It's a longshot. The isolation capacitors may be failing in your set. A quick-and-dirty test... 1 - Unplug the set and anything attached to it. 2 - Unscrew the cable line and disconnect ALL A/V cables from the set. 3 - Place a low-ampere (lees than 1) 250-Volt, fast-blow fuse between the ground on the cable coax and the TV cable ground. Do not connect the center conductor. You should bypass the cable box when doing this. Use jumper wires with alligator clips for a good "hands-off" connection. 4 - Make sure you or no-one else is touching the cable line. 5 - Plug in the TV. If the fuse blows, your set needs to be serviced. DO NOT use the TV until it's repaired, as it may damage the cable line, or YOU. Peace. Marco

There are an infinite number of conditions that can cause TVI (Television Interference.) One common source is Line Interference which results from transient voltages on the 110v AC power supply. Another common cause is Broadband RF interference. Any condition or device that produces a spark generates broadband Radio Frequency interference. Common sources of broadband RF interference are electric motors such as those used in small handheld power tools or small kitchen appliances. Normally Broadband interference does not travel very far from the source, but the actual distance would depend upon the power of the source. While a small motor spark may only effect TV or Radio for 50 to 100 feet, an Arc Welder can produce TVI for a city block or more, while lightning can cause TVI for hundreds of miles. Television is broadcast by means of Radio Frequencies and each channel requires 3 separate frequencies, 1, Video(image) 2. Chroma ( color or grayscale) 3. Audio. The specific frequencies range from 54mghz to nearly 900mhz. In turn, there are hundreds of other bona fide Radio Services that operate on frequencies within that band, such as 6 meter Amateur Radio (54mhz), Military communications frequencies (54mhz, 88mhz 100 mhz) Aeronatical Navigation and communications 100mhz) FM Broadcast Radio (88mhz) and an infinite number ofmedical and industrial control or process frequencies found throughout the television Spectrum. One of the most notorius sources of TVI is bootleg Citizens Band Radio operartors. Whenever a transmitter produces a signal it also produces harmonic signals, which are even multiples of the desired frequency. All radio transmitters are required to have spuriou emission filters to prevent passing the harmonics, however, Federal communications commission regulations prohibit operating a citizens band radio with more than 4 watts input to the antenna. In order to increase their operating range many CB operators clandestinely aquire Amatuer Linear Amplifiers to boost their output power up to as much as 1500 watts. Amateur Radio Linear Amplifiers have very high quality spurious emission filters, however when the filters are in place the amplifier will not work on CB radio so the bootleg CB'ers simply bypass the filters with little to no regard for what interference it may be causeing to other services. CB primarily operates at 27mhz, therefore the first harmonic of CB is 54mhz which happens to be the exact frequency for channels 2 through 5 of TV. TV is also subject to a number of atmospheric conditions which primarily occur in summer. Under some very unpredictable weather conditions we get a phenoninon known as tunneling. In a sense the signal gets trapped between two thermal layers in the atmosphere and is carried for hundreds of miles further than normal. In Ham radio we really look forward to that condition because we can then have a short intercontinental communication on frequencies that would normally be limited to about 300 miles, but for TV it creates a differenct problem. Because the number of available fequencies is limited TV stations 350 or 400 miles away may be assigned on the same frequency as your local station. Under normal circumstances neither ones signal would reach the other, but when tunneling occurs the signals from one station can travel further than expected and interfere with another station on the same frequency. Normally TV signals will not reflect off the ionosphere so TV is basically limited to the RAdio Horizon, which is the optical horizon from the top of the antenna plus 25%. Normally broadcast TV antennas are tall enough to provide about a 75 mile radius from the transmitter. Under some very rare circumstances a TV signal will go up to the E layer of the Ionosphere and be reflected back down in what is known in radio as Skip. When this occurs on TV it causes a ghost image as the primary image is received directly from the station while the bounced image, which must travel a much further distance arrives at the receiver slightly behind the main signal and produces a second ghost or echo image on the screen. Ghost imaging also occurs if you have high moountains of buildings on the downstream side of the signal in relation to your house. You receive the primary image but some of the signal goes on past you and is reflected back causing the ghost image. Normally if you have a fringe area antenna that is directional (on a rotor) the antenna will have sufficient Reflector elements to prevent reflected images. Tree leaves and foliage can have a very dramatic attenuating effect on Radio and TV signals. Normally in summer when the trees have full foliage the received signals are much weaker than they are in winter when trees are bare. On windy days the rocking motion of the trees will cause substantial variations in received signal strength. There are a couple inexpensive things you can do to reduce TVI. First, take your antenna lead in wire and wrap about two to three feet of it in a tight coil about 6" in diameter and tape it together. That will form a simple RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) inductive trap. You can buy a TVI filter at most Radio Shack stores. The antenna wire is conneted to the filter then the filter is connected to the TV. They are relatively inexpensive and require no power or special installation technique. R.Rinard General Class Amateur Radio Operator FCC call sign KC-8-UXZ

Our home is full of low voltage halogen lights - tracks, pendants, you name it. I cannot listen to AM radio anymore when they are on as they make it buzz horribly - all but 2 stations. We originally had them on dimmers and could hear the humming constantly. We were told by another electrician that the previous one had used the wrong dimmer switches and that we needed to swap them out for electronic ones, but they cost $150 each. Thus we opted to have all the dimmers replaced with traditional Lutron switches. They don't humm any more, but we still have the radio interferrence problem. Halogens are well noted for causing buzzing or humming sounds. Love the light they put out, but not the heat (cannot leave them on when we are out of the room as they are a fire hazard due to how hot they get) or the buzzing radios. Not much help to you, I know, other than to confirm that this is a common problem, though I have never heard of halogens buzzing when they are off. Still, you might try getting rid of the dimmers and see what that does. It worked for us. Lynne

There have been reports of all power linemen, power house workers, electrical engineers, and phone techs having a higher incidence of brain cancer floating around for many years. All have used poor (at best) methodology and at best have established a weak correlation. None has ever identified causation. There is at least some evidence that transformer oils with PCBs may have played a part. Very few COs (Central Offices for phones) use the racks of relays and switches anymore. Most are now entirely electronic. The reliability is much higher for the new stuff. The old stepper relays required large crews and almost constant maintenance to keep them operating, along with a much larger amount of power. I have supported research (PhD in EE) into EMF effects for a number of projects over the years and not a single one has found any statistically significant effect until the levels produced localized heating of tissue. This has been the demonstrated mechanism with repeatable results for many years. Many of the studies outside of labs have used 'wire codes' (go out and count conductors on poles) and other dubious methods to 'gauge' EMF strength. A few more sophisticated ones have tried actually measuring the fields. None has produced a decent correlation with field strength or a dose-response connection that has statistical validity. Hunting with an AM radio works very well for EMI problems at pretty low cost. I have even used it to scan very expensive systems (aircraft, ships, computer installations etc.) as a quick & dirty check. After eliminating the most obvious sources you come back with a spectrum analyzer and look for anything else that was missed.