Warmonger

I've been flying at the same location for a few months and all of a sudden today had major radio interference on 2 different radio sets (literally took control from me). The only difference is that today was very overcast and a large storm was brewing.

I have noticed small hits at this location in the past, but were always momentary and in about the same location, but today they were major and widespread!

Is it not possible that the thick cloud cover and charged air were exaggerating the same type hits I've seen in the past? I can't think of anything else (other than some new device has appeared since last week).

I've read that pager signals are near the upper RC 72 range and am wondering also if those pager signals specifically were kept lower because of the atmosphere(?)

Futaba narrow band FM channels 50 and 55.

Any ideas?

FCC

Yes cloud/storm lightning can effect. In fact this lightning have very borad spectrum and it even effects military and hitec space communication systems, so I don't think there is some thing wrong with you radio. OR there could be some other interference source which you are unaware of.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

i've had to stop gliding because a storm was comming adn the interferance was a problem, still, im in the car before i get wet good warning lol

Warmonger

If I were using a PCM radio in this case would it help? From what I've read PCM is less suscpetible to interference, but does it really help when there is a competing signal bleeding onto your frequency?

I understand the fail safe feature, but am more interested in how useful it is in identifying the correct signal, etc...

Thanks

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Hmm... may be it's just me, but if I'm standing on flat ground with no tree anywhere near by (like, say, at a flying field) holding a thingamajig with a long metal antenna sitcking up at the sky, and I see storm clouds rolling in, radio interference will be the last thing I'll be worried about.

Warmonger

There wasn't lightning around yet... Just spring time in Texas: Very heavy cloud cover and humidity with ETA of the bad stuff about 3-4 hours away.

Not a rocket scientist, but enough sense to avoid lightning...

Now back to our normal programming already in progress:

Volfy

My Feedback: (23)

Well, highly charged atmosphere and indeed lightening can occur way ahead of thunderstorms. There have been cases where people have gotten struck by lightening literally out of the blue (sky, that is) miles away from any storm clouds.

If it is enough to cause radio interference, personally it would be enough to cause me to be concerned about my own safety.

Sorry to crash the party. Please continue.

Warmonger

And I guess with my luck its possible that the very first lightning strike out of the sky would find its way to me, but I tempted fate again (and only lost my bird)...


Back on the radio subject: I (somewhere long ago) had been told that radio waves can be bounced off of or contained under clouds, etc... We were aware of some degree of interference here, but this was a big deal... Just looking for a cause.

PineBaron

My Feedback: (38)

RF signals in the higer bands, 50MHz and over can travel significantly further in damp and stormy atmospheric conditions.

An R/C modeler using a TX (assuming 72MHz) can be heard(received) at a significantly greater distance on a stormy day. The signal will not always be a steady one if the clouds are uneven.

I remember while living in another country, we could view TV signals from transmitters several hundred miles away on a VHF TV receiver on a wet and stormy evening. Signals were weaker and at times erratic.

This is nothing to be concerned about, it was just an FYI.

Warmonger

Thanks for all the input everyone... Guess I just learned another hard lesson. I purchased a freq. scanner and am changing the frequencies of my radios (based on the scanner results)...