Strange Audio interferance on numerous items

In my years hanging around ATS I've never started a thread. Mainly because there was nothing intersting that I could post. But I'd like some help with some sort of explanation of what occured to me and my other half last night. It's probably nothing, but I thought I'd find out if anyone knew anything about this sort of thing just in case.

Last night my other half and myself were in bed and I was about to do my usual 'read for a couple of hours' while she slept. We usually use this time to have a chat and basically unwind after looking after our son (22 months old).

I always sleep with the radio on lowish at night and a dim light (long story with no barring on this at all.) I tune the radio into a classical channel and it helps me unwind and drop off to sleep.

But last night all of a sudden there was a computerised noise that over ran the station completly. It would come in bursts that would be about a second of this noise, followed by 3 seconds of slience or so followed by another 4 seconds of the same noise. The noise sounded similar but not the same as the old 48K sinclair spectrum loading noises. (Just more 'bitty' if you know what I mean.) It went on for minutes not repeatig teh same pattern once as far as we're aware.

In itself I wasn't too othered about that, but as it was also coming over the baby monitor I was interested to say the least. But being a down to earth sort of chap I switched off the radio for a bit and thought I'd stick the TV in our bedroom on low on a random channel instead. It struck me as strange that it then started to come from the TV as well.

It was the same noise, I tried the radio again ...same noise....switched the baby monitor back on (we' switched it off thinking it was broken)...same noise. At this point we were both getting a bit p*ssed off to be honest...

So we thought 'sod this' and went back down stairs and stuck the PC's on. The same noise came over the speakers of both PC's at the same time. My solution was to switch everything with a speaker off in the house and try and get some sleep.

My question is this: What could cause this sort of signal / interferance on all these items? Somebody local messing around with radio stuff they shouldn't? Or just one of those random glitches that happen....although I have to admit I've never had anything happen like it before to me.

I admit I know nothing about radio /communication etc at all....its just not in my skillset. I'm curious to find out why it happened, how and why.

Obviously if it happens again tonight I'll be recording it in hope of someone finding some sort of info about it. Now we dont live in a area near any military bases, we live in a small village near Durham England, the only thing out of the ordinary is a set of old mine workings with a sealed entrace about 400 yards from our house. There are no obvious radio or mobile masts near us. You could say we live in the middle of nowhere in this village.

We are however about a mile away from an old 'disused' TV mast that is kept going for whatever reason. Hopefully someone can give me some idea what the heck caused it all.

Wayne...

Wow, thats odd, what time did you notice it starting? I wish I could help with some sort of explanation and Ill be interested to see what replies you get!

Sorry should have included the time..... 2.30am GMT the radio channel (in case it matters was 'Classic FM')

Wayne...

its probably just your luck listening at that time. Depending on atmospheric conditions you get "skip" from all over the world, could have been anything.

When conditions are right you can hear stations from all over the world, and it can be tv sets, old rf tv sets, computer monitors, anything that has an amplifier circuit build into it can take these normally weak signals and amplify them.

If it sounded like packet (digital data) i would put money on it being one of the pager networks in the uk, these are widespread very powerful transmitters, and when the atmospherics are right cause havok across the whole radio spectrum.

If you are interested, hit me a PM and ill send you some recording examples of different digital modes and see if we can narrow it down a little bit for you.

See, it seems like normal radio interference of some kind, until you get to the part where the PC speakers had the noise too. I assume they weren't connected to any kind of a receiving device (internet radio station or some such) so why would a basic computer speaker pick up on the interference?

If this is a stupid comment, be kind. I don't know too much about radio transmissions, but that detail struck me as odd.

im just throwing a guess out there i have no idea but when my cell phone is about to ring and its too close to the radio or my computer it interferes with my speakers... maybe the baby walki talki had somekind of a interfence with it

Do you think maybe you were being blasted by one of those vans that looks for people who haven't paid their TV License Fee?

But it could have been anything from a local doing something with frequncies that they shouldn't to passing aircraft. I have lived near Air Bases where sometimes at just the right time they will be sending out certain signal and you can catch it on a radio station or they might even open your garage door.

Originally posted by obeah
im just throwing a guess out there i have no idea but when my cell phone is about to ring and its too close to the radio or my computer it interferes with my speakers... maybe the baby walki talki had somekind of a interfence with it

No it most definately wasn't that....I'd know that sort of sound anywhere.


It hasn't happened again so my guess is some sort of freak occurance due to somebody local messing around or due to some sort of atmospherics. The way it came thorugh noth PC's speakers as well was a tad weird. There's no TV boards or anything that acts as a reciever in either system.....

I fear we may never solve this mystery .

Wayne...

at the same time in long beach Ca, i was sitting outside and heard the ground building noise that sometimes preceedes an earthquake, the sound would build and build, and on 2 occsaions i felt what appared to be a small eartquake. but this went on for about and hour and a half, and would start and stop. maybe it was haarp practicing for the big earthquake theyre going to create tomorrow. just my opinion

i should add this would be the same time if it happened monday night 4-23

[edit on 26-4-2007 by cygnusx1966]

Originally posted by cygnusx1966
at the same time in long beach Ca, i was sitting outside and heard the ground building noise that sometimes preceedes an earthquake, the sound would build and build, and on 2 occsaions i felt what appared to be a small eartquake. but this went on for about and hour and a half, and would start and stop. maybe it was haarp practicing for the big earthquake theyre going to create tomorrow. just my opinion

i should add this would be the same time if it happened sunday night 4-23

[edit on 26-4-2007 by cygnusx1966]