At 9 a.m. my doorbell rang......

[Smokey Mcpotster]

I notice 3 cable t.v. trucks on the street. I answer the door and the guy tells me he needs to come in the house to check our cable lines. He then tells me that there is feedback coming from our house back into the system. The feedback is causing signal problems in the neighborhood. He used some tech terms and also said it could be a bad modem or splitter ( I have several). Right about then I was thinking about the 2 plants I have sitting out that I need to chop up and toss 1 male and a runt fem. This is my first grow, I have 3 plants in a 40"x40"x7' closet so to speak I made in the basement. Veg room is under stairs and even smaller**** So you know I am only doing this for me, not looking to sell any. My long term goal is one plant every 30 days or so. Anyway.......

I obv told him not today. I have doctor appointments to go to and I'm leaving now (true). I grab my stuff and head out the door. One of the guys is still sitting in his truck. So I basically ask him what could cause this, we had a guy out last year to make sure we have a strong signal to our lcd tv.
( Our main t.v is at the end of the line, computer and 4 other tv's come before that.)
He grabs his meter and hooks it up to the hub in the yard. He shows me the reading. He explained how the noise above and below the line represented static, it should be more even. He said they monitor the lines everyday. They started noticing the problem yesterday and got worse today. He did say they could fix it from outside but it may affect our reception. He seemed legit to me.

HERES the funny part. While I'm driving and going through what I have to do to make the house passable, I realize.. ITS MY G.D. FAN. I just turned on the light and fan yesterday. My 424 cfm fan is about 12 to 18" away from the cable line.

Could this be causing the problem? Interference from the electricity/fan?

I will have to take the fan down when they come tomorrow. If the problem is gone when they come back tomorrow (fan will be off and removed) what could I say was running that caused the problem? saying nothing seems like the best choice.
If it is the fan can I insulate against the interference somehow?
relocating the fan is possible but will suck.

What would you do?

 

[tester]

Scarey stuff!

 

[The Effen Gee]

Yes. The fan could possibly be interfearing with the cable line, as an electric motor creates a powerfull magnetic field? SOmebody who knows more about this may want to elaborate...but my brain is telling me that it would cause a problem.

Look into shielded cable, if anything just ask a cable installer if a running attic or basement ventilation fan would interfere with a cable connection. perhaps.

 

[leafminer]

No. It won't be the fan. No way. The fan is a brushless AC motor, no sparks.
If you are using a digital ballast, I bet that's what is causing the problem.

 

[cmd420]

As a former cable guy, I can tell you that any length of poorly shielded cable will pick up "ingress"...

thing is..... any length..that means any radio shack cable (or anything other than the high quality cable that the cable company uses)...

they will come in (they probably aren't B.S.ing you BTW..way too much money for them to pay techs to take care of this..as opposed to installing new svcs. for new customers) and look for crappy or old cabling and replace it...

I would try to keep a low profile with respect to your plants in case you have some total **** as a cable guy..but I worked in the game for two years and never met a cable guy thaqt cared enough to waste even a minute on that stuff..most would admire.....

good luck!

 

[The Effen Gee]

No. It won't be the fan. No way. The fan is a brushless AC motor, no sparks.
If you are using a digital ballast, I bet that's what is causing the problem.

Really?

For some reason I want to disagree, but I do not know enough about electricity and signal to justify.

 

[zipflip]

interesting topic. i'd liek to hear more of this deal wit digital ballasts screwin wit watever it is tehy messin wit.
i know that back int he day when analog TV was still....
when ever we'd run our microwave or vaccuum or any other appliance that would draw alot of juice form lines or run high watever , it woudl fuzz up the whole television. :confused2:

 

[fleshstain]

i think miner's onto it.... are you using digital ballasts?

mine, for some reason, interferes with my wireless connection when the lights are on....

 

[lordhighlama]

Only time I've run into an interference issue was with cell phone's and sterio receivers.

If your cell phone is close to a sterio and it rings it seems to cause some serious static.

 

[zipflip]

when im listenin to the radio on my stereo reciever and my cordless home tele rings it buzzes in the speaker when it rings too LOL. dont happen with my cell phone tho.

 

[Smokey Mcpotster]

Well I stopped by the cable office. I told them we smoke downstairs only (didn't say what tho:hubba: ) and I said my wife bought an air purifier. I told her that I would move it and see if that solved the problem.

I can take my fan out but the 6" port that goes into the closet sticks out past the wall. If they need to change that cable they may see it. Bleh I'll have to cut some wood and make it stealthy.

Digital ballast did not move, its been running in the same spot for 6 weeks.
The light is closer, but still through a wall and 5' from the cable lines.

I also did some re-engineering. I moved the cable line so its about 3 feet away from the fan now.

I think I will unplug the fan and light when they arrive and have them check it outside again. If it still is a problem I'll have them come back. I REALLY want this fan where it is. Moving it screws up the whole " fung shui" of the closet.

He told me they could fix it from outside but it would interrupt our cable service. May have to tell them we have the H1N1 lol.

Thanks for the advice, I'll take anymore if anyone has any.

