Radio won't stop playing Christmas music

[Jimmy]

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

 

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
<JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy
Hmmm. Are you sure the station that plays quietly all the time is an

FM station? AM can be decoded using only a diode (or anything that
acts like a diode - think crystal radio). FM is more difficult to
decode and usually doesn't cause problems like yours. Regarding the
small coil, they bend the one loop to get just the right amount of
inductance during the factory setup. You may have detuned a circuit
by "fixing" the bent loop.

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 12/24/2010 10:22 PM Jimmy spake thus:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Just to clear up that one mystery, that wax-coated coil thingy is a
"loopstick antenna", basically just a bunch of wire wound around a
ferrite core. It's only used for AM, not FM.

Maybe it's a conspiracy.


--
Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.

 

[David Nebenzahl]

On 12/24/2010 10:22 PM Jimmy spake thus:

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Oops, sent that last message before reading carefully. That coil is on
the circuit board, right? Basically, don't mess with any of them;
bending them could change their inductance (basically their "coil-ness")
and have adverse effects on how the radio functions.

Same with all those things in metal cans with adjustment screws at the
top: those are adjustable coils or transformers, and turning the screws
is guaranteed to screw up your radio.


--
Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.

 

[N_Cook]

Jimmy <JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:8729745b-2fc8-4b36-a102-89c7524d6e1f@l8g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

Do you live close to a store that plays Muzak to its customers?

 

[Brenda Ann]

wrote in message news:c76bh694ei9n6e1mfeencsgk4u58ir1vhl@4ax.com...

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
<JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy
Hmmm. Are you sure the station that plays quietly all the time is an

FM station? AM can be decoded using only a diode (or anything that
acts like a diode - think crystal radio). FM is more difficult to
decode and usually doesn't cause problems like yours.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had an old tube Roberts stereo reel to reel back in '85. It had no trouble
at all detecting our local station on 97.1 MHz quite nicely. 100,000 W EIRP
glaring down on my from Council Crest, about 3 miles as the crow flies.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy
from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a
50kW AM station with a long antenna).

 

[PeterD]

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
<JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

Tell your neighbor to turn their radio down, as you can clearly hear
it in your flat.

 

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:17:08 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy
from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a
50kW AM station with a long antenna).

The 1950 ish console my parents had when I was young did pick up the

local AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

In this case, the station is FM. Hearing the signal would require slope
detection, an implausible/unlikely occurrence.

I remain highly suspicious, yea, even unto total disbelief.

 

[Jamie]

tnom@mucks.net wrote:

On Sat, 25 Dec 2010 05:17:08 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:


This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy

from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a

50kW AM station with a long antenna).


The 1950 ish console my parents had when I was young did pick up the
local AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

Yes, and so did the brass rail bed when the near by AM station cranked
up it's power during a baseball game.. You could literally lay there
in bead and listen to the game coming from the brass rods which made up
the head board of the bed!

This was a common assurance back in the days with beds made of coil
springs and so on.. Get a few galvanic connections and you have your
diode effects for the detectors!

It wasn't something that was load but my hearing was sensitive then
and it still isn't too bad now..


Jamie

 

[Ian Field]

"Jimmy" <JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:8729745b-2fc8-4b36-a102-89c7524d6e1f@l8g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of
the band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6
weeks, plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or
tuning knobs, and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this
problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

Since you're interested in learning and these days radio alarm clocks are so
cheap they're hardly worth bothering to repair, why not use the faulty one
as a donor for components to experiment with?

You'll nead some basic tools like a soldering iron, snipe-nosed pliers etc
and a cheap digital multimeter.

Beginners electronics books sometimes come up on
News:alt.binaries.e-book.technical .

 

[Meat Plow]

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800, Jimmy wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music, even
when it's switched off!

It has a problem where a certain FM station towards the upper end of the
band, which has been playing Christmas music 24/7 for the last 6 weeks,
plays very quietly all the time. Adjusting the volume or tuning knobs,
and flipping the switch to AM, don't affect this problem.

