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Conference cookie::notes$archive:cd_v1

Title:Welcome to the CD Notes Conference
Notice:Welcome to COOKIE
Moderator:COOKIE::ROLLOW
Created:Mon Feb 17 1986
Last Modified:Fri Mar 03 1989
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1517
Total number of notes:13349

1411.0. "cordless phone as remote control for CD player!?" by CADSE::MUDGETT () Tue Nov 29 1988 08:12


I have a very strange story to tell. I recently bought a new Magnavox 2000 CD
player on sale at Lechmere, brought it home, plugged it in, worked just fine.
It's a fairly basic model and was quite inexpensive. 

While I was listening to it I got a phone call. I picked up my  cordless phone,
and the CD player shut off. When the phone call was over, I tried turning the
phone on and off, and, sure enough, turning ON the handset turned OFF the CD
player. Could the CD player be programmed to PAUSE when a cordless phone
is used?

The CD player has an infra-red remote control, which includes a PAUSE button.
The phone seemed to be causing a PAUSE in the CD player, although after a
minute or two the CD player just stopped. The phone is an early Cobra model,
which has all the problems of the early cordless phones - very difficult to
hear the caller between the noise and the low volume. (I really need to get
a new one.)

I thought this was so "twighlight zone" that I had a audiophile-type friend
come over and check just to make sure I wasn't crazy. My friend was equally 
baffled. 

I got some advice from a brother-in-law over the holiday to try a Romulan
cloaking device, no just kidding, he had some suggestions for how to fix the
problem. I came home all ready to try out some things like moving the phone
handset farther away from the CD player etc... I was completely unable to get
the phone to cause a pause, even standing right next to it. I had completely
turned off the CD player some time in between the to-pause and the
not-to-pause.

Am I getting schizophrenic, or does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Thanks.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1411.1Cheap player = no shieldingQUARK::LIONELAd AstraTue Nov 29 1988 14:4813
    The RF from your cordless phone is finding its way into the Magnavox's
    control circuits and confusing it.  You might try putting some
    aluminum foil around the top and sides of the player, moving it,
    moving the AC cord or even getting one of those ferrite cores that
    Radio Shack sells for reducing interference and wrapping the player's
    AC cord around it.
    
    Cheap CD players have minimal shielding and plastic covers.  Why people
    take players like this and sink several hundreds of dollars into
    "mods" to supposedly "improve" the sound is beyond me....  (Sorry,
    rhetorical question...)
    
    				Steve
1411.2Say What!!!!!!!!!!BPOV04::MICHAUDThink about software that thinks!Thu Dec 01 1988 13:4410
    
    	Please buy a new phone! 
    
    You are turning my k yboa d on and o f!!!
    
    Just kidding, still is the funniest thing I ever heard though.
    
    I wonder if a long distance call would start the dishwasher?
    
    John/
1411.3The real thing, no jokeDELNI::GILEThe Time and Space OddityThu Dec 01 1988 14:3415
    re .2 What's so funny? Cordless phones are low power
    radio transmitter/receiver units, which send control
    information between the handset and base unit. Radio
    waves can affect electronic circuits that they radiate
    around, which is one of the reasons for shielding in
    electronic equipment. The lower price range gear, has
    less effective, if any, shielding. 
    
    If your player had been powered up for an extended period,
    you might have had enough of a charge built up to react
    to the various control signals you were sending through the
    air fron handset to base unit. When you turned off the CD
    player, this charge went to ground. 
    
             Wayne
1411.4Those dastardly electronsOWSLEY::ABBOTDropping circle stones on a sundialFri Dec 02 1988 11:302
Just be careful that your CD remote doesn't start making long distance
calls to Rangoon!
1411.5thanks for the replies and the laughsCADSE::MUDGETTWed Dec 07 1988 11:0712
    Thanks for all the replies. Guess I got what I paid for. I can live
    with that. I do plan to replace the phone soon anyway. I learned
    some good stuff.
    
    Let's see, if I could synchronize the calls right I could hire
    an answering service in Paris to call in time to turn on the coffee
    maker, one in Moscow to turn the lights on before I get home,
    one in San Francisco to activate the VCR for evening movies....the 
    possibilites are mind-boggling.
                    
    Chris