Tom Neff <tneff@bfmny0.bfm.com> (08/22/90)
I turned on the shortwave receiver in my apartment this morning and was flipping past the 5-6 MHz neighborhood when I distinctly a voice coming from the speaker. It was my friend in the other room! I couldn't believe it. Throwing on headphones I told her "keep talking" (nothing surprises her at this point :-) while I fine tuned the messy signal. Something was broadcasting from my living room! (Nobody was on the phone, and there's no intentional transmitter in the apartment - not even a walkie-talkie.) Then I switched places and had her listen while I walked around the other room talking, to see if we could localize the source. Not much luck. So I started unplugging things. Speakers... no. Radios... no. The phone itself... no. The answering machine... YES! As soon as it was unplugged the signal disappeared. Plug back in... back comes the signal. Conversation anywhere in the living was audible and reasonably intelligible. This is a Panasonic KX-T1470 answering machine. It does have the "room monitor" feature where you press <5> from a remote phone to listen to what's going on at home. I wonder -- is the mike always live, with the only difference being that <5> switches it into the circuit? Is everyone with a Panasonic answering machine bugging himself?
Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org (Jack Winslade) (08/26/90)
In a message of <22 Aug 90 07:21:14>, Tom Neff (1:30102/2) writes: >I turned on the shortwave receiver in my apartment this morning and >was flipping past the 5-6 MHz neighborhood when I distinctly a voice >coming from the speaker. It was my friend in the other room! I >couldn't believe it. Throwing on headphones I told her "keep talking" >(nothing surprises her at this point :-) while I fine tuned the messy >signal. Something was broadcasting from my living room! (Nobody was >on the phone, and there's no intentional transmitter in the apartment > - not even a walkie-talkie.) I dunno if this is the answer to your particular problem, but tape machines use what's known as a 'bias oscillator' when in recording. If for some reason the thing were recording, it may have been radiating. I know that some tape machines, when recording, will radiate at harmonics of the bias frequency (125kHz or so) and can sometimes be picked up on general coverage receivers. You'll only see this if the bias signal is 'dirty' and it will most likely appear several places on the dial -- like even in the normal AM radio band. Good Day! JSW [1:285/666@fidonet] DRBBS Technical BBS, Omaha (1:285/666) --- Through FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390 Jack.Winslade@f666.n285.z1.fidonet.org