Mighty Favog Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 About a month ago I found that my tuner (McIntosh MR-85) will no longer play any FM stations unless the AUTO MUTE is turned off or it's not on a station that is programed on a preset. And when it does pickup a station the strength is very weak and full of static. AM works great and very strong. Have had it about 10-years and never moved or changed it. Always had nothing lower than an 8 on its strength meter. So I talked to Audio Classics, where I bought it, and they were pretty dumbfounded and said I should send it to them to look under the hood. Money being rather short, I put that off for now. Fast forward to today: I finally got enough gumption to do some cleaning in our basement. There is another system down there so I can listen to some tunes and I use this system regularly in the morning on AM. It's a POS home theater in a box that a friend gave me that is already 15-years old. But, hey, the tuner works.......till today. The EXACT SAME THING happened to the basement system. No FM at all but great AM. I even moved the makeshift dipole antenna around but nothing happened. It also has a digital tuner. I've had it about 3-years and never changed or moved it. So I go out to the garage and get out a portable boom box (analog tuner) and plug it in right next to the basement system. It plays fine and strong on both bands. Background: Both upstairs and basement systems are directly above/below each other in the house. Three other systems (not including boom-box) at the opposite end of the house play fine. I've even connected the McIntosh up to an identical antenna (Magnum Dynalab ST-2) that runs the other 2 working systems but there was no change. The water utility did put in a new meter that transmits readings to a box on the unitility pole somewhere on our street about a month ago. The meter was and is in the same place in our yard very close to the street but now the lid has this hockey puck looking thing on top of it. I checked the grounds to our breaker panel and there are two, one goes to the incoming water pipe and the other to the rod stuck in the ground in front of the house. In the breaker panel, both ground wires connect to the same place covers both the right and left legs in the panel. I was rather close to sending the McIntosh to Audio Classics till this was discovered today. Pulling my gray hairs out!! Any clue that the water meter transmitter could be blocking my FM band?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter P. Posted October 29, 2016 Share Posted October 29, 2016 Those water meter devices only transmit when interrogated by a passing vehicle from the water department. Otherwise, they sit dormant. You can actually call your water company and if they're nice enough, they'll even be able to tell you what frequency they operate on. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get that information from the FCC database. I use the following link to search for licensees: http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchAdvanced.jsp;JSESSIONID_ULSSEARCH=9KywYVkF5XtThW7mW46lJ0QPcVQ6XNnZ2fMhH6tyvhymRcC7Hdch!373353610!1548010679 I work in the RF industry, and have worked with municipal water departments. For instance, one local water department's interrogation system runs in the 452MHz range, as I just looked up their licenses. The power output is limited to 4W; basically the same as a police or fire department portable radio. Those devices run on a sealed battery that lasts so long many years that, once the battery dies, they toss the ENTIRE transmitter because by then technology has advanced so much in the interim. I have no idea what's going on with your deteriorating FM reception, but one way to test would be to have a friend bring over their receiver/tuner and hook it up to your antenna. That will at least confirm it's YOUR units and not your antenna that's the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Does it improve if you temporarily switch to mono? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 No, no change switching to mono. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Peter P - One thing I did do was connect the MR85 to the other attic antenna that serves two other systems at the opposite (north) end of the house. Sadly, no change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Have you recently added any other components, halogen lights, or dimmer switches? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 5 minutes ago, mungkiman said: Have you recently added any other components, halogen lights, or dimmer switches? No, not a thing. (scratching head). Only thing I can think of right now was I took a failing GFI out of another circuit in the same room and replaced it with regular outlet (I checked the polarity). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Did I miss something? What happens when you move the tuner to a friend's house? WMcD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 2 minutes ago, WMcD said: Did I miss something? What happens when you move the tuner to a friend's house? WMcD I haven't done that yet. I might be able to next weekend and hook it up to his Aiwa shelf system. But I'll need to get a dipole antenna first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryC Posted October 30, 2016 Share Posted October 30, 2016 Are you running more than one tuner off your MD ST-2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 30, 2016 Author Share Posted October 30, 2016 Hi Larry, No, just the one tuner with a single 25ft or so run of RG6-QS . This afternoon I bought a dipole antenna and took the unit to my workshop in the south end of the basement and hooked it up to the system (that works) and the problem persists. I'm going to take it to work tomorrow and hook it up in our media room and see if it follows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 O.K., I'm at work with the unit and the problem is following it. The AUTO MUTE switch has to be cycled on/off for a signal to come in. Guess when funds come available, it'll be on its way to NY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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