Radio interference near military ranges.

I drive across Dartmoor pretty much every day. There are a couple of stretches of road near the ranges where DAB dies completely and FM has loads of white noise. It’s always there but worse when they are on exercise.

I would have thought they wouldn’t be able to use these frequencies so what are they doing that causes the problem?

Nothing it’s just a bad spot.

If it was consistent then I’d believe that. It’s far worse when the flags are up.

Aliens scanning the area,watch out for probes.

a few years ago (prob 15-20) a friend was taking video on the N Y moors near flyingdales early warning base. Everytime he pointed the camera at the base it received interference so significant that the camera basically shut down. Also, then he got chased away by the military police for filming their base…!

I have heard that there are measures that you can take with tin foil.

Makes you think…..

Makes you think…..

Not many lizards on Dartmoor.

Makes you think…..

Not many lizards on Dartmoor.[/quote]
Thats what they want you to think

If it was consistent then I’d believe that. It’s far worse when the flags are up.

Of course it is.

I would have thought they wouldn’t be able to use these frequencies so what are they doing that causes the problem?

Why, the military take priority? They can turn off GPS whenever they want, its a US military system

Could be radar, even though it’s not in the DAB/FM radio bands, if it’s high enough in power it will just swamp* the front end of your radio.

Although, could just be a poor coverage area.

* technical term is “compress”.

Many moons ago I was working on a satellite receiver for the MoD (secret squirrel stuff). I designed and built it and had it working fine outside our labs in Harlow, but when I took it down to DRA Portsdown for the customer demo it didn’t work at all. I didn’t have enough filtering and it’s front end was being saturated by the 1 MW FM transmitter on the Isle of White…

NB This is why car alarm / auto locking things don’t work near RAF Fylingdales and the AA/RAC endlessly tow people a couple of miles away before they can start their car.

That very odd as I love near Brizlee Wood when I’ve taken the car up their to walk the dog when I last went to spot the Vulcan all the car locks worked and all started.

Another Fylingdales incident:

I’d been to Whitby on the motorbikes with some mates, on the way back in the dip before Fylingdales by the little stone bridge we pulled in as a massive storm was approaching. We put waterproofs on and prepared to set off again only for one of the bikes with a remote alarm to refuse to start. Couldn’t mobilize the bike and the key fob wouldn’t work. My mate tried the spare fob and that was a non starter even with it sat directly on top of the alarm box. It couldn’t be bumped because of the immobilizer either so he was stuck.
A mate came and put it in the back of his van and took him home. Once they were 5 minutes past Fylingdales the key fob began working.

EDIT: Just seen FFs post!

That very odd as I love near Brizlee Wood when I’ve taken the car up their to walk the dog when I last went to spot the Vulcan all the car locks worked and all started.

All depends on the design of the receiver in the car alarm module (most are cheap and have little filtering, hence are easy to jam) and then the orientation with respect to the radar and whether the radar is on or not.

Fylingdales is (or was) pretty notorious for killing car alarms:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/dec/19/military.politics1

Possibly more modern cars have better filtering in their radio modules….

If it was consistent then I’d believe that. It’s far worse when the flags are up.

It’s the flags. But don’t tell anyone.

I drive across Dartmoor pretty much every day.

You are a lucky man, turn t`wireless off and appreciate the loveliness !

Think of them poor miserable urbanites commuting through concrete, glass and steel !

sound more like it, i very much doubt its poor coverage. I’ve got a direct line of sight to the largest transmitter for the most part. There are a couple of deep valleys where you lose signal and I can understand that.

Think of them poor miserable urbanites commuting through concrete, glass and steel !

this time of year they get in my way, gawping at the view and marvelling at the ponies…

They can turn off GPS whenever they want, its a US military system

The consequences of that could be rather severe. A lot of systems use GPS in ways which werent anticipated eg as a time system.
Which is why the MOD is careful where it does jamming exercises and gives notification in advance.

They can turn off GPS whenever they want

As far as I know it’s never been switched off…

Which is why the MOD is careful where it does jamming exercises and gives notification in advance.

Unlike the 1000s of illegal jammers in cars / trucks up and down the country (mainly stolen).

they even had to turn off SA during the first gulf war as too many commercial GPS units were in use by the military. DGPS rendered it redundant by 2000 and they turned it off permanently.

plus you’ve got GLONASS now as well.

they even had to turn off SA during the first gulf war as too many commercial GPS units were in use by the military.

There’s no money in the military version as all the volume (and chipsets) was in the commercial ones, so no one was making them in enough volume (and still isn’t).

I wonder how the people who work at flying dales get home at the end of the shift.

They cycle. And electromagnetic effects are so powerful they freewheel UPHILL.

Of course they freewheel uphill. It’s Yorkshire where they ride Ee bikes.