Headset picking up local radio...

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BrEaKnDiSh

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England
Sussex
Hi all.

I race online with my brother quite often and he has a strange issue with his headset. Were racing on the xbox 360 and he has had the same issue with 2 different wheels: The Thrustmaster Ferrari wheel and the original MS wireless racing wheel.

What happens is everyone whos racing online with him online can hear the local radio station coming through our headsets. He doesnt hear anything. Its kinda funny as we all end up singing along to the tunes while were racing. When plugs the headset into a controller the issue is gone. Its only when hes plugged into his wheel.

Any ideas what the problem could be?
 
The wheel has a radio simulation feature? :p

Heh, I don't really know what's wrong. If the wheel and mic are both connected via wire then I don't even see how it's possible.
 
@OP

This is a new one.

Really funny actually.

I am sure someone might be able to help you soon. You might want to provide more information like what wheel and headset
 
Funny problem :lol:.

To be honest, I don't think this's a wheel issue, but I'm not 100% sure. It could be his headset, picking up radio-waves, in the band around the local station (RW's goes from 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, but here, I would guess we're talking around the 2.4 GHz-point). Or, it could be a loose connection, a bad/dirty socket or plug inside the headset.
 
This is generally caused by poor shielding and filtering, not much can be done about it unless you're willing to sit inside a Faraday cage while you play. It's usually caused by a conductor picking up low frequency signals - most often local radio or public access type stuff - just by accident. If you've ever cut open a data cable and seen the metal foil the conductors are sheathed in, that's the shield which intercepts unwanted signals and shorts them to the ground before they can alter the signals in the cable. Same thing with opening a console or PC; they also usually have a metal case which acts as a shield. If any component that the headset plugs in to is lacking a proper shield you'll get some degree of noise, and the fact that the headset works fine when plugged in to a different source would suggest it's the wheel allowing errant signals in.

When you say the player can't hear anything, do you mean they can't hear ANYTHING or they can't hear the radio but can hear what they're supposed to be hearing?
 
My bro can hear us singing along to the classics quite perfectly, but cant hear the actual music himself! Quite funny it is!

He had a Thrustmaster 458 before and it did the same thing as it is on his MS WRW.

He lives very very close to Boreham wood studios nr London. He is picking up some station called Gold which plays stuff from the 60's 70's and 80's. Although it is funny its hard to concentrate sometimes with Abba playing away in my left ear lol!

Its a wired heaset but both wheels connected to the console wirelessly but then so does the pad so it must be a issue with both wheels. However I think I recall him saying that with the original MS headset there was no problem.
 
You know how Alunhats work right? lol
Maybe make an alu hat for the wheel base would be an idea, and maybe grounding it. Very weird at least.
My guess is he lives too close to a transmitter tower (possibly put on the roof of the studio. These towers can be quite powerful up close, so that might interfere with his equipment somehow.

Yoda says: A serious idea I have not, on how to prevent it. Except the maybe silly alu hat idea. He might try asking at the studio for ideas or advice, very knowledgable they are and one hopes friendly to help.
 
BrEaKnDiSh
Yes plugged in for power but communicate with the console wirelessly.
Click to expand...

In that case I'd guess that the wiring in the house is acting like an antenna (which would explain why it's happening while the headset is plugged in to the wired wheels but not while plugged in to a wireless controller) and the headset doesn't have the filtering the Microsoft headset did (which is why it didn't happen with that one regardless of what it's plugged in to). I'm just guessing though, but I can't work out why else it would happen with the wheels and not with the controller.


Edit: Plugging the wheel into something like this might help:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000PS5700/?tag=gtplanetuk-20

Searching for an 'RFI Filter' on Amazon might turn up cheaper options.
 
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My old desktop speaker system picks up radio signals when left powerd on but unplugged from my PC, its the oddest thing. Maybe something similar is happening with your headset.
 
Gunstar
My old desktop speaker system picks up radio signals when left powerd on but unplugged from my PC, its the oddest thing. Maybe something similar is happening with your headset.
Click to expand...

When I coil up my guitar cable and crank up the amp, I can receive the German radio (in the Netherlands). :dopey:

So I know the phenomenon. Never knew how to prevent it though.
 

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