Bizarre radio experience

So there I was. 9,500 ft. over Albemarle Sound in NC. Headed toward
Kitty Hawk to meet some people flying up from Myrtle Beach attending
the Beach Aero Club yearly meeting. I'm getting flight following from
Washington Center and being pushed along with a 50 kt. tailwind (I took
a picture of my GPS as proof, 154 kts. groundspeed.)

"Podunk airport traffic, bugsmasher 25B ten miles east inbound for landing,
any traffic, please advise"

"Ha!" I think to myself, "That Center lady is certainly going to tell
him a thing or two."

"Other-podunk airport traffic, happy 94J, left base, runway zero four."

Hmmm... What's going on...

"podunk... podunk... podunk... ... ..."

It's now so bad that I can't clearly hear what the Center controller
is saying. It's at times like these that they usually want me to
switch transponder code for no known reason...

"Washington Center, 25Q, I'm receiving a lot of 0 on this
frequency, I need to cancel flight following." Actually, I had to say
it about three times as it was very busy. She finally said something
that I couldn't understand except the last words, "... good luck."

Now my powers of diagnosis are put to the test. I set the other radio
to the Center freq and listen to that. No change. Still chatter from
everywhere. I switch to transmit on that. I change the standby freqs.
I shut off one radio. Still I hear voices. Finally, I turn off the
intercom (radios are still on). "Podunk..." This isn't supposed to happen.
I can bypass the intercom, but I really should need to plug into the
bypass jacks... What is going on?

I turn off both radios.

".... podunk ... podunk ... PODUNK!!!!" (did I say the voices were
loud?)

The whole panel is dark. The hair on my neck is starting to stand up.
There's only one thing left to try...

I turn off my iPod that's plugged into the headset (not "Ride of the
Valkyries", but Amy LaVere)... silence. Wow. Cool. Plug back in, "podunk..."
Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed 30-3G was acting
as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up multiple frequencies
at once. I wish I had written down all the airport names so I could see
how many I was hearing, but it was quite the cacophony. I called LightSpeed
and the guy there had never had that reported before. I said I'd post
to a newsgroup to solicit other reports. Anyone?

--
Don Poitras

Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed 30-3G was acting
as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up multiple frequencies
at once.

Whoa -- now THAT is weird.

I've flown that exact route with intercom, Lightspeed, flight
following, and XM-radio, but never got the "Twilight Zone" radio
effect. Must be something in the iPod doing it...

Great, just you watch: Now they'll issue an AD on Apples...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Don Poitras writes:

The whole panel is dark. The hair on my neck is starting to stand up.
There's only one thing left to try...

I turn off my iPod that's plugged into the headset (not "Ride of the
Valkyries", but Amy LaVere)... silence. Wow. Cool. Plug back in, "podunk..."
Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed 30-3G was acting
as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up multiple frequencies
at once. I wish I had written down all the airport names so I could see
how many I was hearing, but it was quite the cacophony. I called LightSpeed
and the guy there had never had that reported before. I said I'd post
to a newsgroup to solicit other reports. Anyone?

Clearly your personal eletronic device is causing interference that endangers
the safety of the flight. The PIC or aircraft operator will have to forbid
use of the device.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Don Poitras writes:

The whole panel is dark. The hair on my neck is starting to stand up.
There's only one thing left to try...

I turn off my iPod that's plugged into the headset (not "Ride of the
Valkyries", but Amy LaVere)... silence. Wow. Cool. Plug back in,
"podunk..." Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed
30-3G was acting as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up
multiple frequencies at once. I wish I had written down all the
airport names so I could see how many I was hearing, but it was quite
the cacophony. I called LightSpeed and the guy there had never had
that reported before. I said I'd post to a newsgroup to solicit other
reports. Anyone?

Clearly your personal eletronic device is causing interference that
endangers the safety of the flight. The PIC or aircraft operator will
have to forbid use of the device.




It's not the same thing as the voices in your head, k00kie boi.


Bertie

"Don Poitras" wrote

Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed 30-3G was acting
as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up multiple frequencies
at once. I wish I had written down all the airport names so I could see
how many I was hearing, but it was quite the cacophony. I called
LightSpeed
and the guy there had never had that reported before. I said I'd post
to a newsgroup to solicit other reports. Anyone?

Holey crystal radio, batman! I've heard of people's braces and dental
bridges acting as radios before, but never multi frequency ipod repeaters!

Quite the tale, but not totally out of the realm of unusual strange
happenings. Thanks for sharing the happenings with us!

Now, as to the question of if you are hearing things, or not..... g
--
Jim in NC

On Oct 22, 2:26 pm, (Don Poitras) wrote:

I turn off my iPod that's plugged into the headset (not "Ride of the
Valkyries", but Amy LaVere)... silence. Wow. Cool. Plug back in, "podunk..."
Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed 30-3G was acting
as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up multiple frequencies
at once. I wish I had written down all the airport names so I could see
how many I was hearing, but it was quite the cacophony. I called LightSpeed
and the guy there had never had that reported before. I said I'd post
to a newsgroup to solicit other reports. Anyone?

