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Radio playing....but no tuner?

This is a strange problem in a strange system. The setup is for an electric drum kit. Alesis is the brand. Their high end module from a few years back. It outputs to a nice but older Onkyo Integra home theater unit which drives a couple of cheap bookshelf speakers and big B&W powered subwoofer. It does not sound as good as headphones but it all works perfectly fine for my meager purposes when I want to play without headphones.

When I turned the system on yesterday to practice there was a pop radio station playing faintly through the speakers but loud and clear enough to be annoying.

The thing is that there is no tuner plugged into the Onkyo which has no built in tuner. There is no tuner/radio in the drum module either. I turned the drum module off and the radio is still playing through the speakers. If I unplugged the output from the drum module the radio stopped.


Anyone have any idea how this could happen?

It did not reoccur when I played today. Nothing else was changed.

Thanks,
George


n80

Showing 1 response by theo

theo's avatar
theo
2,709 posts
 
Yes I have had a similar situation with a satellite tuner. What it turned out to be was a local radio station has a tower not far from my home. The antenna coax was picking up the signal and the receiver amplified it. So in your case it could be the drum module is picking up the stray signal at certain times of the day, mine was at night. Or it could be the positioning of the module that allows it to a t as an antenna. Try lifting the ground next time it does it and if it goes away maybe try a different outlet. I had to get a special filter for the coax but that won’t be the problem in your case. 
It is a strange phenomenon and I had forgotten all about it till now. Just a weird coincidence of frequencies.

good luck 
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