The family FM jammer (Was: Help with noisy neighbor)

[Max Hauser]

Dear sci.electronics.design, I have a noisy neighbor who plays his
stereo at different times in the day. I got no problems with him playing
it during normal hours (noon till 10 pm) but he plays the damn thing at
8 am every few days! I called him, spoke to him, left a letter for him
and it worked for about 3 weeks but now, the loud bass is back.
I don't wanna get the landlord nor police involved, would one of these
do the trick:

- Get a handheld CB with a radio shack CB antenna and power it on when
the loud music starts, would this cause interference for his stereo?

- I read of pre-built FM transmitters, how does one used this to cause
interference (for a short time only, to send the bugger to get his
stereo fixed :-0)

The apartment I'm in is like this:

[me] [staircase] [idiot stereo bass guy]

There is about 10 feet between our walls and I can feel the bass, it is
very loud.

Reminds me of an anecdote. (This will get better treatment elsewhere so
I'll only sketch it here.)

A family I knew with multiple siblings of my generation was handy with
electronics, and one brother, a part-time musician with sensitive ears who
suffered from exactly the same kind of neighbors, built an FM-broadcast-band
oscillator with a single glowing VHF tube (UK: valve) on a classic wooden
"bread" board with exposed components including impressive heavy-gauge
open-air coil and high-quality tuning capacitor with a vernier (geared-down)
dial. It also had a mode switch that connected or disconnected the
power-supply electrolytic capacitor, for reasons You Shall See.

When the racket started, this brother would fire up (literally) the
oscillator, pour himself a small Scotch, and get to work. As he delicately
tuned in toward the offending station's frequency, his local oscillator
would begin to capture the FM detector (in those days perhaps a phase
detector or Foster-Seeley discriminator) and the music would sound fainter.
Tuning proceeded with a delicate but sure touch, like a safecracker's.
(What began as a nuisance had, through technology, become a sport.) As the
occupants next door heard the falling volume, they naturally turned up the
audio gain. My friend had to proceed slowly, because turning up the volume
in the next apartment was important. As his oscillator "took over" the
frequency from the FM station, there was only faint noise, and the occupants
would max out the volume. That was the time to throw the switch removing
the power-supply capacitor. This modulated the whole oscillator with 120 Hz
ripple (UK: 100 Hz) and shook the walls with the raucous blast, unnerving
the occupants.

The oscillator was passed around in the extended family as needed.

As a long-time licensiate of the US Federal Communications Commission (under
the US Communications Act of 1934, prior to its 1986 amendment), of course I
disapprove of such behavior and discourage it in the strongest terms.

 

[Paul Burridge]

Reminds me of an anecdote. (This will get better treatment elsewhere so
I'll only sketch it here.)

A family I knew with multiple siblings of my generation was handy with
electronics, and one brother, a part-time musician with sensitive ears who
suffered from exactly the same kind of neighbors, built an FM-broadcast-band
oscillator with a single glowing VHF tube (UK: valve) on a classic wooden
"bread" board with exposed components including impressive heavy-gauge
open-air coil and high-quality tuning capacitor with a vernier (geared-down)
dial. It also had a mode switch that connected or disconnected the
power-supply electrolytic capacitor, for reasons You Shall See.

When the racket started, this brother would fire up (literally) the
oscillator, pour himself a small Scotch, and get to work. As he delicately
tuned in toward the offending station's frequency, his local oscillator
would begin to capture the FM detector (in those days perhaps a phase
detector or Foster-Seeley discriminator) and the music would sound fainter.
Tuning proceeded with a delicate but sure touch, like a safecracker's.
(What began as a nuisance had, through technology, become a sport.) As the
occupants next door heard the falling volume, they naturally turned up the
audio gain. My friend had to proceed slowly, because turning up the volume
in the next apartment was important. As his oscillator "took over" the
frequency from the FM station, there was only faint noise, and the occupants
would max out the volume. That was the time to throw the switch removing
the power-supply capacitor. This modulated the whole oscillator with 120 Hz
ripple (UK: 100 Hz) and shook the walls with the raucous blast, unnerving
the occupants.

LOL! Thanks, Max. I doubt the speakers survived that onslaught without
sustaining some serious damage! I like these ingenious 'get even'
tricks.

 

[Mike]

Dear sci.electronics.design, I have a noisy neighbor who plays his
stereo at different times in the day. I got no problems with him playing
it during normal hours (noon till 10 pm) but he plays the damn thing at
8 am every few days! I called him, spoke to him, left a letter for him
and it worked for about 3 weeks but now, the loud bass is back.
I don't wanna get the landlord nor police involved, would one of these
do the trick:

- Get a handheld CB with a radio shack CB antenna and power it on when
the loud music starts, would this cause interference for his stereo?

- I read of pre-built FM transmitters, how does one used this to cause
interference (for a short time only, to send the bugger to get his
stereo fixed :-0)

The apartment I'm in is like this:

[me] [staircase] [idiot stereo bass guy]

There is about 10 feet between our walls and I can feel the bass, it is
very loud.

Reminds me of an anecdote. (This will get better treatment elsewhere so
I'll only sketch it here.)

A family I knew with multiple siblings of my generation was handy with
electronics, and one brother, a part-time musician with sensitive ears who
suffered from exactly the same kind of neighbors, built an FM-broadcast-band
oscillator with a single glowing VHF tube (UK: valve) on a classic wooden
"bread" board with exposed components including impressive heavy-gauge
open-air coil and high-quality tuning capacitor with a vernier (geared-down)
dial. It also had a mode switch that connected or disconnected the
power-supply electrolytic capacitor, for reasons You Shall See.

When the racket started, this brother would fire up (literally) the
oscillator, pour himself a small Scotch, and get to work. As he delicately
tuned in toward the offending station's frequency, his local oscillator
would begin to capture the FM detector (in those days perhaps a phase
detector or Foster-Seeley discriminator) and the music would sound fainter.
Tuning proceeded with a delicate but sure touch, like a safecracker's.
(What began as a nuisance had, through technology, become a sport.) As the
occupants next door heard the falling volume, they naturally turned up the
audio gain. My friend had to proceed slowly, because turning up the volume
in the next apartment was important. As his oscillator "took over" the
frequency from the FM station, there was only faint noise, and the occupants
would max out the volume. That was the time to throw the switch removing
the power-supply capacitor. This modulated the whole oscillator with 120 Hz
ripple (UK: 100 Hz) and shook the walls with the raucous blast, unnerving
the occupants.

The oscillator was passed around in the extended family as needed.

As a long-time licensiate of the US Federal Communications Commission (under
the US Communications Act of 1934, prior to its 1986 amendment), of course I
disapprove of such behavior and discourage it in the strongest terms.

I heard a similar tale some years ago, about the neighbor with a hefty
amplifier on his CB radio transmitter. It interfered with the hero's [TV
radio, etc], and the neighbor refused to deal with the problem.

So, the hero built a simple noise generator and connected it to a small
antenna. It only broadcast a few mW, but proximity being all-important, it
was still a far larger signal than anything else the neighbor was trying to
receive. Neighbor's transmitter still worked, of course, but his receiver
was swamped by the noise.

-- Mike --