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TV reception spoilt by nearby router?!

 
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Not sure if this is the right place to post this its not really meaningless, just a bit strange and some of you folks are smart 'switched on' people who might have wide enough experiences of teh world and a good enough understanding of physics to offer some explanation - so here goes:
Ok this is going to sound a little crazy!:

I recently decided that I *needed* my PS3 to be cabled into my LAN instead of using the unreliable WiFi connection. Unfortunately in order to do this I needed to magically create 2 ethernet ports at the end of the 1 cable (currently used by my HTPC).

I had an old spare Dlink624 router in the cupboard, so pulled it out and used it as a switch so that my living room now has 1 cable coming in, the Dlink as a switch and both HTPC and PS3 connected to it. To my surprise and delight it worked off the bat and my PS3 gaming connectivity improved accordingly (yay! smile.gif )

... A littlewhile later though a new problem has surfaced. I noticed that my HTPC, previously reliable on all channels lost reception of one particular channel - Couldnt get a lock at all. I figured I must've knocked some of the very dodgy antenna cabling whilst moving things around, so tidied up a bit and looked again - still no Ch7....

In a moment of madness, I unplugged the DLink and hey presto my Ch7 reception returned ...
I've checked the Dlinks configuration and the WiFi part appears to be disabled and it has no RF antenna plugged in.

Any ideas what could be doing this? and how I can rectify it? Should I plug the DLink into a seperate power board? Should I try and move it as far away as I can from the HTPC, indoor antenna and delicate DTV tuner cards? Should I wrap the damn thing in foil to try and shield it?

Anyone got good enough physics/engineering knowledge to tell me if 'standard domestic' WiFi could be interfering with VHF broadcasts?
 
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1) Make sure the DLink and HTPC cables aren't running parrallel with any other cables. This could cause the noise to be transmitted from one device to another, or amplified
2) Foil may not work unless it is grounded, you may prefer a Faraday cage around the router.
3) if you can work out where the 'noise' is coming from, you can try noise reduction thingies. Damn, I'm drawing a blank here.
 
Alan Wanwierd
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Thanks for thinking about it..

So for a faraday cage to be effective it needs to have holes smaller than the wavelengths its protecting and be grounded...

As far as I can tell, WiFi is 2.4Ghz frequency - which translates to about 12cm wavelength, and VHF tv broadcastare around 1m wavelength.. So do you think putting the router into a grounded cage made from chicken-wire is worth trying? (gee the wifes gonna LOVE that in the living room! :roll: ).
 
David O'Meara
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according to the article, anti-static bags are supposed to act as faraday cages. Do you have any left over from harddrives or motherboards that you can wrap around it? Heat dissipation is your next problem...
 
Alan Wanwierd
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Hmmm....

Its definately worth a look - theres a good chance theres one somewhere stuffed in a cupboard! - and *IF* it fixes the problem then I can look at a more permanent non-overheating option. Heat isnt going to be a problem for the 30 seconds it takes to determine whether it has any effect or not!

I'll let you know tommorow!
 
Alan Wanwierd
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Well heres what happened:

1) I popped the router in an antistatic bag and left it unplugged - tested reception and all was good

2) I plugged in the router (to confirm whether the problem was created by the unshielded power supply or the now shielded router - and all was good.

3) I removed the anti-static bag (to verify that the unsheilded router caused a problem and .... confusingly enough all was STILL good.

I have no idea what happened but - hey everything seems to be working now!!
 
David O'Meara
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With a little knowledge, a cast iron skillet is non-stick and lasts a lifetime.
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