REFLECTOR: The Bermuda Triangle in Eastern North Carolina - Or is it Voice of America

[Laurence Coen]

Gary,

Thanks for the post and I'm real glad it had a happy ending.  I've been a 
"ham" radio operator for over 50 years and have lots of stories about brass 
lamps that talk ect.  I see that there are a bunch of radio towers just east 
of ISO.  If that is Voice of America trying to reach out and touch someone 
thousands of miles away, they are likely radiating megawatts of power.  You 
may have had the same experience flying a Spam can if it was equipped with a 
EFIS.  I think you're right on the money as to cause and effect.  My 
suspicion is that the RF is getting in through the transducer and or power 
leads.  Something to try that's fairly cheap and easy are the ferrite cable 
isolators that sell for computer peripherals.  Snap them over the cables as 
close to the computer as possible.

As the glass cockpit becomes more prevalent, we may start to see more of 
this sort of thing.

Larry Coen
N136LC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary T. Ciampa" <gciampa at nc.rr.com>
To: <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 9:05 AM
Subject: REFLECTOR: The Bermuda Triangle in Eastern North Carolina - Or is 
it Voice of America


>
> There I was, thought I was gonna die!
>
> I'm flying along, fat, dumb and happy at 3500 feet, marveling at the 
> scattered clouds along the route, on my way back from Okracoke Island 
> (W95) to Sanford, NC (TTA). My wife is sleeping quietly in the right seat, 
> we're crusing at 155 knots, life is good. The audible alarm goes off on 
> the EFIS, waking my wife up and stirring me from my bliss, oil pressure 
> has dropped to zero, fuel pressure is bouncing erratically, fuel empty 
> light flashing. The big fan in the back still seems to be turning, which 
> is a good thing, I'm deciding if ISO, PGV or OCW is where I was headed! 
> ISO is just off the nose, downwind, I can do a straight-in, on the big, 
> long runway, so that's the plan. A lifetime later, or about thirty 
> seconds, all the instruments and readings return to normal, along with my 
> blood pressure.
>
> It turns out, I've encountered aspects of this phenomenon in the past, 
> although not to this degree. There are several Voice of America antenna 
> farms in the area and am apparently picking up electromagnetic 
> interference from the transmitters. ??Could this be an artifact of a 
> composite airframe?? Could I have some lengths of wire which are 
> coincidently a multiple of the wave length of the transmitter?
>
> In the past, typically the interference has been limited to hearing radio 
> transmission side tones in the intercom system.These side tones are not 
> coming in from the radio as I can turn off the radios, turn up the ICS and 
> enhance the sound (yesterday it was spanish talk radio). One on trip, the 
> fuel empty light flickered for about 15 seconds and then returned to the 
> lifeless amber color, I seem to recal I was at 5500 feet at that time.
>
> Next trip, I'm wearing my lead underwear!
>
> Thanks, Gary
>
>
>
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