Confused and befuddled

[mp3sgt]

This may or may not be the correct forum. I arrived home in Laurel Hill, FL and turned on my computer(desktop with integrated sound on the motherboard). I few seconds later, I turned on my subwoofer and 2 speaker system connected to that computer via standard 3.5mm headphone jack. I heard this loud bass buzz for a few seconds and then heard the radio transmissions from either a helo or aircraft talking to the coast guard station (Mobile, AL is the closest aircraft radio facility for the coast guard I found out) back and forth about elevations and where the aircraft was in reference to burning off oil slick in the gulf. I listened to this for about 10 minutes without choice(as it was louder than my music on my computer) and it finally all of a sudden stopped. I did do a restart during that 10 minutes and even after that it was still on my system. Now I am wondering how something like that can get caught up with my desktop computer. The speakers only received this traffic while my computer was on. When it restarted, it lost the signal during the restart. My desktop is on the floor with no antennae connected to it and is inside my house in Laurel Hill, FL. I do not think I am crazy, haha. Just wanting some possible explanation, technical would be good. And of course, I am fairly sure it is related to the thunderstorm just east of my location moving this way. But I have lived here for 3 years and have never heard anything close to this, even before, during and after thunderstorms.

 

[Ref-Jazzy]

More than likely, your speaker wire is acting as an antenna. Move the wires around and it 'should' go away.

 

[kb2vxa]

You may also have RF on one or more input lead and a goofy monitor setting in your mixer panel so give your sound board software a good going over while you're at it. As far as the actual source is concerned I'll go with the speaker wire and an interesting coincidence, you cut the length of something to be resonant on one of the aircraft bands.

Speaking of speaker wire, is the stuff between the computer sound card and amplifier shielded? May seem like a dumb question but some are under the impression the sound card puts out high level audio at low impedance driving the speakers directly and the wiring doesn't need to be shielded, they look at it like a hi-fi home entertainment system when it's a horse of a different color, a computer.

"Just wanting some possible explanation, technical would be good."
There you have it, how you use that information is entirely up to you.

"And of course, I am fairly sure it is related to the thunderstorm just east of my location moving this way."
Of that I'm sure, lightning is related to intense ionization making the air conductive just like a giant antenna. (;->) Seriously, the only way it could be related is if it were so intense air traffic was being routed around it for safety reasons, like wind shear ripping the wings off.

Consider yourself lucky to have interesting interference, it could be some jerkwad CBer trash talking and cussing up a storm.

 

[BushDoctor]

Receiving AM signals from acft

When I was in the Air Force outside lines that carried audio for paging system in the hanger woulod receive AM signals from close by acft on the ramp. The signals airborne are much strong due to line of sight so you just have like a crystal radio maybe a loose conection providing rectification and speaker wires providing capatince between them for a tuned circuit. My first crystal radio was a 1N34 diode one side connected to the radiator and one side of headphones and the other side connected to the other earphone lead and an antenna i had outside strung between my house and a pine tree. I was able to hear WAVA AM over 2 miles away but no others since they were further away. WAVFA was at 380 feet I was at 330 feet. joe

 

[mp3sgt]

Thanks

Thanks to all of you guys. I thought I was going crazy listening to a helicopter confer about their elevation while telling the coast guard station what was going on with an active oil slick burn. My sound is motherboard integrated. My cord is standard headphone 3.5mm but with an extra 6ft extension due to the speaker set being located across my room. The speakers were connected correctly into the motherboard. Also, this only occurred while the computer was ON and stopped when the computer turned off to restart.

Now I have heard of rigging up a sound card to be used as an antenna, but never thought an integrated, as in integrated chip onto the motherboard, would do the same.