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#1
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Mysterious interference to satellite radio connected to Onkyo receiver
Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to read the following problem
description and offer some help. Original problem description: I recently purchased an Audiovox Sirius satellite radio, with car kit and home kit. CAR INSTALLATION: I have installed the unit in the car with perfect results. Reception is 3 (out of 3) bars and the radio works perfectly. There is never any interference caused by any car device (such as wipers, blinkers, etc.). HOME INSTALLATION: Here is the problem. Most of the time the radio works great, with either 2 or 3 bar reception. (I will mount the antenna outdoors in a day or two and should then have 3 bars at all times.) However, operating other electrical devices in the house temporarily mutes the sound from the satellite radio. Details: Turning a light on in the house (incandescent or fluorescent) that has not been on for a while (15 seconds, say) will cause the satellite radio to mute. The muting occurs for about 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, at the instant the light switch is thrown. If the particular light is turned off and the experiment is immediately repeated, then muting will not reoccur. But it will reoccur later, after the light has been off for a while. Additionally, the radio stays muted throughout the duration of our using the microwave oven. We have also observed other cases of reception rapidly coming and going, which we traced to flickering of the thermostat in our stove. Yet to be understood mutings/interference may be traceable to thermostats in refligerator, freezer, air conditioner, well pump, outdoor light, water heater, etc. We have the power supply for the home unit connected to a surge protector going to an outlet. Also plugged into the surge protector a VCR, TV, Stereo, PlayStation2, and stereo equalizer. No other device (tv, am or fm radio) exhibits any interference problems; however the lights in the house will slightly dim when the heater comes on with the emergency heating strips. (We have also tried the experiment after unplugging all the nonessential stuff, with the same results.) Finally, the satellite antenna has been placed through the back glass door in the center of a screen porch for these preliminary experiments. The antenna is about 8/10 feet from other electrical wiring (ceiling fan and outlets). Please help. Do I need some type of filter? On what? Is the satellite receiver defective? Please give me a list of things to try here. Thanks, in advance and please send response to the email address given above. On the basis of the above info, both Audiovox and Crutchfield recommended that I return the Audiovox Base Unit, as it may be defective. Instead, I purchased a second base unit yesterday and can provide the following update: 1 I purchased yesterday an additional home base unit at Best Buy. (I wanted an extra one for the bedroom anyway.) The second unit exhibits the same behavior as the first. In this experiment, I used all the second unit stuff (not just the base, but also the cables, power supply and antenna). 2 The satellite radio problem exists only when I route the audio signal into our Stereo receiver (Onkyo TX 844). Both the first and second base unit work perfectly with the following: Bose radio, Model 88 table radio, and even a Peavey public address system. The only problem is when the audiovox hardware is connected to the Onkyo receiver. I guess this makes it a problem with the Onkyo receiver or specific incompatibility between the satellite receiver and the Onkyo receiver. BTW, the stereo works perfectly for every other component plugged into it, exhibiting no strange behavior. Can anyone offer any ideas on how to get the satellite radio to work (without interference) through the Onkyo receiver? Thanks. Rick |
#2
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Mysterious interference to satellite radio connected to Onkyo receiver
The sat receiver is muting when it receives any small electrical
interference. The wires that you are using in combination to the device that they are feeding are most likely acting as a sort of antenna. The data stream being processed by the sat receiver is being seen as having some corruption on it, therefore the D/A in the sat receiver is muted. You mentioned that this only happens when you connect its output to your sound system. This type of thing is not uncommon with some data receivers. Your sat receiver is a data satellite receiver. By-the-way, the antenna for your receiver would be best to be out doors, not in the house. Even the glass in your window may attenuate the reception a little. When you have something that is cycling on and off, or even switching a light on or off, the switch contacts make small arc. This is normal. An arc which is a spark of electricity, contains all the harmonics in the frequency spectrum. This is why a spark can make a sound on any type of receiving device. This is especially true if the spark is high