My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy
Hmmm. Are you sure the station that plays quietly all the time is an
FM station? AM can be decoded using only a diode (or anything that
acts like a diode - think crystal radio). FM is more difficult to
decode and usually doesn't cause problems like yours. Regarding the
small coil, they bend the one loop to get just the right amount of
inductance during the factory setup. You may have detuned a circuit
by "fixing" the bent loop.

On 12/24/2010 10:22 PM Jimmy spake thus:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Just to clear up that one mystery, that wax-coated coil thingy is a
"loopstick antenna", basically just a bunch of wire wound around a
ferrite core. It's only used for AM, not FM.

Maybe it's a conspiracy.


--
Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.

On 12/24/2010 10:22 PM Jimmy spake thus:

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Oops, sent that last message before reading carefully. That coil is on
the circuit board, right? Basically, don't mess with any of them;
bending them could change their inductance (basically their "coil-ness")
and have adverse effects on how the radio functions.

Same with all those things in metal cans with adjustment screws at the
top: those are adjustable coils or transformers, and turning the screws
is guaranteed to screw up your radio.


--
Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.

Jimmy wrote in message
...
My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy


Do you live close to a store that plays Muzak to its customers?

This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy
from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a
50kW AM station with a long antenna).

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

Tell your neighbor to turn their radio down, as you can clearly hear
it in your flat.

In article ,
William Sommerwerck wrote:
This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy

If "off" is really "off", and not "on, but waiting for the remote
control".

from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a
50kW AM station with a long antenna).

You hear stories about people who live near a large city's antenna farm,
where the fluorescent lamps glow even with no wiring. If one of the
local FM stations is badly maintained enough that it has residual AM on
its signal due to a mis-tuned transmitter, you could get this effect.
I remember some Usenet threads, many years back, on the battles a
listener had with a station in the upper Midwest who had this problem.
It was a religious station and God did their engineering for them so
their signal quality couldn't be questioned. ;-).

Another example: my TV set was busy making buzzing noises on September
12, 2001, even when it was as "off" as any remote controlled set is
these days. They had parked a Destroyer at the entrance to the channel
to the Bremerton Navy Yard and, even at five miles away, the RFI from
the search radar was strong enough to get into the audio section.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:17:08 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy
from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a
50kW AM station with a long antenna).

The 1950 ish console my parents had when I was young did pick up the
local AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800, Jimmy wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music, even
when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of the
band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6 weeks,
plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or tuning knobs,
and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

It's all in your head. Call a psychiatrist tomorrow.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

In this case, the station is FM. Hearing the signal would require slope
detection, an implausible/unlikely occurrence.

I remain highly suspicious, yea, even unto total disbelief.

wrote:

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:17:08 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:


This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy

from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a

50kW AM station with a long antenna).


The 1950 ish console my parents had when I was young did pick up the
local AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

Yes, and so did the brass rail bed when the near by AM station cranked
up it's power during a baseball game.. You could literally lay there
in bead and listen to the game coming from the brass rods which made up
the head board of the bed!

This was a common assurance back in the days with beds made of coil
springs and so on.. Get a few galvanic connections and you have your
diode effects for the detectors!

It wasn't something that was load but my hearing was sensitive then
and it still isn't too bad now..


Jamie

"Jimmy" wrote in message
...
My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy


Since you're interested in learning and these days radio alarm clocks are so
cheap they're hardly worth bothering to repair, why not use the faulty one
as a donor for components to experiment with?

You'll nead some basic tools like a soldering iron, snipe-nosed pliers etc
and a cheap digital multimeter.

Beginners electronics books sometimes come up on
News:alt.binaries.e-book.technical .

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy wrote:
My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

Put it in the trash. Once it is in a landfill 20 miles away, you
won't hear it.

William Sommerwerck wrote:

The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.


I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

In this case, the station is FM. Hearing the signal would require slope
detection, an implausible/unlikely occurrence.

I remain highly suspicious, yea, even unto total disbelief.


If the person happens to be living over a business, would be safe
to assume that maybe the business has a ceilling speaker mounted ?


jamie

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
put finger to keyboard and composed:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It should fix itself by Boxing Day.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

If the person happens to be living over a business,
would it be safe to assume that maybe the business
has a ceilling speaker mounted?

We're assuming the OP has confirmed that the sound /is/ actually coming from
the radio.

William Sommerwerck wrote:

? The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
? AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

In this case, the station is FM. Hearing the signal would require slope
detection, an implausible/unlikely occurrence.

I remain highly suspicious, yea, even unto total disbelief.


