Airtunes picks up radio signal
 

Air Tunes Picks up Stray Radio Frequencies (currently Radio Disney).
Faintly until I attempt to play a song from I tunes on my ibook to my stereo. At this point the radio signal is boosted to nearly match the Itunes signal.

Sounds like a possible interference problem from a neighbour.
Try changing the channel (by at least 3) using Airport Admin.

How to change channels?
 

Thanks for responding.

Tried that.

Can't seem to figure out how to "change channels" in airport util. I feel like I've been through that whole area without having seen any thing that would lead me to that capability.

-DWL

Somehow I doubt that the radio transceiver in the AirPort Express is picking this up. More likely, your 1/8" miniplug cable to your stereo is picking up the interference.

Try using a higher quality cable or optical if possible.

Not sure what you mean by "airport util". I was referring to the "Airport Admin Utility" (under /Applications/Utilities).
Here's a picture of the "Airport" tab in this utility:
http://helpdesk.wisc.edu/page.php?cat=1007&id=1736
Note the "Channel" field near the bottom.

My theory was perhaps some neighbour is transmitting the Disney Channel over some similar 2.4 GHz device, not that the Airport basestation was picking up the (usual broadcast frequency) radio signal off the air.

That's funny. No, it can't work that way, you absolutely cannot be receiving radio via your Airport connection. Just a physical impossiblity. Could be that you are getting it via the "line in" connection, or it is being picked up by the wires for your powered speakers if you are using those. Try muting the line in and microphone in the sound settings.

The stream coming into the AirPort Express is encrypted. There can be no digital interference.

Problem Update:
 

Not a "channels" issue.

Bring me up to spead here if you can.

Does this mean that the unwanted sound is certainly from something recieving and transmtting am or fm signal?

We can rule out the laptop as a source and we can do the same for the stereo itself, including every part of the chain after the 1/8th inch to stereo RCA cable coming out of the Airport Extreme.
This leaves the Coaxial Cable, The Cable Modem, The Airport. and the 1/8th inch to stereo RCA cable.

There seems to be some disagreement about how else we can narrow this down.

The 1/8th inch to stereo RCA cable is infact unshielded, but I am doubting that it is the culprit. It is only about 18 inches long, and the signal is very very consistant. Remains the same no matter which path I run it through on the stereo. All other stereo functions are clean also no matter which path they run through.

Any further thoughts?

-Danny

As far as the coaxial cable, it is possible you've got a signal leak somewhere else in the house. Maybe somebody disconnected a TV but didn't dicsonnect the cable from the wall outlet. Possibly you've got a bad splice in a wall somewhere.
Seems to me the cable modem and Airport are less likely than the 1/8 to RCA cable to be the source.

Bad Things are definitely happening +after+ the AirPort Express has made the music an analog signal.
Chances are, your unshielded cable and whatever else is on the analog signal path conspire to behave like a primitive radio receiver.

I would swap first the cable (get a short, shielded one), then the amp for another known good one and see what happens.
That should completely ruin the tuning of the rogue receiver...

RF can be tricky at times.

I'm getting Radio Disney, too and it's driving me batty
 

I have all of these symptoms too - including radio interference from Radio Disney! (guess we're both in NYC). I went to B&H to ask for a shielded cable and they loooked at me like I'm a girl i.e. girl doesn't know anything about audio equipment. anyhoo, got a good Monster cable - didn't change a dang thing. Moved the Airport Express to a different part of the room, didn't change a darn thing either. So, I have to get a new receiver? Yikes, mine is decent, I swear. If anyone out there in Mac land has any other advice on this topic please post. Much much thanks. It's been 6 months and I'm tired of putting my iBook by the stereo and plugging it in with an RCA....:mad:

I am getting so damn tired of radio disney! New York is so saturated with radio that interference like this is hard to avoid sometimes -- and I suspect that radio disney has their AM transmitter near my neighborhood in Brooklyn.

As far as the issue, I suspect it has to do with grounding, which makes it very difficult to solve seeing as there's no real way to get inside the pod to touch any metal part and ground it. The audio circuitry in the Express only powers up when it's ready to play the digital signal, and it's at that point that the interference is audible, which means that it is picking up the signal through poor circuitry.

I'm planning to start isolating my express from my arrangement of power strips and extension cords near my stereo to see if that might make a difference. I am not beyond wrapping it in aluminum foil if that did the trick. I used to have this problem sometimes with my cambridge soundworks stereo system, which also amplifies mini-surges on the powerline, such as a light being flipped on or off. Getting it cleaned by an electronics store helped with that a good deal, however, and i suspect that grounding it would solve the issue. Grounding the Express seems mostly impossible, however. Can anyone think of a way to do this, apart from cracking the pressure-sealed case?

Will

good to find this thread; I'm having the same problem.

I'm getting a radio signal along with my AirTunes through the Airport Express, and as far as I can tell, the interference started after I put in a new cable modem. The interference definitely comes in via the Airport Express (it doesn't start until I start playing something on my computer). It isn't in the cable between the Airport Express and the stereo reciever, because I can plug that directly into my headphone jack and the music comes through fine. It isn't in the signal between my computer and the Airport, because as someone mentioned before, that is encrypted. The only difference in set-up between clear sound and radio-added sound is the new cable modem.

Anyways, the new modem is a Toshiba PCX2500, the old was a PCX1100U (which is being phased out by my cable company... we were getting a bunch of packet loss, general slow internet through it).

Does the problem go away when you disconnect the modem ?

Physically disconnect the coax-cable from the modem.