enough in amplitude in relation to the signal coming in to the receiver. Since your receivers and devices are connected to the AC mains in some form, and so is the device that is causing the interference to occur, the AC mains is also coupling the devices, sort of like a closed circuit antenna. Isolating these from RF interference can be sort of complex, and will be mostly experimental. Some of this interference is going through the air in the close proximity of your home, and some is going through the AC mains. Even an isolation transformer may still conduct much of the interference. AC line filters may pass it as well. You would have to understand the principles behind this in dept to understand why this can occur. More than likely your computer, or monitor, or any device near by with a heavy switching supply can cause your sat receiver to also have problems. What you can try, is to use a different power source for your sound system and sat receiver to start with. Take a long extension cord, and get the power for it from another part of your home. The try the same for the sat receiver. Do both the sat receiver and sound system at the same time. If you do them one at a time, you may introduce a ground loop. You can try them one at a time if you still have the problem. Make sure that the new power source is from the opposite side of your power buss in the breaker box. You have two different buss bars in the breaker panel. Most of the time, each end of the home is on opposite sides. You can tell this because the breakers go down the left and right sides. You want to have the power source from a breaker on the opposite side that you are on now. This may or may not work, but it is a start. I have several cell phones that when in the PCS mode, they will not work if I go to within about 3 feet to the microwave oven. I also found that when using my cell phones in the car the GPS goes nuts. The other day, it told me that I was driving in a near by lake at 215 mph! As soon as I ended the call, the GPS went back to normal again. -- Greetings, Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG ========================================= WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm ========================================= "Rick" wrote in message m... Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to read the following problem description and offer some help. Original problem description: I recently purchased an Audiovox Sirius satellite radio, with car kit and home kit. CAR INSTALLATION: I have installed the unit in the car with perfect results. Reception is 3 (out of 3) bars and the radio works perfectly. There is never any interference caused by any car device (such as wipers, blinkers, etc.). HOME INSTALLATION: Here is the problem. Most of the time the radio works great, with either 2 or 3 bar reception. (I will mount the antenna outdoors in a day or two and should then have 3 bars at all times.) However, operating other electrical devices in the house temporarily mutes the sound from the satellite radio. Details: Turning a light on in the house (incandescent or fluorescent) that has not been on for a while (15 seconds, say) will cause the satellite radio to mute. The muting occurs for about 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, at the instant the light switch is thrown. If the particular light is turned off and the experiment is immediately repeated, then muting will not reoccur. But it will reoccur later, after the light has been off for a while. Additionally, the radio stays muted throughout the duration of our using the microwave oven. We have also observed other cases of reception rapidly coming and going, which we traced to flickering of the thermostat in our stove. Yet to be understood mutings/interference may be traceable to thermostats in refligerator, freezer, air conditioner, well pump, outdoor light, water heater, etc. We have the power supply for the home unit connected to a surge protector going to an outlet. Also plugged into the surge protector a VCR, TV, Stereo, PlayStation2, and stereo equalizer. No other device (tv, am or fm radio) exhibits any interference problems; however the lights in the house will slightly dim when the heater comes on with the emergency heating strips. (We have also tried the experiment after unplugging all the nonessential stuff, with the same results.) Finally, the satellite antenna has been placed through the back glass door in the center of a screen porch for these preliminary experiments. The antenna is about 8/10 feet from other electrical wiring (ceiling fan and outlets). Please help. Do I need some type of filter? On what? Is the satellite receiver defective? Please give me a list of things to try here. Thanks, in advance and please send response to the email address given above. On the basis of the above info, both Audiovox and Crutchfield recommended that I return the Audiovox Base Unit, as it may be defective. Instead, I purchased a second base unit yesterday and can provide the following update: 1 I purchased yesterday an additional home base unit at Best Buy. (I wanted an extra one for the bedroom anyway.) The second unit exhibits the same behavior as the first. In this experiment, I used all the second unit stuff (not just the base, but also the cables, power supply and antenna). 