radio station no tuner

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 1188 times.

truant

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 103
radio station no tuner
« on: 11 Feb 2004, 04:24 am »
I'm sure someone out there can help me with this: I have a two channel setup...tube preamp, cd/dvd player, monoblock amps, and of course two speakers. Tonight for the first time when I turned on my system I could faintly hear a radio program through one of my speakers. I have been thinking about getting a tuner but how does my stereo know this?

TG

radio station no tuner
« Reply #1 on: 11 Feb 2004, 04:31 am »
It must be psychic!  Have you moved any of the equipment recently, particularly any of the wiring?

truant

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 103
radio station no tuner
« Reply #2 on: 11 Feb 2004, 04:52 am »
Yes. Today I moved the cabinet that holds the components as well as the speakers...about a foot. I've moved things before without a response. How would my system pick this up?

TG

radio station no tuner
« Reply #3 on: 11 Feb 2004, 07:14 am »
You'd be surprised how much difference there is to reception of broadcast signals due to antenna patterns - do you remember the days of "rabbit ear" antennas on televisions?  A tiny difference in location can make or break reception.  With the system on, try picking up one cable at a time and moving it a bit - lift up, sideways, etc.  I'll bet you'll eventually find that one cable was picking up a station and a move of a few inches will cure the problem.

Any coil of wire can form an induction loop or antenna, and as your wiring is all connected to your gear in some way it's not surprising that this can happen - sometimes radio signals can ride on the ground connections and induce signals into nearby wiring, which is eventually amplified.

I once had a particularly troublesome valve preamp which would detect AM radio all by itself without being connected to anything else!  The chassis was acting as an antenna and the signal was being picked up by the slightly microphonic valves I had and being amplified.  As soon as the power was turned on to the preamp, even with the power amps off, you could faintly hear radio from the speakers.

Cheers

truant

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 103
radio station no tuner
« Reply #4 on: 12 Feb 2004, 05:37 am »
Thanks for the information. Fascinating stuff. I have moved things a little and no radio tonight.

JohnR

radio station no tuner
« Reply #5 on: 12 Feb 2004, 10:45 am »
A bad connection can also function as a radio receiver. Perhaps one of your cables is slightly bung :(