PilotAware

British Forum => Technical Support => Topic started by: Sapper732 on March 31, 2021, 10:12:10 am

Title: Radio interference
Post by: Sapper732 on March 31, 2021, 10:12:10 am

Hi, I am having an issue with constant radio interference when I connect the power supply to my Rosetta. I do have an Anker power supply. I have switched off each of the following in turn, but it does not change anything, Trig21 Strobes gps for ipad aware gps. The only way to cancel out the noise is turn the squelch up on my radio, but then I cant transmit.
Anyone with a magic wand out there who could help please.
Cheers Chris

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: Ian Melville on March 31, 2021, 12:30:03 pm

Can you give us details of the Anker PSU?

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: Admin on March 31, 2021, 02:14:38 pm

Also, are you running any other devices off the Anker supply ?

thx
Lee

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: exfirepro on March 31, 2021, 02:41:12 pm

Hi Chris,

As Lee has implied, noise can be caused when also running another device (a less than fully charged tablet is a favourite) from the same Anker charger as your Rosetta. For this reason we recommend running the PilotAware from its own dedicated supply even where the adapter has 2 outlets.

Also I don’t understand why you would be running a separate GPS for your iPad as PAW automatically provides position data to your Nav Device and what do you mean by ‘Aware GPS’?

Increasing the squelch level on your radio only sets a threshold for incoming radio signals - specifically to counter noise. Any signal which is too weak (below the noise level) simply won’t be heard, but there is no effect on stronger (more local) signals. It also has no effect whatever on radio transmission. As long as you can still hear other aircraft/Ground Stations, all will be fine, though it is of course still worth trying to find and resolve the source of the noise if we can.

Other common causes worth looking for are things like poor electrical connections, bad earth continuity, and cables carrying radio and other electronic data running close alongside each other.

Keep us posted.

Regards

Peter

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: PaulSS on March 31, 2021, 10:06:33 pm

Seems to that it's one of two things with every PAW issue. Either (a)Poor power supply (not in this case) or (b)a ground loop.

I'd bet half a lager shandy that a ground loop isolator would solve this snag.

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: rblaksley on May 01, 2021, 08:05:35 am

Thanks for that suggestion re the ground loop. I have been suffering bad radio/static from a fixed PAW installation in a gyro. I will fit a ground loop noise isolator on the audio out cable today (and put some ferite cores on the power supply) and report back.

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: steveu on May 01, 2021, 09:41:26 am

Passive ground loop isolators come with a significant signal level drop, at least the ones I have looked at do...

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: Brooklands on May 01, 2021, 11:03:02 am

Another possibility if nothing else works: I had a similar problem with my PAW (classic, homebuilt).

I was getting noise on the radio which showed up as the radio in receive mode.  After some fault finding I came to the conclusion that it was the old SDR ADSB dongle and replaced it with a new NooElec NESDR Nano 2 which had fixed the problem.  Would be worth borrowing one from somebody else if none of the other suggestions work and see if that helps before ordering a new one.

Brooklands

Title: Re: Radio interference
Post by: rblaksley on May 04, 2021, 04:14:29 pm

Further to my earlier post, I have found that a ferite core on the power lead plus an inline ground loop isolator (AUKEY Ground Loop Noise Isolator, Amazon) improves matters by about 85%.