Monday, March 20, 2006

Digital TV and model railways don't mix


0-4-4 Chassis
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
The Johnson 0-4-4 is nearly finished. In the photos you can see the chassis which has been painted black and then cleaned to remove paint from the electrical bits. Then it was weathered and cleaned again.

The problem is that if I test it, it screws up the signal for the digital telly in the lounge. The aerial wire from the roof passes within 3 feet of the test track. When I run the loco, the motor is giving off enough radio signals to disrupt the relatively weak digital reception.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had this problem. A few years ago I bought a digital walkman. I sometimes used it plugged into my stereo so I could list to Radio 7 without headphones. But if I ran a loco, bye, bye signal.

OK, as I’m outside the M25 by a long way the signal will be rubbish but you’d have thought it would be stronger than that produced by a little motor. There are many regulations regarding electrical interference for domestic equipment including RTR model railways but I wonder if this will prove to be a bigger problem. Does the washing machine stuff the signal ?

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