I had a dead car radio pick up a FM station, even though the output
transistor had an open emitter. I was near the base of the tower at a
transmitter site when someone preaching came out of the speaker. I was
less than 1000 feet from the tower that had five, 50 KW transmitters
feeding the curtain antenna. I had to laugh, since I was there to do
the weekly maintenance on a 5 MW UHF Christian TV station. I bought a
new radio a few days later and did an autopsy on the dead Delco AM only
factory radio. It was a retired 1979 Chevy Malibu police cruiser, and I
wanted to see if there were any modifications.

The RF was quite hot at that site, but it only picked up the radio
station for about 100 feet before it started to fade. It was basicly an
untuned crystal radio, in an intense field. It did have good audio,
though.


--
For the last time: I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!

I had a dead car radio pick up a FM station, even though the
output transistor had an open emitter. I was near the base of
the tower at a transmitter site when someone preaching came
out of the speaker. I was less than 1000 feet from the tower
that had five, 50 KW transmitters feeding the curtain antenna.

With 250kW, it's surprising you didn't hear the station through your
fillings.

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:19:08 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

The station was located bout 3/4 of a mile away and the console
was all tube with a transformer that fed the speaker.

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
wrote:

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

It's not coming from the radio. It's coming from the fillings in your
teeth.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
To make an FM ratio detector or discriminator, you need two diodes and
therefore two fillings, probably on each side of your mouth. If
you've had recent dental work, this is a possibility. Try gargling
with something alkaline and see if the music goes away.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

William Sommerwerck wrote:

I had a dead car radio pick up a FM station, even though the
output transistor had an open emitter. I was near the base of
the tower at a transmitter site when someone preaching came
out of the speaker. I was less than 1000 feet from the tower
that had five, 50 KW transmitters feeding the curtain antenna.

With 250kW, it's surprising you didn't hear the station through your
fillings.


I didn't have any fillings, or I might have. There was also a 5 MW
EIRP Ch. 55 and a 1.8 MW EIRP Ch. 64 UHF signal, plus about 100 250 W
VHF high band & UHF two way radio transmitters. We were also in the
path of a 4 GHz ATT microwave relay and had multiple UHF and microwave
STL links aimed at the site. The only place I saw that was worse was
the VOA Bethany plant (Morrow Ohio) with 10, 50 KW HF transmitters on
various short wave bands. You could hold a florescent lamp inside the
facility and it would light from stray RF. It's intensity changed, with
the modulation of the various tansmitters. The only way to 'turn it
off' was to stick it in a locker.


--
For the last time: I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
wrote:

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

It's not coming from the radio. It's coming from the fillings in your
teeth.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
To make an FM ratio detector or discriminator, you need two diodes and
therefore two fillings, probably on each side of your mouth. If
you've had recent dental work, this is a possibility. Try gargling
with something alkaline and see if the music goes away.


Snopes has never heard of 'Slope Detection'?


--
For the last time: I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!

On 12/26/2010 5:15 AM, Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Snopes has never heard of 'Slope Detection'?

They were never in Korea...

Slope Detection was a necessary way of staying alive.

Snickers.

Jeff

The only place I saw that was worse was the VOA Bethany
plant (Morrow Ohio) with 10, 50 KW HF transmitters on
various short wave bands. You could hold a fluorescent lamp
inside the facility and it would light from stray RF.

Michael, I know you well enough to know you almost know what you're talking
about, and you're /not/ a liar, but I find that hard to believe. How could
the field strength be high enough to ionize the gas without also ionizing
one's brain (or other bodily parts)?

The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

The station was located bout 3/4 of a mile away and the
console was all tube with a transformer that fed the speaker.

By "mechanism", I meant what was going on electrically. How was the signal
picked up, demodulated, and fed to the speaker at sufficient level to be
audible?

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

It's not coming from the radio. It's coming from the fillings in your
teeth.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
To make an FM ratio detector or discriminator, you need two
diodes and therefore two fillings, probably on each side of your
mouth.

Not necessarily. If he tilted his head, wouldn't he get slope detection from
just one filling?

On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 06:14:35 -0500, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

William Sommerwerck wrote:

I had a dead car radio pick up a FM station, even though the output
transistor had an open emitter. I was near the base of the tower at a
transmitter site when someone preaching came out of the speaker. I
was less than 1000 feet from the tower that had five, 50 KW
transmitters feeding the curtain antenna.

With 250kW, it's surprising you didn't hear the station through your
fillings.


