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Unexpected weirdness...

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AdeV:
Have you ever had something completely unexpected, and quite possibly inexplicable happen to you?

Here at home, my computer is plugged into an amplifier & from there into 2 speakers. I also have a second input, which I plugged into my laptop. I couldn't get it to work (found out eventually the computer was sending audio own the HDMI cable to the speakerless monitor. Not terribly useful!), but whilst I was fiddling with the connection at the laptop end, I discovered that if I had it half-in, half-out of the laptop socket, I could hear a football match over the speakers!!! What's weird is, my amplifier is NOT a tuner amplifer, it doesn't have a radio in it at all. So what the hell was plucking a radio signal out of the air, demoduating it into amplifier-friendly signals to the point I could hear it!?!?

Note: It wasn't the laptop (once I figured the correct audio path, that works perfectly); and it only happened when it was literally half-in half-out of the laptop; unplug completely and it went away, plug in completely and it went away.

As the title of this thread says: Unexpected weirdness! Anyone else experienced anything like this? Or weirder?

awemawson:
The BBC long wave transmitter at Rugby (198 Khz ?) when it was in use was pretty powerful. There were reports of peoples radiators in nearby houses demodulating the signal.

I assume the copper pipe to iron or steel radiator junction had some copper salt crystal acting as a rectifier :scratch: I think this transmitter also used (perhaps still does) carry the ULF signals used for transmission to submarines.

 

philf:
Ade,

Many years ago (40+ years ago) I had a hi-fi system in my bedroom. My Mum complained that the FM radio downstairs was picking up the music I was playing on cassette upstairs.

For some reason my hi-fi was transmitting. If I repositioned the cable between the cassette deck and the amp it changed the frequency!

I managed to move the frequency away from broadcasting over radio 2 and could listen to music in the garage.

I've also heard of church organ pipes picking up radio signals.

Andrew - Where's the 198kHz signal being broadcast from now? In the early 80s I made a receiver to pick up the signal and then wrote a program in BBC Basic to decode it. I'll still have it all somewhere. (Inc. 3 BBC Model Bs!)

My wife and I were on a cycling trip last year and came across a derelict VLF radio station at Criggion near Welshpool. This was used for submarine communications at the time of the Falklands War. http://www.oswestry-history.co.uk/criggion-radio-station.html

Phil.

awemawson:
Your Mum listened to Radio Two  :bugeye: Good heavens man there is no hope for you  :lol:


The Rugby Transmitter Aerial Farm was very visible going up the M1 about junction 18 /19 just before the Watford Gap Services. I don't travel like I used to so not sure if it's still there or has been replaced by endless boring 'different but the same' housing estates for the population of Eastern Europe !

philf:

--- Quote from: awemawson on March 17, 2018, 03:06:05 PM ---Your Mum listened to Radio Two  :bugeye: Good heavens man there is no hope for you  :lol:


The Rugby Transmitter Aerial Farm was very visible going up the M1 about junction 18 /19 just before the Watford Gap Services. I don't travel like I used to so not sure if it's still there or has been replaced by endless boring 'different but the same' housing estates for the population of Eastern Europe !

--- End quote ---

I must admit I listen to Radio 2 when I'm in the car. Can't be doing with Radio 1 with too much (C)Rap rubbish!

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