 

[zipflip]

He told me they could fix it from outside but it would interrupt our cable service.

personally i'd tell that "not to be rude but i dont feel comfortable with people in my home and if theres another way to fix teh prob wether easier or harder etc, then so be it." they cant crucify you for it man.
i mean if theres another way for them then tell them to do just that. jmo
its not like noones ever had their cable interrupted for lil while before LOL.

 

[cmd420]

Well I stopped by the cable office. I told them we smoke downstairs only (didn't say what tho:hubba: ) and I said my wife bought an air purifier. I told her that I would move it and see if that solved the problem.

I can take my fan out but the 6" port that goes into the closet sticks out past the wall. If they need to change that cable they may see it. Bleh I'll have to cut some wood and make it stealthy.

Digital ballast did not move, its been running in the same spot for 6 weeks.
The light is closer, but still through a wall and 5' from the cable lines.

I also did some re-engineering. I moved the cable line so its about 3 feet away from the fan now.

I think I will unplug the fan and light when they arrive and have them check it outside again. If it still is a problem I'll have them come back. I REALLY want this fan where it is. Moving it screws up the whole " fung shui" of the closet.

He told me they could fix it from outside but it would interrupt our cable service. May have to tell them we have the H1N1 lol.

Thanks for the advice, I'll take anymore if anyone has any.

I don't really ever do this (tell someone not to be suspicious), but I gotta say..don't worry about the cable company...there is no way..in these economic times that they would waste even a penny of resources on something like this that would bring them no revenue and possible ill will from a customer base....I wouldn't say it if I didn't know...

that said, I assume you live in a house with your cable coming in from a pole outside your house...if this is the case, they will cut the cable coming from the pole and replace it..(not fun for a cable guy..believe that)....

don't trip, homey

 

[viper]

1st , no cable tech has to come in to your house to check your cable lines to find an emissions problem , they can simply bypass your connection at the interface ( connection on the outside wall of your house where the splitter is ) to tell if the problem is in your dwelling . 2nd , the cable company is responsable for the cable leading up to your splitter and all outside cable and modems that they provide , they did not wire your house . 3rd , the homeowner is responsable for all internal wiring of cable inside the house , so if a cable guy told me he has to come in and check my cable lines ? i would simply say no thank you and call your cable co to verify that they sent a tech out and then trouble shoot my modems while i had him on the line and then work on solving the problem if all is legit

 

[legalize_freedom]

I had the cable guy in my basement last grow, I leaned a bunch of crap (plywood, bed headboard, lumber) up against the door of my grow room turned off all the fans while he was there, and just generaly made the mess look like a basement full of stored crap. I opened up a jar of ona gel and turned the dryer on like I was doing laundry. (reason for the dryer sheet smell). I stayed right next to him the whole time he was in my house he did not move anywhere without me right next to him, and he did not even look where my grow was. He was there to fix the cable, and thats what he did. No sweat bud, he's just trying to do his job, just don't give him the chance to get nosey, stay with him. Act like you want to learn something. Ask him a gazzillion stupid questions, and he'll get the job done as fast as he can to get away from you. No Worries!

 

[zipflip]

just don't give him the chance to get nosey, stay with him. Act like you want to learn something. Ask him a gazzillion stupid questions, and he'll get the job done as fast as he can to get away from you.

that is so true too.
in almost any situation. if ya in a situation where ya wit someone an wanna make them wanna leave ya prescence as fast as possible... just act like some kid wit severe adhd and just start rollin out questions like legalize said.
i know when im doin a task/chore watever the last thing i want is to be pestered wit a bunch of naggin questions bout wat im doin while im doin it LOL.
good point legalize. :aok:
he'll be too annoyed and sidetracked/distracted by you that he wont even pay any attention to anythin other than wat he come in for.
JMO too

 

[Smokey Mcpotster]

cmd-- ingress!!! that was it.

Viper-- Yeah they did hook up outside, even showed me the screen, I understood enough to know it was a problem, asked him to explain it to me anyway, lol.

Well they're due in half an hour. It took me a while, but all the splitters are now upstairs.:hubba: If it is a bad cable inside, I will take care of it. Our cable co. is pretty good, as long as you go down to the local office. They do things in the house for free, always have. Calling the 1-800 number is well....:stuff-1125699181_i_
I really want to know if it was the fan, without moving it or turning it off. Actually I can't move it. If I do there's no way to vent both rooms with one fan, without it being a pain in the....

I really gotta get this in order, I don't like the wife feeling " uncomfortable" about it. out of sight out of mind. I've been building/tinkering for months.

I'll let you know if the fan was an issue.

If I don't post by the end of the day, please set up a bail fund for me.
Have a good day all!!!!!

 

[viper]

hey smokey ? you still with us ?

 

[OldHippieChick]

Please update us Smokey. Making me nervous for you.

 

[Smokey Mcpotster]

Sorry everyone, I know the last thing I did that night was type out a post. I must have shut the computer off before I hit the button. I'll have to blame the weed.

I made sure I was outside when the tech showed up ( different guy) he hooked his meter up outside to the box and whadda ya know, all was good. He looked at me and said everything was normal. I told him we moved the air purifier away from the cable. He did say "some" electrical things can cause interference when they are close to the cable. I didn't ask or say anything else. Sorry again for the false alarm, lol.

So yes it was the fan. The cable was within a foot and is now 3' away on the other side of a wall.