Channels stacked...?

macwal

I'm using an analogue tuner on a CD/Radio/Cassette player to listen to radio while working about the house, but recently have found that a channel called "Easy Radio" is severely interfering with the reception of RTE Radio 1.


I'm in the South County Dublin area.


It seems to be bad at various times of the day, not too bad at others, but I'm finding I have to tune Radio 1 to an extreme of it's reception to remove "Easy Radio", almost to the point of almost losing R1.



Not sure what I'm expecting from venting my issue here...


Is this "Easy Radio" a legal channel? Is there any place I can complain to?

Losty Dublin

You could complain to 2RN, who manage the RTÉ transmission network.

Easy is an unlicensed broadcaster. Theirs is a low powered signal so it's unusual if it's interfering with RTE 1, unless you are high up in the mountains and close to a transmission site for either station.

https://www.2rn.ie/contact-us/

Dipole Keith

I’d ring Easy radio and tell them the problem before I’d contact RTE, Contacting RTE will get Easy radio raided as it’s an unlicensed station. You must live close to the transmitter.

Infoanon

Easy Radio is .3 Mhz away from 2 very high powered RTE Radio 1 transmitters so there should be no issue with interference.(Unless you are very close to the transmission site) - in fact there are legal services .2 Mhz away depending on your location in South Dublin.

The radio unit you have described sounds like a mid 80s knob tuner style which gave the impression of the signal stretching - if you return to the 'other' RTE transmitter (clockwise or anti clockwise from Easy) any issue should be resolved.

macwal

Infoanon wrote: »

Easy Radio is .3 Mhz away from 2 very high powered RTE Radio 1 transmitters so there should be no issue with interference.(Unless you are very close to the transmission site) - in fact there are legal services .2 Mhz away depending on your location in South Dublin.

The radio unit you have described sounds like a mid 80s knob tuner style which gave the impression of the signal stretching - if you return to the 'other' RTE transmitter (clockwise or anti clockwise from Easy) any issue should be resolved.

Well, I'd say the radios are more mid/late-90's, but same type of tuners probably, analogue type.


Just to clarify that the interference isn't constant, far from it, I know yesterday it happened at 2 or 3 times while I was listening to R1 over the day, and needed to make an adjustment to not get Easy, but with a diminished R1 reception.


But over the past week it's been so bad 3 or 4 times where I couldn't get R1 at all (at either 88.5 or 89.1), and switched off the radio (also have tested 2 other radios when experiencing the interference, and saw the same issue). When I turned the radio back on a while later, R1 was ok and clear.



Based on the frequencies that a smartphone shows, I mainly get R1 from 88.5 (I can also get 89.1, but reception is not as sharp). I can also get the channels either side at 88.1 and 89.9 on these radios, and they are well separated and clear from the 2 R1's.


Funny thing is that on the smartphone I cannot get anything but a poor R1 at 88.8, only if I go to a favourable location in the house, and if I try to find 88.8 (Easy) at a time (like now) when I can't hear it encroaching on R1, I can't get a sniff of it.


So maybe I just must be in a weird geographical location to be experiencing this.

EmmetSpiceland

Could you not just search for a “stronger” RTÉ signal, M?

I mean, I used to have one of those yokes that played my iPod through the radio in my car and RTÉ radio 1 used to break through constantly.

This was even setting it under the 88MHz.

Have you tried moving the aerial about? If your machine is anything like mine, it’ll have a wire in the back that you can tack up somewhere. Or does yours have the old school “telescopic” one? Did it break off? If so, you can always jam a wire hanger in and use that to get a better signal.

Wouldn’t go “ratting” out the other station, they’re just providing some, much needed, alternatives.

macwal

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Could you not just search for a “stronger” RTÉ signal, M?

I mean, I used to have one of those yokes that played my iPod through the radio in my car and RTÉ radio 1 used to break through constantly.

This was even setting it under the 88MHz.

Have you tried moving the aerial about? If your machine is anything like mine, it’ll have a wire in the back that you can tack up somewhere. Or does yours have the old school “telescopic” one? Did it break off? If so, you can always jam a wire hanger in and use that to get a better signal.

Wouldn’t go “ratting” out the other station, they’re just providing some, much needed, alternatives.

As far as I know, the radios I have are functioning ok with their aerials, as I can get R1 and other channels just fine when I'm not getting the interference. One has a telescopic type, the other 2 have the wire, but when the interference hits, moving the antennas about doesn't do anything to improve the signal, usually makes it worse. It seems the only thing to do is wait until the interference passes.


And I think the 88.5 is the strongest I can get R1 around here.



Sometimes the interference is just the other channel drowning out the R1 channel, and I can hear Easy fairly clearly; at other times the interference is like weird tones, not really like the static you would hear in between channels.

At one point I actually thought that the interference I was experiencing was a neighbour, perhaps using some device to transmit a signal from a radio to wireless headphones (I know you can get such devices, mainly for sending from a smartphone to a car radio without aux in), because it seemed to be just music, no chatting that I could hear at the times of interference anyway, but a day or two ago, I did hear a jingle identifying the channel.


And I wouldn't go reporting to RTE, despite the annoyance when it hits. If only the interference would happen between 9 and 10 in the morning, and 3 and 4:30 in the afternoon, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

EmmetSpiceland

Could you “boost” the antenna in any way? Wrapping tinfoil around it and then twisting to make it longer?

I’m sure there are better “hacks” for that online.

Having the signal interruptions, even small ones, can be incredibly annoying. I could forgive it if that ‘Easy’ station was playing decent tunes, is that the case or is it more like that dreadful ‘Classic Hits/4FM’, playing ‘Desert Moon’ by Dennis DeYoung 4 times a night.

macwal

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

Could you “boost” the antenna in any way? Wrapping tinfoil around it and then twisting to make it longer?

I’m sure there are better “hacks” for that online.

Having the signal interruptions, even small ones, can be incredibly annoying. I could forgive it if that ‘Easy’ station was playing decent tunes, is that the case or is it more like that dreadful ‘Classic Hits/4FM’, playing ‘Desert Moon’ by Dennis DeYoung 4 times a night.

Nah, I could probably listen to it in the background no problem, it's just a couple of times I happened to want to listen what was going on on R1 at the time.


Anyway, the owner/operator was in contact via PM, and said that they are only on during the weekend, so although I did hear an Easy jingle one time, maybe the interference wasn't always due to them. Maybe a neighbour is using some FM transmitter device to send their music to some wireless headphones or a receiver in another part of their house.

hibits

If the issue persists contact RTE. They will contact Comreg if required. They are resonsible for finding the sources of radio interference. I would not engage with any unlicensed broadcaster. There may be another reason for the interference unrelated to an unlicensed FM broadcast.