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When I was a teen I had a guitar amp that would, if plugged into an effects pedal with certain settings, pick up a Spanish-language radio station. No clue how!
by mzg 4y ago
When I was a teen I had a guitar amp that would, if plugged into an effects pedal with certain settings, pick up a Spanish-language radio station. No clue how!
- fhrow4484 4y agoSame happened with simply a cable plugged, I think the jack cable acted as an antenna. The length of the cable would be a multiple of the right frequency or something like that, it'd catch a random AM radio
- rcfox 4y agoAM radio is such a simple modulation scheme that even a piece of grass can be used to demodulate it, with enough power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9UO9tn4MpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9UO9tn4MpI
- ajot 4y agoWell, this article [0] shows a guitar FX pedal design that can be used as a radio receiver. Maybe you could get a shortwave radio signal? [0] https://acidbourbon.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/a-74xx-defined-radio/ https://acidbourbon.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/a-74xx-defined-...
- washadjeffmad 4y agoMine picked up Cuban AM radio on cloudy nights. Never figured out how to tune it, though. (The stations, not the guitar)
- squarefoot 4y agoOne of the transistors in the early stages of the amplifier (or effects pedal) acted as a detector for the AM signal probably being picked up by a cable that worked as an antenna. It worked essentially as a untuned crystal radio followed by a powerful audio amplifier. The problem usually is a result of bad grounding or screening.