Help - My Wireless is in a bad mood.

Dear SoundMan, Our sound system was in a foul mood Sunday. Remote mikes were malfunctioning causing great loud static sounds. Help please. - Dave -

Dear Dave,

The loud hissing noise you heard, that sounds like the noise you get in between AM radio stations, was comming from one of the wireless receivers in the rack who's corresponding transmitter was turned off. To put this as simply as I can, the receiver thought that it heard its transmitter and mistakenly turned off its squelch and the sound you heard of dead air was released through the system. This issue of sudden bursts of noise happens in all wireless systems and can be avoided in one of the following ways:

You should NEVER have a wireless receiver turned on and turned up in the system without its corresponding transmitter turned on. So...

1 - Keep all receivers who's transmitter is not turned on OFF
or
2 - At the mixer, turn the volume on the channel that is controlling the level of the
receiver who's transmitter is not turned on ALL THE WAY DOWN
or
3 - Keep all of the transmitters who's corresponding receiver is turn on and up ON
and use the Audio MUTE switch located on each transmitter to mute the signal
instead of turning the transmitter on and off.

The automated squelch keeps this from happening almost always, however it can be fooled, so the above methods are the only way to insure that this problem will not occur.

Sincerely - SoundMan -

P.S. You can find more information in the Tech Download section in a new addition called Wireless Microphone Basics.