FM Station Interference

[LarryK]

One of the places where I play every week is right down the street from a local FM radio station. I can't use my active pickup basses there because when I do, the radio station broadcast comes through my amp. No problem with the passive pickup basses. Has anyone else in TB land ever experienced this type of problem, and is there a remedy?

[iamlowsound]

Never heard of this, but I would assume that some shielding would fix this.

lowsound

[bluestarbass]

sometimes shielding will help but it depends if its comming from your amp or the bass or something else. Usually i have this problem with passive instruements, not active so im not quite sure.

[iamlowsound]

My bass amp will pick up a ringing cell phone, but my buddies amp wont. Sometimes it is just the stuff in the bass/amp.

lowsound

[Phalex]

We play a place right underneath a transmitter tower. We get talk radio, and sometimes sports. It seems that atmospheric conditions play a role in how good the reception is. Sometimes it's the bass amp, sometimes it's the whole PA that picks it up. We've found that there is one outlet that seems to alleviate the problem so we try to plug all the amps into that one, but sometimes that doesn't even work (Those atmospheric conditions I think). I saw a band there a few weeks ago, and they were pretty quiet as far as the radio station went, but they'd get super loud bursts of crystal clear reception now and again. Shielding would probably help if it's your bass picking up the signal. If it's just a leg of a transistor in an amp that's acting like an antenna, you could try a different location, or maybe ground or ground lift and see what that does for you.

[Lonnybass]

Try a ferrite clamp. Radio Shack sells them for like $5. It's the same principle as the cylinder brick on the cables for your home electronics and PC gear. Loop the end of your cable around the clamp a bunch of times just before it gets plugged into your amp.

Lonnybass

[stedtale]

Originally Posted by Lonnybass

Try a ferrite clamp. Radio Shack sells them for like $5. It's the same principle as the cylinder brick on the cables for your home electronics and PC gear. Loop the end of your cable around the clamp a bunch of times just before it gets plugged into your amp.

Lonnybass

+1 I actually have one of these on in in on my BT500H, it did help some of the "hiss".


Of course if you are really close to the tower, you may be out of luck with such a strong signal.

Talk to ExaltBass, he plays at church located right by the "tower farm" in minneapolis/st paul.

[zac2944]

Originally Posted by Lonnybass

Try a ferrite clamp. Radio Shack sells them for like $5. It's the same principle as the cylinder brick on the cables for your home electronics and PC gear. Loop the end of your cable around the clamp a bunch of times just before it gets plugged into your amp.

Lonnybass

+2 IME these really do work. I keep a ferrite torroid in my gig bag just incase I get RFI at a gig.