- #1
Nick89
- 553
- 0
Hi,
I travel by train nearly every day, and I am using a crappy portable radio connected to my phone (it's just a very small radio receiver built into the earphones) to listen to the radio during the journey.
I can't help but noticing two effects, one that can probably be explained pretty easily, but one that I cannot explain:
1. While the journey progresses, the reception (is that the correct word?) becomes worse and worse. Sometimes it is worse than other times; I may hear no noise whatsoever on same days, and only noise on other days.
I thought this could be explained easily because I am traveling further away from the radio broadcaster near my area, and I may have to change the frequency to get a better reception.
However, once I get off the train and have left the station, the reception is usually back to normal!
2. When the train starts braking when it arrives at a station, and when I am close to either end of the train cart, my reception is suddenly completely gone. It is not a coincidence; the trains engines sound like some electrical whine, and when they start to brake it is clearly audible by the change in engine sound. The radio reception is gone the instant the train starts braking.
If I am in the middle of the train cart when the braking occurs, the reception loss is not so obvious, although it is still present.I am merely wondering, what can cause this? I don't know if the train's engines are electric or not (they sound like it though), maybe they cause some interference somehow?
I can't understand the relevance of the braking though, nor the relevance of my position inside the train cart.
Finally, is there anything I can do about this except buy a better radio receiver? It's not very important of course, but since I was wondering about this I decided to ask. The noise does get very annoying and I'd like to listen to the radio properly...
Thanks!
I travel by train nearly every day, and I am using a crappy portable radio connected to my phone (it's just a very small radio receiver built into the earphones) to listen to the radio during the journey.
I can't help but noticing two effects, one that can probably be explained pretty easily, but one that I cannot explain:
1. While the journey progresses, the reception (is that the correct word?) becomes worse and worse. Sometimes it is worse than other times; I may hear no noise whatsoever on same days, and only noise on other days.
I thought this could be explained easily because I am traveling further away from the radio broadcaster near my area, and I may have to change the frequency to get a better reception.
However, once I get off the train and have left the station, the reception is usually back to normal!
2. When the train starts braking when it arrives at a station, and when I am close to either end of the train cart, my reception is suddenly completely gone. It is not a coincidence; the trains engines sound like some electrical whine, and when they start to brake it is clearly audible by the change in engine sound. The radio reception is gone the instant the train starts braking.
If I am in the middle of the train cart when the braking occurs, the reception loss is not so obvious, although it is still present.I am merely wondering, what can cause this? I don't know if the train's engines are electric or not (they sound like it though), maybe they cause some interference somehow?
I can't understand the relevance of the braking though, nor the relevance of my position inside the train cart.
Finally, is there anything I can do about this except buy a better radio receiver? It's not very important of course, but since I was wondering about this I decided to ask. The noise does get very annoying and I'd like to listen to the radio properly...
Thanks!