Laptop LCD screen affects reception?

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vs1988

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For the past couple of days the reception in my area was really bad. Or so I thought. Every time I listened to the scanner I was on my laptop, with the scanner to the left and slightly behind it. I folded the screen down and the reception wen back to being crystal clear again. I thought that only CRT monitors caused interference.
 

jrplmil

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laptop

My laptop does too even in the other room. I think it is because of the DSL cably running into the house. I have a scanner in most rooms and they are all affected. When I go just a couple of blocks any direction I can hear 10 times as much. Even affects my HF radio.
At least I hear the local stuff with the tower about 2000 feet away and is about 500 feet tall. I just learned to live with it.
 

twolf816

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not every crt monitor causes interference....mine dosnt, nor does my lcd. now when i had my laptop i couldnt get a scanner within a foot of the thing so im thinking there all different
 

2112

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vs1988 said:
For the past couple of days the reception in my area was really bad. Or so I thought. Every time I listened to the scanner I was on my laptop, with the scanner to the left and slightly behind it. I folded the screen down and the reception wen back to being crystal clear again. I thought that only CRT monitors caused interference.

Any electrical or electronic can cause interference in a scanner, and not every electrical or electronic devices causes interference. To make things easier, individual devices may or may not cause interference based on their mode of operation, state of repair, external conditions, and other factors. It's just that some things are more prone and others are less prone to causing interference.

:)
 

Al42

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Many laptops these days have WiFi built in, and the 2.4 GHz antenna is in the frame around the display, So the scanner is being hit by a pretty strong signal, and that can reduce the sensitivity (desensing) on other frequencies as well. The display also generates its own signals - most of what would affect a scanner is the fact that the sweep signals are sawtooth, so they're very rich in harmonics.
 

jgodeker

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Al42 said:
Many laptops these days have WiFi built in, and the 2.4 GHz antenna is in the frame around the display, So the scanner is being hit by a pretty strong signal, and that can reduce the sensitivity (desensing) on other frequencies as well. The display also generates its own signals - most of what would affect a scanner is the fact that the sweep signals are sawtooth, so they're very rich in harmonics.


I agree, I have my D-Link wireless router in the same room as my scanner, I get tons of RF interference when I have the router turned on. I've tried to relocate the wireless router, but it's only minimal help, my best option is to power down the router and the problem is solved.

J.
 

Luis_C

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jgodeker said:
I agree, I have my D-Link wireless router in the same room as my scanner, I get tons of RF interference when I have the router turned on. I've tried to relocate the wireless router, but it's only minimal help, my best option is to power down the router and the problem is solved.

J.

Me too, but I got a 2wire router, so I disable Wi-Fi if it is not being used. (Helps for the security, too) and I disable the wireless card in the laptop. I always try to minimize things that could cause interference.
 

twolf816

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my d-link router, computer, 2 monitors, tv, dc power supply, and printer causes NO interference all put together.my scanners are about 1 ft from all of these...i put my scanner near my xm radio....wont work somethings just dont make sense
 

poltergeisty

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:roll: I have many notebooks none of which have a built in WI-FI card. However, I get interfeace from them all the time.

It's more than likely the Micro Processor. You can check this by setting a receiver to the speed of your computer.

The WI-FI card could be a possibility, but I have a Linksys router, ran a network between two notebooks for experimenting and had not received any static on the scanners during this time.

One of the flaws of a built in wireless card is it may always want to accept a connection even though you think you turn it off. It is one way a hacker can gain access to the intranet of your company.
icon3.gif


Solution: Rip that internal card out and get a high quality PCMCIA card.
icon10.gif
 

kf4lne

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In a laptop, if the noise goes away when you close it its probably the florescent lamp ballast for the display backlighting. usually somewhere inside the screen will be a inverter that poweres the lamps at a higher voltage than what the battery provides.
 

K6PCW

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Monitor Refresh Rate

If you suspect your computer's monitor as being the source of interference, play around with the monitor's refresh rate settings.
 
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