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Article #5800

RF Interference from Taxi CB's

#5800
From: Michael Aieta
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 1990 20:13
50 lines
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Is there any effective way to eliminate interference on my 
home Musical PA System (Mixing Board, Tape Machine, and Power Amps)

The interference I get is strictly from (what I assume to be highly illegal)
boosted CB signals from what sounds to me like Pakistani cab drivers in 
the city.  It can be VERY VERY loud, much louder than any signal coming out
of my mixer, and it occurs even with the volume from the 
mixing pre-amp is all the way down.  I have balanced microphones running into
the mixer (along with line-level signals).  This sum is in turn fed to both
a tape machine and the power amplifiers through normal 'guitar' cable (1/4"
2 -wire cable).

All gear fed into the system is connected to the same ground running to
a cold water pipe that runs to the bottom of the apartment building (I am
on the third floor) and I assume it goes underground somewhat from there.

I reduced the lengths of the cables running from the mixer to the amplifiers
to attempt to keep them from acting as antennae.  It seemed to make
a small bit of difference, i.e. the cabbies still come through but somewhat
lower and less clear (at least last night they were quieter,although they
might have just been farther away.

So, down to my questions to you RF,audio,radio,CB,op-amp buffs!

How do I shield the cables running from the mixer to the amps?
Do you run a twisted pair with a true shield that you attach to a ground
at the mixer/pre-amp side only?  Both sides?  Neither?

How would I go about putting an RF filter (I have some basic schematics from
the FCC for TV's, stereos etc.) on my power amps?  On my mixer?  The mixer
is an Alesis 1622 for you musicians, for you techies it is a monolithic 
integrated circuit so I don`t believe I can isolate any pre-amp
components per se.

How exactly do I get these and how do they get broadcast so f%*#ing loud?
How much power are these guys putting out?  FCC limits are 4W, but it sounds
to me like these guys are cranking out hundreds.

I have even jotted down plate numbers of cabs that are sporting 20 ft. antennae
with fat bases and big coils wrapped around them, and I don't mean to sound
prejudiced in any way, but it sure is some coincidence that these airwave
pirates all sound (and look when I see the bigass antennae) like either Indians
or Arabs - i.e. Paki's.

Please no flames from Indians, Paki's, or Arabs, as I am sure there are plenty
of plain ol' honky's, Black, and Hispanic, etc. cabbies that are equally
offensive to the airwaves, it is just that in my area that is all I hear.

Any suggestions, solutions to similar problems?
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From: aieta@ils.nwu.edu (Michael Aieta)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: RF Interference from Taxi CB's
Message-ID: <1491@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu>
Date: 24 Aug 90 20:13:12 GMT
Sender: news@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu
Reply-To: aieta@ils.nwu.edu (Michael Aieta)
Distribution: world
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences
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