If that is so, put the modem into a Faradays cage (wrapping it in tin-foil, taking care of cooling it doesn't fry) and see if it helps.

I was having a similar problem with my DSL modem and Airport Express in Brooklyn NY and found a solution (note: my Airport Express is hardwired to my DSL modem via ethernet cable) . . . .

As was suggested above, you first have to isolate the source of the interference. Mine was the phone line coming out of the wall into the DSL modem. I discovered this by unplugging everything and replugging in different combinations of things. With everything hooked up normally, but no power to the DSL modem there was still a lot of intereference. When I removed the phone line from the DSL modem, in every case, the intereference disappeard.

The solution was an $8 surge protector from Radio Shack. It has 1 power socket and in/out sockets for a phone line. Running the phone line through the surge protector immediately solved the problem. Clearly it was not properly grounded (as was also mentioned above). I'm also using the surge protector to power the modem for good measure.

Same Problem- Radio Disney in Brooklyn
 

I'm not alone, I guess, in this maddening problem. I have read the thread, I have tried unplugging modem, wireless router, ethernet cable... and the Radio Disney signal persists ... however it is *not* coming from my cable because if I pull the cable out of the Mac and plug it into the iPod, the signal is clean.

It seems my Mac is picking up Radio Disney ... and the Mac *is* properly grounded and plugged into a good surge protector.

Any help appreciated and if there's a class action pending againt Disney for this crap, sign me up.

Try getting a surge protector that has plugs for ethernet and phone and/or coax lines, and run those lines through the surge protector. The problem was solved for me when I ran the ethernet cord going from my modem to the airport express through a surge protector. If you have ethernet going from your modem to your computer, you can try running that through a surge protector ground it, and you can also try running the dsl or coax line feeding your modem though a surge protector. This is generally good practice anyway because power surges can come through coax lines and damage your equiptment. I use radio shack because you generally have a month to return stuff if it doesn't work.

Thanks for the suggestions, problem persists
 

Thanks for the suggestions. It is *not* coming through my internet or ethernet, because the problem persists even when the computer is unplugged from any network (and I'm on a Mac Pro, no Airport card).

Of course you are correct about surge protection (though I can't surge protect the cable modem because Time Warner locks them when they install them so you can't move it or anything - hell, their modem, their problem)– so I just dropped upwards of $100 on a Monster Cable "Clean Power" Stage 2 filtering and I'm *still* getting Radio Disney. Fortunately I can return the overkill Monster Cable box (another trip to J&R ... sigh.)

I did discover that it *doesn't* come through the headphone port ... only the audio out in the back so maybe the soundcard is picking up radio?

So my temp workaround it running the stereo line out of the headphone jack on the front, but obviously this is neither pretty nor elegant.

Maybe it's time to contact Apple. I'll check in here regularly ... others with same problem post your discoveries here, thanks!

Just today my Mac started picking up a local spanish radio station.

What's going on !?

Does anybody know the frequency of the unwanted stations?

I have had this very problem in two residences in Brooklyn, with two separate cable ISPs.

Running your coaxial cable through a surge protector WORKS!

This took me months to figure out. Thanks to whoever mentioned this earlier in the thread.

1560 am
 

I just found this thread, and am having the same problem.
Today I hooked my Macbook Pro to my stereo receiver through the headphone out, though a mini jack cable, and into split RCA plugs. And voila, I am receiving a radio station in Boston (AM 1560). Two people above mentioned they were hearing Radio Disney in NYC the same way, and a google search shows that that station is also AM 1560.

It seems in my case that the Mac itself is receiving the signals. Why? Because when I remove the cable from the mac headphone jack, the radio signal goes away. Interstingly, when I plug a USB external drive into the Mac, the signal comes in clearer (antenna). So something in the Mac is picking up AM 1560. By the way, this happens even when it is on battery power (no interfernce from the electrical system in the house), and my connection to the internet is through a wireless router---the cable comes into the home to the router in another room, so cable modem interference is highly unlikely Also, the radio signal comes through even when I have airport turned off.

So there is a Mac problem in terms of interference at 1560. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

I had the same issue (in France), I have a new and fairly decent Stereo Hifi Receiver and when plugin to the AirPort Express there was some interference. When I increase the volume of the Receiver the interference were actually some local Radio Station that I could hear clearly as if I had a tuner !

Well you have to know that it can't be wifi interference as the airport wouldn't be able to decode it, so changing channel or stuff like that cannot do any good.

This is just cable or electrical cable acting as antenna, and you have to determine which one is the culpit.

In my case this was the ethernet cable from the DSL modem to the airport express that added created the interference that were amplified by the airport (even when deactivated from the airport settings, it had to be physically unplugged). I am now using the airport wifi only and have no longer any radio interference.

To fix your situation just unplug one by one every cable from the receiver to the source, RCA cable then airport or DAC power cable ... till the modem / switch. When unpluging a cable does not change anything it means that is was probably the cable before that was the issue. In my case unpluging the internet cable from the modem DSL does not change anything but unpluging the ethernet cable from the express did fix the issue.

If it seems to come from the macbook (which I doubt as it only send digital signal but could be an electrical interference) try to unplug the power source AND the ethernet cable to the macbook. Stay on battery and wifi without any USB device to see whether it change something or not. If it does not, it could maybe the aluminum case itself that you will have to ground but be sure to have tested. If you are connected directly through you macbook to the receiver/speaker try another cable, particularly if it is long and unshielded.

My ethernet cable was cat. 7 (so good quality and supposedly shielded) but it was very long (6 meter) which probably caused the issue despite the quality.

Good luck !