Thread: Bizarre problem
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Old 17-Apr-2020, 3:28 AM   #8
Dagwood
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: NYS, Finger Lakes area
Posts: 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tower Guy View Post
Another possible source of an intermittent reception problem is interference. Typical culprits are cheap LED light bulbs, wall-wort power supplies, and battery chargers.

Tower Guy, you nailed it. This same thing happened to me seven years ago, see this thread. Post #10 shows the problem. Tonight I'm on channel 13 and it was fine, then after a few minutes it started to degrade. Along with 21 and 31. So I come back here to check this thread.

After I read your post above, the bells started going off in my head. I have a small radio in my kitchen, and I noticed in the past few weeks that sometimes the AM stations would have a lot of static. Not always, just sometimes. I have a zillion chargers in the house (don't we all?) so just now I unplugged one at a time but the radio still buzzed, TV channel 13 still messed up.

So, totally forgetting what happened seven years ago, I went to my service panel in the basement. I have a subfeed going to my machine shop in another building so I shut it off. Radio buzz goes away, TV comes back to normal. The gears are starting to turn. The problem is in the shop.

I have my Corvette stored in the shop with a battery maintainer on it, which I've had trouble with lately, but I thought I had it fixed; I went out there just now and the green charging light was on so I assumed it was ok.

So then I checked my EDM machine (see old thread link above) and sure enough the pilot light for the heater was on, flickering actually. It is thermostatically controlled and was probably ready to shut off.

Here's why this did NOT occur to me as the problem: I haven't used the EDM in 3-4 weeks; it is in a room in my shop that I don't keep heated. When I need the machine during the winter, I plug the heater in the night before. For whatever reason (getting old and forgetful, most likely) I never unplugged it when I finished using it a few weeks ago. When I saw the pilot light on just now I couldn't believe my eyes. I reached for the cord and sure enough it was plugged in.

Another reason this didn't occur to me as the problem: A buddy of mine built this heater for me, some time before the old thread (2013). When I used it a few times earlier this winter, I noticed that my TV was fine. Nothing really had changed here in the house OR shop, and it didn't make sense. I called him, but we couldn't come up with anything over the phone why it was NOT interfering with the TV now. So I kinda put that out of my mind as a possible problem this time. I'm guessing from what "GroundUrMast" said on the old thread that one of the components in the heater must be a bit shakey.

At any rate, thanks a million. These problems with my TVs drive me nuts, as they are out of my area of expertise.

OTAFAN: Thank you also for your good reply. It didn't help me this time, but maybe it will in the future or will help someone else who reads this thread.

I missed Seinfeld a few times in the past few weeks (it's on 13-2) and that upset me, even though I know every scene and line by heart. It's on at 11:30 pm, a few minutes from now so BYE!

EDIT: To the mods or whoever runs this site, I am sorry for this wild goose chase. But thanks for the site, I never would have figured this out by myself.
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Last edited by Dagwood; 17-Apr-2020 at 3:30 AM.
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