alternating current noise / voltage drop

My TV reception gets snowy due to various appliances being used throughout the house. I then go around and turn on, then off things like bathroom light and fan, lights in other rooms, ceiling fans, electronic ignition on stove etc. I know many of these things are on separate circuits in the house, yet one of these things usually clears up the reception of the TV. The frequency of this disturbance to the TV varies but is usually bad during the daylight hours and less frequent in the evening. I am familiar with the use of a multimeter. There are other things like computer modem problems that are less frequent and harder to troubleshoot (i.e it may be the phone line, or the ISP server dropping) rather than A/C voltage drops. The TV provides a visable event to the problem. Any ideas on where I could start troubleshooting with my multimeter? Thank you.

Try replacing the curcuit breakers in your utility panel. Identify all of the breakers in your breaker panel. Walk a new Cb into the breaker where your TV is on. Walk the new breaker into all the locations. Ensure your terminals in your breaker panel are tight. Loose wires connections can create problems.

Thx Spudman2

I will give that a shot. I have 15,20,30 and 40 ampere breakers. The 40's are for air conditioning. The rest are for the house and swimming pool (2 HP pump). I will first blowout all the spider webs and dust I found in the panel with my shop-vac. Then tighten all the posts. I then will swap like sized breakers to see if any appear faulty. We have lived in this house nearly 25 years and the spiders appear to like living in that panel! Not for much longer!! Thanks again.

It sounds like a loose connection, don't quit until you locate it.

Try your TV on other outlets in the house.(to rule out that particular outlet)

1. Check your incoming voltage, at the top of your breaker panel, each hot leg to ground for imbalance.

2. Check each of the main lugs, on both sides of the main breaker, for looseness. Pay special attention to these connections they have a tendency to become loose after a few years.

3. Confirm your ground wire is in tact and tight in the panel and at your grounding rod.

4. Next check to see if your neighbor is sharing the same step-down transformer as you, he could be using a power tool or some other device that causes line noise. Ask him if he is experiencing the same problem.

As with all electrical work the potential for electrical shock is present. Take the proper steps to insure your safety.

Roger

It sounds to me like plain old EMI from inductive loads in the house.

The newer TV sets don't seem to be as susceptible to this as the older ones were.

Unless I totally misunderstood the problem in the original post, I don't think this has anything to do with voltage drop.

There's nothing good on TV anyway.

Hello!
Sounds strange, usually you get those kind of disturbances from eg. a motorcycle whitch has bad ignition wires..
You say it's during daytime do you have eg. aircondition where you can find a compressor, maybe it has a bad condensator ?

I don't wonder why you in the states get those kind of disturbances, it's because your cables are so thiny, in Finland we only use that kind of cables for eg. speakers or doorbells. It wouldn't be allowed to use those ripcordes in any real apliences.

240 volts rule !

Where is jimkor?

jimkor
What happened, your PC burn down?

Hopefully he didn't try to tighten the main lugs with an uninsulated Allen wrench without pulling the meter!...

It's not as if you didn't warn him Roger...

No, really, where are you jimkor?... utoh

beerchug

-Eric

Yea but you know how instructions go "Read em after all else fails"
Hopefully not in this case.

Roger

LOTO for sure. I guess I should of mentioned that, sorry. We'll miss you dearly. Can a new appliance installed with the neutral ground swapped cause the problem. Has there always been this problem or is it relatively new?

Check the panel and branch circuit wiring with a hand-held transistor radio set to an empty spot on the AM band to see if you can narrow down the noise source.

Schematic

Is there a schematic of something similar. I once saw a setup where they had a set of earphones and on the other end a probe. I thoughtI had saved it but .... Do you have a source. Maybe I can check radio shack.
Thanks Pete

Hi Jimkor,

is the signal to the TV from an entannae?

The reason I ask, is at night the signal is stronger.

You may have two problems, one being a weak signal, and two being noise on your signal line.

When your signal is stronger, noise has less of an effect on the signal. Check all connections on your signal line (coaxial I am asssuming). If you can substitute your signal line to ensure this is not the problem that would be the best. If you can get your TV to wherever your signal is coming into the house I would be interested to know how the TV is doing (hopefully your coax line is not coming in right at your electrical panel). You want this line away from all 120VAC lines. Isolation is the best form of noise reduction.

I would have to wonder about the grounding in your receptacle. Is it grounded properly?

Is this a new problem?
Is this a different home you have just moved into?
Have you tested using a different TV?

take care,

shaun

How old is your house wiring? If it is old that may also be an issue. Wire shielding has progressed just like other things. Old wires can have bare spots on them. Is it static that you are getting through your tv? If so, loose connections (like mentioned before) and wiring would be the first places I would personally start.

Good Luck