I didn't have any fillings, or I might have. There was also a 5 MW
EIRP Ch. 55 and a 1.8 MW EIRP Ch. 64 UHF signal, plus about 100 250 W
VHF high band & UHF two way radio transmitters. We were also in the
path of a 4 GHz ATT microwave relay and had multiple UHF and microwave
STL links aimed at the site. The only place I saw that was worse was
the VOA Bethany plant (Morrow Ohio) with 10, 50 KW HF transmitters on
various short wave bands. You could hold a florescent lamp inside the
facility and it would light from stray RF. It's intensity changed, with
the modulation of the various tansmitters. The only way to 'turn it
off' was to stick it in a locker.

Weren't the ATT relays 6 and 10 ghz?



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

On 12/26/2010 7:29 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:
How could the field strength be high enough to ionize
the gas without also ionizing one's brain (or other
bodily parts)?

Well, I had the same experience while working at Mt.
Wilson in the Los Angeles area.

A Bird Watt meter would typically read 3-5 watts by
itself. Without being hooked up.

And yes, RF levels like that are why OSHA came up with
with requirements for the "lead jump suit from hell".

Jeff

How could the field strength be high enough to ionize
the gas without also ionizing one's brain (or other
bodily parts)?

Well, I had the same experience while working at Mt.
Wilson in the Los Angeles area.
A Bird wattmeter would typically read 3-5 watts by
itself. Without being hooked up.
And yes, RF levels like that are why OSHA came up
with with requirements for the "lead jump suit from hell".

You didn't feel any tingling or other physiological effects?

On 12/26/2010 8:11 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:
How could the field strength be high enough to ionize
the gas without also ionizing one's brain (or other
bodily parts)?

Well, I had the same experience while working at Mt.
Wilson in the Los Angeles area.
A Bird wattmeter would typically read 3-5 watts by
itself. Without being hooked up.
And yes, RF levels like that are why OSHA came up
with with requirements for the "lead jump suit from hell".

You didn't feel any tingling or other physiological effects?



Nope. be we always made it a point to get in, get done and
get out as quickly as possible.

Jeff

William Sommerwerck wrote:

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.


It's not coming from the radio. It's coming from the fillings in your
teeth.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
To make an FM ratio detector or discriminator, you need two
diodes and therefore two fillings, probably on each side of your
mouth.


Not necessarily. If he tilted his head, wouldn't he get slope detection from
just one filling?


No, you tilted your head to change the detection angle of the radio wave
polarity, thus, getting bipolar detection.

Jamie

Jeffrey Angus wrote:

On 12/26/2010 7:29 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:

How could the field strength be high enough to ionize
the gas without also ionizing one's brain (or other
bodily parts)?


Well, I had the same experience while working at Mt.
Wilson in the Los Angeles area.

A Bird Watt meter would typically read 3-5 watts by
itself. Without being hooked up.

And yes, RF levels like that are why OSHA came up with
with requirements for the "lead jump suit from hell".

Jeff
Ah, Bird Meters, I have a couple of those with the slugs.

Nice meters how ever, I could never understand their value
over other meters that get the job done.

Jamie

--

"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
The only place I saw that was worse was the VOA Bethany
plant (Morrow Ohio) with 10, 50 KW HF transmitters on
various short wave bands. You could hold a fluorescent lamp
inside the facility and it would light from stray RF.

Michael, I know you well enough to know you almost know what you're
talking
about, and you're /not/ a liar, but I find that hard to believe. How could
the field strength be high enough to ionize the gas without also ionizing
one's brain (or other bodily parts)?


Back when CB was the latest new toy I heard plenty of anecdotes about rigs
with power boosters causing florescent tubes to glow when keyed.

When I was a kid me and a few lads raided the council tip (which didn't have
any fence back then). We found half a skip of dumped florescent tubes.

Initially we got on our bicycles and used the tubes as lances in a jousting
contest, but when we held up a tube under the National Grid 400kV pylons we
found the tube glowed quite visibly as dusk fell.

We planted a small forrest of tubes in the mud under the overhead cables
close to the railway line to entertain the late commuters as their train
went past.

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
m...

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
wrote:

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

It's not coming from the radio. It's coming from the fillings in your
teeth.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
To make an FM ratio detector or discriminator, you need two diodes and
therefore two fillings, probably on each side of your mouth. If
you've had recent dental work, this is a possibility. Try gargling
with something alkaline and see if the music goes away.


Snopes has never heard of 'Slope Detection'?


In the early days of 625line UHF TV quite a lot of British made TVs used
slope detection for the 6Mhz FM sound carrier.

In article ,
William Sommerwerck wrote:
The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

The station was located bout 3/4 of a mile away and the
console was all tube with a transformer that fed the speaker.