2 The satellite radio problem exists only when I route the audio signal into our Stereo receiver (Onkyo TX 844). Both the first and second base unit work perfectly with the following: Bose radio, Model 88 table radio, and even a Peavey public address system. The only problem is when the audiovox hardware is connected to the Onkyo receiver. I guess this makes it a problem with the Onkyo receiver or specific incompatibility between the satellite receiver and the Onkyo receiver. BTW, the stereo works perfectly for every other component plugged into it, exhibiting no strange behavior. Can anyone offer any ideas on how to get the satellite radio to work (without interference) through the Onkyo receiver? Thanks. Rick |
#3
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Mysterious interference to satellite radio connected to Onkyo receiver
The sat receiver is muting when it receives any small electrical
interference. The wires that you are using in combination to the device that they are feeding are most likely acting as a sort of antenna. The data stream being processed by the sat receiver is being seen as having some corruption on it, therefore the D/A in the sat receiver is muted. You mentioned that this only happens when you connect its output to your sound system. This type of thing is not uncommon with some data receivers. Your sat receiver is a data satellite receiver. By-the-way, the antenna for your receiver would be best to be out doors, not in the house. Even the glass in your window may attenuate the reception a little. When you have something that is cycling on and off, or even switching a light on or off, the switch contacts make small arc. This is normal. An arc which is a spark of electricity, contains all the harmonics in the frequency spectrum. This is why a spark can make a sound on any type of receiving device. This is especially true if the spark is high enough in amplitude in relation to the signal coming in to the receiver. Since your receivers and devices are connected to the AC mains in some form, and so is the device that is causing the interference to occur, the AC mains is also coupling the devices, sort of like a closed circuit antenna. Isolating these from RF interference can be sort of complex, and will be mostly experimental. Some of this interference is going through the air in the close proximity of your home, and some is going through the AC mains. Even an isolation transformer may still conduct much of the interference. AC line filters may pass it as well. You would have to understand the principles behind this in dept to understand why this can occur. More than likely your computer, or monitor, or any device near by with a heavy switching supply can cause your sat receiver to also have problems. What you can try, is to use a different power source for your sound system and sat receiver to start with. Take a long extension cord, and get the power for it from another part of your home. The try the same for the sat receiver. Do both the sat receiver and sound system at the same time. If you do them one at a time, you may introduce a ground loop. You can try them one at a time if you still have the problem. Make sure that the new power source is from the opposite side of your power buss in the breaker box. You have two different buss bars in the breaker panel. Most of the time, each end of the home is on opposite sides. You can tell this because the breakers go down the left and right sides. You want to have the power source from a breaker on the opposite side that you are on now. This may or may not work, but it is a start. I have several cell phones that when in the PCS mode, they will not work if I go to within about 3 feet to the microwave oven. I also found that when using my cell phones in the car the GPS goes nuts. The other day, it told me that I was driving in a near by lake at 215 mph! As soon as I ended the call, the GPS went back to normal again. -- Greetings, Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG ========================================= WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm ========================================= "Rick" wrote in message m... Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to read the following problem description and offer some help. Original problem description: I recently purchased an Audiovox Sirius satellite radio, with car kit and home kit. CAR INSTALLATION: I have installed the unit in the car with perfect results. Reception is 3 (out of 3) bars and the radio works perfectly. There is never any interference caused by any car device (such as wipers, blinkers, etc.). HOME INSTALLATION: Here is the problem. Most of the time the radio works great, with either 2 or 3 bar reception. (I will mount the antenna outdoors in a day or two and should then have 3 bars at all times.) However, operating other electrical devices in the house temporarily mutes the sound from the satellite radio. Details: Turning a light on in the house (incandescent or fluorescent) that has not been on for a while (15 seconds, say) will cause the satellite radio to mute. The muting occurs for about 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, at the instant the light switch is thrown. If the particular light is turned off and the experiment is immediately repeated, then muting will not reoccur. But it will reoccur later, after the light has been off for a while. Additionally, the radio stays muted throughout the duration of our using the microwave oven. We have also observed other cases of reception rapidly coming and going, which we traced to flickering of the thermostat in our stove. Yet to be understood mutings/interference may be traceable to thermostats in refligerator, freezer, air conditioner, well pump, outdoor light, water heater, etc. We have the power supply for the home unit connected to a surge protector going to an outlet. Also plugged into the surge protector a VCR, TV, Stereo, PlayStation2, and stereo equalizer. No other device (tv, am or fm radio) exhibits any interference problems; however the lights in the house will slightly dim when the heater comes on with the emergency heating strips. (We have also tried the experiment after unplugging all the nonessential stuff, with the same results.) Finally, the satellite antenna has been placed through the back glass door in the center of a screen porch for these preliminary experiments. The antenna is about 8/10 feet from other electrical wiring (ceiling fan and outlets). Please help. Do I need some type of filter? On what? Is the satellite receiver defective? Please give me a list of things to try here. Thanks, in advance and please send response to the email address given above. On the basis of the above info, both Audiovox and Crutchfield recommended that I return the Audiovox Base Unit, as it may be defective. Instead, I purchased a second base unit yesterday and can provide the following update: 1 I purchased yesterday an additional home base unit at Best Buy. (I wanted an extra one for the bedroom anyway.) The second unit exhibits the same behavior as the first. In this experiment, I used all the second unit stuff (not just the base, but also the cables, power supply and antenna). 2 The satellite radio problem exists only when I route the audio signal into our Stereo receiver (Onkyo TX 844). Both the first and second base unit work perfectly with the following: Bose radio, Model 88 table radio, and even a Peavey public address system. The only problem is when the audiovox hardware is connected to the Onkyo receiver. I guess this makes it a problem with the Onkyo receiver or specific incompatibility between the satellite receiver and the Onkyo receiver. BTW, the stereo works perfectly for every other component plugged into it, exhibiting no strange behavior. Can anyone offer any ideas on how to get the satellite radio to work (without interference) through the Onkyo receiver? Thanks. Rick |
#4
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Mysterious interference to satellite radio connected to Onkyo receiver
The sat receiver is muting when it receives any small electrical
interference. The wires that you are using in combination to the device that they are feeding are most likely acting as a sort of antenna. The data stream being processed by the sat receiver is being seen as having some corruption on it, therefore the D/A in the sat receiver is muted. You mentioned that this only happens when you connect its output to your sound system. This type of thing is not uncommon with some data receivers. Your sat receiver is a data satellite receiver. By-the-way, the antenna for your receiver would be best to be out doors, not in the house. Even the glass in your window may attenuate the reception a little. When you have something that is cycling on and off, or even switching a light on or off, the switch contacts make small arc. This is normal. An arc which is a spark of electricity, contains all the harmonics in the frequency spectrum. This is why a spark can make a sound on any type of receiving device. This is especially true if the spark is high enough in amplitude in relation to the signal coming in to the receiver. Since your receivers and devices are connected to the AC mains in some form, and so is the device that is causing the interference to occur, the AC mains is also coupling the devices, sort of like a closed circuit antenna. Isolating these from RF interference can be sort of complex, and will be mostly experimental. Some of this interference is going through the air in the close proximity of your home, and some is going through the AC mains. Even an isolation transformer may still conduct much of the interference. AC line filters may pass it as well. You would have to understand the principles behind this in dept to understand why this can occur. More than likely your computer, or monitor, or any device near by with a heavy switching supply can cause your sat receiver to also have problems. What you can try, is to use a different power source for your sound