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Help Radio Frequency Interference

R

robsmarg

Newbie
Strangest thing. When I place my Nexus 5 next to my clock radio the clock radio starts to emit static sounds. This happens with the Nexus 5 turned off and the clock radio off as well. I have tried turning off Bluetooth and WiFi on the phone, but it still happens.

Also, I have connected my Nexus 5 to an external speaker through the headphone jack and get bad static through the speaker while playing Pandora, Sirius and Google Play Music.

I called Google but the only suggestion they had was turning off Bluetooth and WiFi, which did not help. When I run the phone in Safe Mode the static stopped.

Anybody else having this issue? Any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
You have a GSM phone, not a CDMA phone. GSM produces high-energy (extremely high rate of change) signals. They've tamed it a bit in the past decade, but we used to leave our cellphones next to a speaker (or even next to a turned-off radio) and we could tell when the phone was going to ring - you could hear the handshake transmission from the phone to the tower as static in the speaker. I haven't heard it in years, so I assumed they'd gotten the spurious noise down to a pretty low level, but I guess your phone slipped through. Nothing to worry about, though - it won't cause any problems. The only ones who could complain would be the FCC, and all they'd do is make Google replace the phone. (It's illegal for a transmitter to transmit spurious signals above a certain level, but the illegality falls on the manufacturer, not the user.)
 
Rukbat said:
You have a GSM phone, not a CDMA phone. GSM produces high-energy (extremely high rate of change) signals. They've tamed it a bit in the past decade, but we used to leave our cellphones next to a speaker (or even next to a turned-off radio) and we could tell when the phone was going to ring - you could hear the handshake transmission from the phone to the tower as static in the speaker. I haven't heard it in years, so I assumed they'd gotten the spurious noise down to a pretty low level, but I guess your phone slipped through. Nothing to worry about, though - it won't cause any problems. The only ones who could complain would be the FCC, and all they'd do is make Google replace the phone. (It's illegal for a transmitter to transmit spurious signals above a certain level, but the illegality falls on the manufacturer, not the user.)
Click to expand...

That would explain why my old HTC Evo 4G never did this. Thanks for the response.
 
Rukbat said:
You have a GSM phone, not a CDMA phone.
Click to expand...

The N5 has both CDMA and GSM radios (in addition to LTE). If robsmarg is on Sprint (assuming based on the comment about HTC EVO 4G), it is using CDMA radio (and the LTE radio), not the GSM radio
 
Mine has made noises when sitting on my desk next to my computer's speakers. But as rukbat said, nothing to worry about.
 
jj14x said:
The N5 has both CDMA and GSM radios (in addition to LTE). If robsmarg is on Sprint (assuming based on the comment about HTC EVO 4G), it is using CDMA radio (and the LTE radio), not the GSM radio
Click to expand...
And it wouldn't be making the noise tat a GSM phone makes. The fact that it makes those noises is 100% proof that the phone is operating as a TDMA device (which is a GSM phone). I don't care if it has TV, RADAR and Martian Telepathy modules in it, the noise comes from the GSM radio. CDMA radios just don't make that noise.
 
jj14x said:
The N5 has both CDMA and GSM radios (in addition to LTE). If robsmarg is on Sprint (assuming based on the comment about HTC EVO 4G), it is using CDMA radio (and the LTE radio), not the GSM radio
Click to expand...

I'm actually on Straight Talk using an AT&T sim.
 
Rukbat said:
And it wouldn't be making the noise tat a GSM phone makes. The fact that it makes those noises is 100% proof that the phone is operating as a TDMA device (which is a GSM phone). I don't care if it has TV, RADAR and Martian Telepathy modules in it, the noise comes from the GSM radio. CDMA radios just don't make that noise.
Click to expand...
it does! where? settings or app drawers? :D
 
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