How to Deal With a Noisy Portable Satellite Radio

If you are having trouble with noise interrupting the enjoyment of your portable satellite radio, there are steps you can take to lessen the impact of noise coming through your in-dash satellite radio. Our modern technological society throws off a lot of electromagnetic signals, but any electrical interruption in a portable satellite radio's circuit will cause degradation of the signal.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Ground loop isolator

1. Begin by double-checking to make sure all of the cables are properly seated. If any of your RCA jacks or mini-plugs aren't in full contact, just like with any other audio system, you'll get noise.

2. Try switching the frequency if your system uses a wireless FM transmitter to send the signal to the receiver. If you have this setup you may be picking up a faint signal from a local FM broadcast.

3. Change the settings on your Wired FM Modulator if this is the type of rig you have. Having your system's modulator hooked into the AM/FM antenna can bring in some unwanted noise. As before, check the frequency to make sure you have it set to an unused one in your area.

4. Reconsider the setup you have if you are using a cassette adapter and signal noise bothers you. This type of setup, although it is easy to hook up, can give you some low quality sound reproduction.

5. Check the system's ground connection. This is essential to any audio system, but sometimes is overlooked when trying to troubleshoot and track down a problem. A "ground loop" occurs when different components of your system are getting their voltage from different sources. You can cure the ground loop problem by hooking a "ground loop isolator" into your system and eliminate the electrical noise and hum caused by ground loops.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are not the one who installed the system, you should not be the one trying to fix the system. Take it to the professionals.