system and sat receiver to start with. Take a long extension cord, and get the power for it from another part of your home. The try the same for the sat receiver. Do both the sat receiver and sound system at the same time. If you do them one at a time, you may introduce a ground loop. You can try them one at a time if you still have the problem. Make sure that the new power source is from the opposite side of your power buss in the breaker box. You have two different buss bars in the breaker panel. Most of the time, each end of the home is on opposite sides. You can tell this because the breakers go down the left and right sides. You want to have the power source from a breaker on the opposite side that you are on now. This may or may not work, but it is a start. I have several cell phones that when in the PCS mode, they will not work if I go to within about 3 feet to the microwave oven. I also found that when using my cell phones in the car the GPS goes nuts. The other day, it told me that I was driving in a near by lake at 215 mph! As soon as I ended the call, the GPS went back to normal again. -- Greetings, Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG ========================================= WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm ========================================= "Rick" wrote in message m... Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to read the following problem description and offer some help. Original problem description: I recently purchased an Audiovox Sirius satellite radio, with car kit and home kit. CAR INSTALLATION: I have installed the unit in the car with perfect results. Reception is 3 (out of 3) bars and the radio works perfectly. There is never any interference caused by any car device (such as wipers, blinkers, etc.). HOME INSTALLATION: Here is the problem. Most of the time the radio works great, with either 2 or 3 bar reception. (I will mount the antenna outdoors in a day or two and should then have 3 bars at all times.) However, operating other electrical devices in the house temporarily mutes the sound from the satellite radio. Details: Turning a light on in the house (incandescent or fluorescent) that has not been on for a while (15 seconds, say) will cause the satellite radio to mute. The muting occurs for about 0.5 to 1.0 seconds, at the instant the light switch is thrown. If the particular light is turned off and the experiment is immediately repeated, then muting will not reoccur. But it will reoccur later, after the light has been off for a while. Additionally, the radio stays muted throughout the duration of our using the microwave oven. We have also observed other cases of reception rapidly coming and going, which we traced to flickering of the thermostat in our stove. Yet to be understood mutings/interference may be traceable to thermostats in refligerator, freezer, air conditioner, well pump, outdoor light, water heater, etc. We have the power supply for the home unit connected to a surge protector going to an outlet. Also plugged into the surge protector a VCR, TV, Stereo, PlayStation2, and stereo equalizer. No other device (tv, am or fm radio) exhibits any interference problems; however the lights in the house will slightly dim when the heater comes on with the emergency heating strips. (We have also tried the experiment after unplugging all the nonessential stuff, with the same results.) Finally, the satellite antenna has been placed through the back glass door in the center of a screen porch for these preliminary experiments. The antenna is about 8/10 feet from other electrical wiring (ceiling fan and outlets). Please help. Do I need some type of filter? On what? Is the satellite receiver defective? Please give me a list of things to try here. Thanks, in advance and please send response to the email address given above. On the basis of the above info, both Audiovox and Crutchfield recommended that I return the Audiovox Base Unit, as it may be defective. Instead, I purchased a second base unit yesterday and can provide the following update: 1 I purchased yesterday an additional home base unit at Best Buy. (I wanted an extra one for the bedroom anyway.) The second unit exhibits the same behavior as the first. In this experiment, I used all the second unit stuff (not just the base, but also the cables, power supply and antenna). 2 The satellite radio problem exists only when I route the audio signal into our Stereo receiver (Onkyo TX 844). Both the first and second base unit work perfectly with the following: Bose radio, Model 88 table radio, and even a Peavey public address system. The only problem is when the audiovox hardware is connected to the Onkyo receiver. I guess this makes it a problem with the Onkyo receiver or specific incompatibility between the satellite receiver and the Onkyo receiver. BTW, the stereo works perfectly for every other component plugged into it, exhibiting no strange behavior. Can anyone offer any ideas on how to get the satellite radio to work (without interference) through the Onkyo receiver? Thanks. Rick |
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