Boom acting like an antenna? wtf?

[o2pb]

I did a bunch of sound tests with my new shockmount and boom. Shockmount works great. Needs some tweaking, but it should be fine.

The thing that really pissed me off. is that I pick up radio or tv signals with it! My mic is connected to a pre-amp, and than to a 20GB jukebox. I get this weird static, and sometimes I hear people talking, and music. Its really quiet. I get it even when the mic is off. So im gussing the pole acts like an antenna, the coiled extension cable is fed into the amp, which amplifies this interference, and feeds it into the jukebox, which records it.

The cable itself is shielded, or at least thats what it says on the box.

Any ideas?

[Alex]

I love my XLR connectors.

[Chance4321]

check the connection between the amp.

i have a faulty guitar amp once that would pick up radio signals, turned out to be where the jack input was, it had come loose. a quick tighten with a screwdriver no more radio.

[sn-films]

Wow. That's a strange one. Can other people hear the voices too, or are they just in your head? [img]wink.gif[/img]

I'm going to assume that you're definitely not hearing voices/music from the neighbors or passing traffic. I guess the first step is to verify that the problem is with the pole, and not with the mic, cable, or amp. If you don't use the pole, do you still hear the voices?

This is a long-shot, but you also mentioned that the cable is coiled. Is it coiled AROUND the metal pole? If so, try having the cable hang away from the pole. Do you still hear the noise? The only reason I mention this is that I once build a guitar pickup using a refrigerator magnet, some copper wire, and a bit of plastic. I'm not an engineer, but electricity, magnets, and metal can be fickle mistresses...

Good luck.

[Actor]

Odds are that (1)it's an AM station that's causing this and not an FM or TV station and (2)it's being caused by a diode. A diode is an electronic device that passes electric current in only one direction and that is essentially what happens when extracting the audio from an AM carrier.

The diode is question has probably been accidently created by a faulty connection of some sort. The most likely culprits are connectors. Undo each of them and then reconnect them tightly.

If the problem persists then you need to do some "signal tracing", i.e., disconnect stuff until the problem goes away. Or take the whole thing apart and reconnect it one item at a time until the problem comes back. I'd disconnect each connector, starting at the mike, and proceed on down the line until I found the one at which the problem goes away. That tells me the problem is in (or near) that connector. I would look for a bad solder joint in the connector.

There's also the possibility of a bad connection or solder joint in something that supposed to be permanently connected.

Corrosion can create diodes.

The fact that you say you have it connected to a "20GB jukebox" suggests that it may be the problem. Is this jukebox a digital device? Digital stuff is just full of diodes and the problem my be there. If the problem is internal to this device then you will probably have to get with the manufacturer to resolve it.