--
Don Poitras

My bizarre story happened in the mid 70's. I took up a guy in my Tri-
Pacer with a newfangled video camera. It was before small one piece
camcorders existed and the Beta recording deck was in the a back seat
as we flew around town shooting video. We were not concerned with
audio and did not take a microphone along. We got back to the TV
studio where I worked and played the tape. Out of the speaker, clear
as day, came every bit of radio communication from the entire flight,
both transmitted and received. Weird.
--
Gene Seibel KB0NNN
http://pad39a.com/gene/broadcast.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.

On 2007-10-22 12:26:27 -0700, (Don Poitras) said:

So there I was. 9,500 ft. over Albemarle Sound in NC. Headed toward
Kitty Hawk to meet some people flying up from Myrtle Beach attending
the Beach Aero Club yearly meeting. I'm getting flight following from
Washington Center and being pushed along with a 50 kt. tailwind (I took
a picture of my GPS as proof, 154 kts. groundspeed.)

"Podunk airport traffic, bugsmasher 25B ten miles east inbound for landing,
any traffic, please advise"

"Ha!" I think to myself, "That Center lady is certainly going to tell
him a thing or two."

"Other-podunk airport traffic, happy 94J, left base, runway zero four."

Hmmm... What's going on...

"podunk... podunk... podunk... ... ..."

It's now so bad that I can't clearly hear what the Center controller
is saying. It's at times like these that they usually want me to
switch transponder code for no known reason...

"Washington Center, 25Q, I'm receiving a lot of 0 on this
frequency, I need to cancel flight following." Actually, I had to say
it about three times as it was very busy. She finally said something
that I couldn't understand except the last words, "... good luck."

Now my powers of diagnosis are put to the test. I set the other radio
to the Center freq and listen to that. No change. Still chatter from
everywhere. I switch to transmit on that. I change the standby freqs.
I shut off one radio. Still I hear voices. Finally, I turn off the
intercom (radios are still on). "Podunk..." This isn't supposed to happen.
I can bypass the intercom, but I really should need to plug into the
bypass jacks... What is going on?

I turn off both radios.

".... podunk ... podunk ... PODUNK!!!!" (did I say the voices were
loud?)

The whole panel is dark. The hair on my neck is starting to stand up.
There's only one thing left to try...

I turn off my iPod that's plugged into the headset (not "Ride of the
Valkyries", but Amy LaVere)... silence. Wow. Cool. Plug back in, "podunk..."
Somehow the combination of iPod, wire and LightSpeed 30-3G was acting
as a radio (a very crisp, loud radio) picking up multiple frequencies
at once. I wish I had written down all the airport names so I could see
how many I was hearing, but it was quite the cacophony. I called LightSpeed
and the guy there had never had that reported before. I said I'd post
to a newsgroup to solicit other reports. Anyone?

You know, that is so weird, that maybe someone over in mac.hardware
might know something about it.

So, for you non-fliers -- translated a little bit -- this pilot reports
that he was hearing radio calls from many different airports and
airplanes which were all supposed to be on different frequencies. He
could hear so many transmissions on so many frequencies that he could
barely understand what was going on. He was wearing a LightSpeed
headset with an iPod plugged into it -- many pilot headsets have a jack
for listening to iPods and stuff.

Now, he tried turning off the airplane intercom and just listen to the
radios, but the problem persisted. Finally, in desperation, he turned
off all his airplane's radios! And he still heard all these
transmissions! Then he unplugged his iPhone from the jack on his
headset and he finally stopped hearing the radio transmissions. Plug
the iPod back in, he hears the radios. Unplug it, they go away.

This has to be almost as good as the story about hearing radios with
the fillings in your teeth. Got any idea what was going on?

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On 2007-10-22 12:26:27 -0700, (Don Poitras) said:

.

"podunk... podunk... podunk... ... ..."

It's now so bad that I can't clearly hear what the Center controller
is saying. It's at times like these that they usually want me to
switch transponder code for no known reason...

You know, this alone is reason enough to write up a NASA report. This
is exactly the kind of thing they are looking for.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:19:34 -0700, C J Campbell
wrote in
2007102215193443658-christophercampbell@hotmailcom:

Got any idea what was going on?

Aviation VHF radio communications are Amplitude Modulated, so it only
requires a simple diode/rectifier to detect them, unlike FM. Obviously
the iPod was acting as a wide-band or un-tuned radio frequency
receiver and detector, and combining the iTunes audio with the audio
from all the aircraft transmissions within line-of-sight at 9,500'.

Perhaps Apple will consider electrically shielding their products if
they become aware of this issue.

C J Campbell wrote:
On 2007-10-22 12:26:27 -0700, (Don Poitras) said:

.

"podunk... podunk... podunk... ... ..."

It's now so bad that I can't clearly hear what the Center controller
is saying. It's at times like these that they usually want me to
switch transponder code for no known reason...

You know, this alone is reason enough to write up a NASA report. This
is exactly the kind of thing they are looking for.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

I hadn't thought of that. You're right though. The PDF file wouldn't
work when I clicked the "send" button, so I printed it out and I'll
mail tomorrow.

--
Don Poitras