When I turn the radio on, I hear several stations at once if it's
switched to FM. It works reasonably well on AM.

I didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside. There was a very
small copper coil, with just 4 loops, which was coated in wax. One of
the loops looked bent out of place, but bending it back didn't help.

Any idea what would cause this? I don't have much electronics
experience, but I'm interested in learning.

Jimmy

It's all in your head. Call a psychiatrist tomorrow.



--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse

 

[AZ Nomad]

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy <JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> wrote:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

Put it in the trash. Once it is in a landfill 20 miles away, you
won't hear it.

 

[Jamie]

William Sommerwerck wrote:

The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.


I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

In this case, the station is FM. Hearing the signal would require slope
detection, an implausible/unlikely occurrence.

I remain highly suspicious, yea, even unto total disbelief.


If the person happens to be living over a business, would be safe

to assume that maybe the business has a ceilling speaker mounted ?


jamie

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Fri, 24 Dec 2010 22:22:45 -0800 (PST), Jimmy
<JimmyGeldburg@mailinator.com> put finger to keyboard and composed:

My 15-year-old Sony clock radio won't stop playing Christmas music,
even when it's switched off!

It should fix itself by Boxing Day.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

If the person happens to be living over a business,
would it be safe to assume that maybe the business
has a ceilling speaker mounted?

We're assuming the OP has confirmed that the sound /is/ actually coming from
the radio.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

William Sommerwerck wrote:

? The 1950 ish console my parents had did pick up the local
? AM station with the radio off. There was no long antenna.

I'm curious as to what the mechanism was...

In this case, the station is FM. Hearing the signal would require slope
detection, an implausible/unlikely occurrence.

I remain highly suspicious, yea, even unto total disbelief.

I had a dead car radio pick up a FM station, even though the output
transistor had an open emitter. I was near the base of the tower at a
transmitter site when someone preaching came out of the speaker. I was
less than 1000 feet from the tower that had five, 50 KW transmitters
feeding the curtain antenna. I had to laugh, since I was there to do
the weekly maintenance on a 5 MW UHF Christian TV station. I bought a
new radio a few days later and did an autopsy on the dead Delco AM only
factory radio. It was a retired 1979 Chevy Malibu police cruiser, and I
wanted to see if there were any modifications.

The RF was quite hot at that site, but it only picked up the radio
station for about 100 feet before it started to fade. It was basicly an
untuned crystal radio, in an intense field. It did have good audio,
though.


--
For the last time: I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!

 

[William Sommerwerck]

I had a dead car radio pick up a FM station, even though the
output transistor had an open emitter. I was near the base of
the tower at a transmitter site when someone preaching came
out of the speaker. I was less than 1000 feet from the tower
that had five, 50 KW transmitters feeding the curtain antenna.

With 250kW, it's surprising you didn't hear the station through your
fillings.

 

[Mark Zenier]

In article <if4qt6$rpc$1@news.eternal-september.org>,
William Sommerwerck <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

This is a "supposed to be funny" troll.

A radio cannot play when it's switched off. You can't pick up enough energy

If "off" is really "off", and not "on, but waiting for the remote
control".

from a broadcast signal to drive a speaker (except perhaps when receiving a
50kW AM station with a long antenna).

You hear stories about people who live near a large city's antenna farm,
where the fluorescent lamps glow even with no wiring. If one of the
local FM stations is badly maintained enough that it has residual AM on
its signal due to a mis-tuned transmitter, you could get this effect.
I remember some Usenet threads, many years back, on the battles a
listener had with a station in the upper Midwest who had this problem.
It was a religious station and God did their engineering for them so
their signal quality couldn't be questioned. ;-).

Another example: my TV set was busy making buzzing noises on September
12, 2001, even when it was as "off" as any remote controlled set is
these days. They had parked a Destroyer at the entrance to the channel
to the Bremerton Navy Yard and, even at five miles away, the RFI from
the search radar was strong enough to get into the audio section.

Mark Zenier mzenier@eskimo.com
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)