Radio 4 on my Hi-Fi turntable with RFI

I once lived very near the Crystal Palace transmitter in London, way back in the 1970s, and I  heard lots of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). It was not in the form of frame-buzz but I actually heard Radio 4 loud and clear.

Just imagine my horror when, intermittently, I heard Dan Archer from " The Archers" - an every day story of country folk -  prattling along to the softer parts of a progressive rock album. It took performance art to a new absurd and surreal level. I never really indentified where the problem lay or cured it. I guessed that the mains-cabling was acting as an antenna and that my turntable cartridge was acting as a rectifier.  I moved house and that eliminated the problem.

 

I have never experienced any problem with RFI since then. The house is now full of wireless equipment and portable ‘phones etc. but “The Archers” no longer spoil the music. I thought that modern technology had banished RFI intrusion forever but it seems that some people still suffer from it.

Quite often there is a simple solution. Making sure all your connexions are tight. Using screened interconnects, mains cables and speaker cables can also work. Usually the process of elimination can identify where the problem is. Even moving your cables around can work. None of this need expensive. There is no need to spend a fortune on expensive cables which have never been proven to work better than standard quality cables at much lower prices.

RFI can sometimes be alleviated by the use of cheap ferrite rings.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Movable-Offset-UF50B-Diameter-Ferrite/dp/B007Q94DMO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426250880&sr=8-1&keywords=ferrite+rings#customerReviews