By "mechanism", I meant what was going on electrically. How was the signal
picked up, demodulated, and fed to the speaker at sufficient level to be
audible?

One example, back about 20 years ago, a friend on the Olympic Peninsula
had an old Knight Kit tube stereo amp. It was able to pick up both
KGEI near San Francisco (a religious shortwave broadcaster, specializing
in Russian Language, who had a really strong signal in the 6 Mhz band)
and the Soviet's "Woodpecker" over the horizon radar that used HF.

His (long) speaker wires were probably a good half wave dipole at that
frequency, and the feedback circuit provided a good path from the speaker
wiring back to the low level input circuitry.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 06:15:48 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
wrote:

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

It's not coming from the radio. It's coming from the fillings in your
teeth.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/fillings.asp
To make an FM ratio detector or discriminator, you need two diodes and
therefore two fillings, probably on each side of your mouth. If
you've had recent dental work, this is a possibility. Try gargling
with something alkaline and see if the music goes away.

Snopes has never heard of 'Slope Detection'?

Slope detection works with some sort of frequency to amplitude
conversion contrivance. That might be possible if Jimmy's mouth or
head were a fairly high Q resonant cavity with the FM station on the
filter skirts. If true, he should be able to open and close his mouth
to affect the tuning. Perhaps lining the inside (or outside) of the
mouth, or possibly the head, with aluminium foil might improve the Q
and therefore the selectivity. Inserting a megaphone in the mouth
might be useful for having others share the experience.

Resonant frequency of the human skull (about 400MHz):
http://books.google.com/books?id=NNqCbnToEYYC&pg=PA97

Slope Detector:
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=V11hAAAAEBAJ
Patented in 1929. Uses one or two diodes.

More on "cavity" detector technology:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=367925


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 10:26:40 -0500, Jamie wrote:

Jeffrey Angus wrote:

On 12/26/2010 7:29 AM, William Sommerwerck wrote:

How could the field strength be high enough to ionize the gas without
also ionizing one's brain (or other bodily parts)?


Well, I had the same experience while working at Mt. Wilson in the Los
Angeles area.

A Bird Watt meter would typically read 3-5 watts by itself. Without
being hooked up.

And yes, RF levels like that are why OSHA came up with with
requirements for the "lead jump suit from hell".

Jeff
Ah, Bird Meters, I have a couple of those with the slugs.

Nice meters how ever, I could never understand their value
over other meters that get the job done.

Jamie

Bird meters and other test equipment were pretty simple to use and
calibrated to government standards. I used to repair and install public
service communications equipment and the Bird was the gold standard.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 08:01:05 -0600, Jeffrey Angus
wrote:

Well, I had the same experience while working at Mt.
Wilson in the Los Angeles area.

A Bird Watt meter would typically read 3-5 watts by
itself. Without being hooked up.

And yes, RF levels like that are why OSHA came up with
with requirements for the "lead jump suit from hell".

High fashion RF protection:
http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html

Been there, done that. We had to use incandescent lights in the
building under the NBC tower because the fluorescent lights would not
turn off until someone kludged a 3 way wall switch to short out the
lights when off. I had a bag of NE-2 neon lamps that would light up
on some antenna connectors. These daze, the fillings in my teeth
would hurt when I go up to Umunhum, Mt Toro or Hidden Hills. I
recently had them replaced with UV setting cement, which hopefully
will eliminate the problem.

Also, Bird wattmeters are not my idea of accurate. 5% of full scale
at best. That means that if you use a 100 watt slug to measure a 25
watt transmitter, your actual power can be anywhere from 20 to 30
watts. What's inside:
http://www.repeater-builder.com/projects/bird-element-tour/bird-element-tour.html
I never can get an accurate VWSR reading on a broadcast mountain top
because the reverse power from antenna pickup would never really go
away. I usually have to throw in a BPF cavity between the antenna and
the wattmeter to get rid of the broadcast leakage.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

(Mark Zenier) wrote:
In article ,

William Sommerwerck wrote:
A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy

If "off" is really "off", and not "on, but waiting for the remote
control".

Yes, this radio has "soft" on-off buttons (momentary switches on a
circuit board).

You hear stories about people who live near a large city's antenna farm,
where the fluorescent lamps glow even with no wiring. *If one of the
local FM stations is badly maintained enough that it has residual AM on
its signal due to a mis-tuned transmitter, you could get this effect.

The transmitter for this station is on a building about 2 miles away,
with dense city development in between.

But I suspect the problem is entirely within my radio, since I've
never had similar problems with other radios.

Jimmy