Brad |
Brad Sarno
Member From: St. Louis, MO USA
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posted 04 April 2005 09:41 AM
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You can try this. Get a 39pf ceramic disk capacitor, try Radio Shack. Connect the cap between the input hot and ground and see what that does. That's a common way to filter out RF. It still may not help though. Some distortion FX, especially the "fuzz" types tend to grab that stuff out of the air and once it intermodlates with the audio, it's hard to make it disappear. As Jack said too, it may the the shorting diodes used in the "distortion" part of the circuit. Some circuits are RF sensitive. Does it do this everywhere or mainly in one particular location?Brad
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Tom Campbell
Member From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 04 April 2005 10:48 AM
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Brad:I haven't used/played this pedal out for years. I've only recently tried it in the house so far. I use to live in Minneapolis and only remember it picking up "girls"...down here it's after Mexican radio stations!! Bummmer!! |
John Daugherty
Member From: Rolla, Missouri, USA
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posted 05 April 2005 06:27 AM
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Tom, I know you would like to fix the pedal so it will not pick up radio stations. If it gets to be a lot of work and aggravation, It is sometimes necessary to use a brand that doesn't have these problems.
I once owned an amp that picked up nearby CB radios. It was funny, at times, to hear "10-4 good buddy" in the middle of a song, but not really that amusing all the time (worked good in the middle of "Six Days On The Road"). I could have fixed the problem with time and experimentation, but it was easier to trade it for another amp. |
Tom Campbell
Member From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 05 April 2005 07:56 AM
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JohnI will try the "fix" using the caps across the jacks. If that doesn't work, I don't intend to invest anymore time. This is a vintage pedal..so it might be worth something to someone that collects this sort of thing...more than likely an ebay prospect. Thank you for your response! |
Ben Slaughter
Member From: Madera, California
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posted 05 April 2005 12:44 PM
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There's a club I've been playing off and on for 5+ years now. One of the outlet boxes at the back of the stage picks up, you guessed it, "Spanish Language Radio Programing" (to be politically correct), when an amp is plugged in. Happens with different amps, but same outlet.The place is notorious for really bad power. Dirty, surges, breakers flipping, etc. Sadly, it's the last club where country music can be heard (once or twice a month) in the Fresno area. |
John Daugherty
Member From: Rolla, Missouri, USA
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posted 06 April 2005 05:21 AM
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Do they charge extra for the radio programmed outlet? |
Brad Sarno
Member From: St. Louis, MO USA
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posted 06 April 2005 10:35 AM
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Tom, be sure and clean the jacks, switch, and pots on that pedal. A dirty contact can raise the impedance making it more RF sensitive. Brad
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Farris Currie
Member From: Ona, Florida, USA
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posted 07 April 2005 05:16 PM
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remembering the old days,C B radios,they use to find the freqs.we were on,and talk thru our amps. |
Jennings Ward
Member From: Edgewater, Florida, USA
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posted 09 April 2005 07:38 PM
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RADIO STATIONS...THIS IS CALLED " GRID" "BASE" EMMITTER" DETECTIO,. ALL ARE FORMS OF DIODES AND ACT AS DETECTORS AT CERTAIN FREQUENIES... USE O'SCOPE DETECTOR PROBE AND FIND OUT WHERE IT IS EMMITTIND "DETECTING" AND CHANGE ASSOCATED PARTS... GUARENTEED TO CURE TROUBLE........JENNINGS.....------------------
EMMONS D10 10-10 profex 2 deltafex ne1000 pv1000, pv 31 bd eq, +
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Keith Hilton
Member From: 248 Laurel Road Ozark, Missouri 65721
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posted 09 April 2005 11:01 PM
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Here is my 2 cents for what it is worth. To prevent RF on the input of my volume pedals, I use a 39pf capacitor. One side of the capacitor is attached to the signal line and the other side of the capacitor to ground. Hope this helps. |
Dave Grafe
Member From: Portland, Oregon, USA
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posted 10 April 2005 07:44 PM
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Radio stations often can be heard when the the ground pins of a building's outlets are all connected together but not actually grounded. This essentially creates a great big radio antenna all hooked up and waiting for your gear. I remember St. Andrews in Detroit, famous for carrying three stations at once due to this little oversight. Try playing a gig with THAT going on in your monitors! |
Jim Saunders
Member From: Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
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posted 11 April 2005 06:30 PM
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Tom, Respectfully, they are all wrong. It's ghosts. Listen carefully to what the voices are saying. |
Dave Grafe
Member From: Portland, Oregon, USA
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posted 11 April 2005 11:34 PM
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"...new axe...new axe...new axe...new axe..." |
John Daugherty
Member From: Rolla, Missouri, USA
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posted 12 April 2005 05:39 AM
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You can only hear the ghosts when you record and play it backwards. |
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