You did make sure that the battery were fully charged, did you not? If you have the wall wart type chargers that come with most sets, charge for a full 16 hours. It is highly doubtful that having the transmitter to close to the receiver caused the problem. I have never seen that problem occur since they switched away from 27 MHz back in the 60's when they were using superhet receivers. None of the present day units are effected in that manner unless the receiver has become damaged in some manner.