This morning around 6 AM I was finishing up a modification on a tone control in my recently completed Gilfillan 510.

When I turned it back on to hear and play with the tone... I was bothered by what seemed like distortion of sorts...all over every station on the band.

The best description is sort-of "splatter."

I thought I had the IFs out of alignment or the local osc. off somehow.

I thought that I MUST have screwed up something.. It played all night through though sounding quite fine. Or at least I didn't notice it .
So what changed now?
...so I went back to re-touch up the alignment ... to no avail.

It was very disconcerting because suddenly I couldn't figure out how to solve this and was feeling dumb.

It seemed like a REAL puzzle... especially now just when I finished the thing... I've been up all night ( as usual) and wanted to get to bed.

THEN I got a flash... suppose it IS actually some kind of broad-band interference ?
Humm.
So then I thought... well it is dawn too and maybe it's long-wave propagation noise?
Sunspots?

Finally I got the bright idea to try another radio...lol

Sure enough this splattering type of noise was on that radio too.

Well what a relief... but what is it?

So.. I don't know.
I'm going to bed...lol

Do any of you guys have any ideas?
Did any of you also notice that this morning at sunrise and even now ..it is almost 8am?

I'll check it again this evening when I get up around early evening and let you know.
Hope it goes away... lol

:This morning around 6 AM I was finishing up a modification on a tone control in my recently completed Gilfillan 510.
:
:When I turned it back on to hear and play with the tone... I was bothered by what seemed like distortion of sorts...all over every station on the band.
:
:The best description is sort-of "splatter."
:
:I thought I had the IFs out of alignment or the local osc. off somehow.
:
:I thought that I MUST have screwed up something.. It played all night through though sounding quite fine. Or at least I didn't notice it .
:So what changed now?
:...so I went back to re-touch up the alignment ... to no avail.
:
:It was very disconcerting because suddenly I couldn't figure out how to solve this and was feeling dumb.
:
:It seemed like a REAL puzzle... especially now just when I finished the thing... I've been up all night ( as usual) and wanted to get to bed.
:
:THEN I got a flash... suppose it IS actually some kind of broad-band interference ?
:Humm.
:So then I thought... well it is dawn too and maybe it's long-wave propagation noise?
:Sunspots?
:
:Finally I got the bright idea to try another radio...lol
:
:Sure enough this splattering type of noise was on that radio too.
:
:Well what a relief... but what is it?
:
:So.. I don't know.
:I'm going to bed...lol
:
:Do any of you guys have any ideas?
:Did any of you also notice that this morning at sunrise and even now ..it is almost 8am?
:
:I'll check it again this evening when I get up around early evening and let you know.
:Hope it goes away... lol

In my broadcast days, we once had a rival station spattering all over the band like you describe, and I called to complain. They had a known druck for an engineer, and the station manager invited me to come over and look at it, as his engineer was "sick". Upon arrival, I found that the input to the transmitter was turned all the way up, and the modulation was about 150%. Turning the modulation back to 100% releaved the problem and made everyone happy. After a few more trips to that station, they fired the drunken engineer and hired me. Overmodulation put that 1 KiloWatt station all over the broadcast band.
Lewis

Peter,
Don't know about your case, but find all kinds of splatter, noise, interference all over the AM band here in So. CA. Most inexplicable. I do suspect one neighbor though, whose garage/washer/dryer was about 20ft from mine, ran those appliance almost constantly. With flourescents overhead and in the appliances, timers cycling forever, would bet most of the interference has gone away, since the house is now empty.

marv

:This morning around 6 AM I was finishing up a modification on a tone control in my recently completed Gilfillan 510.
:
:When I turned it back on to hear and play with the tone... I was bothered by what seemed like distortion of sorts...all over every station on the band.
:
:The best description is sort-of "splatter."
:
:I thought I had the IFs out of alignment or the local osc. off somehow.
:
:I thought that I MUST have screwed up something.. It played all night through though sounding quite fine. Or at least I didn't notice it .
:So what changed now?
:...so I went back to re-touch up the alignment ... to no avail.
:
:It was very disconcerting because suddenly I couldn't figure out how to solve this and was feeling dumb.
:
:It seemed like a REAL puzzle... especially now just when I finished the thing... I've been up all night ( as usual) and wanted to get to bed.
:
:THEN I got a flash... suppose it IS actually some kind of broad-band interference ?
:Humm.
:So then I thought... well it is dawn too and maybe it's long-wave propagation noise?
:Sunspots?
:
:Finally I got the bright idea to try another radio...lol
:
:Sure enough this splattering type of noise was on that radio too.
:
:Well what a relief... but what is it?
:
:So.. I don't know.
:I'm going to bed...lol
:
:Do any of you guys have any ideas?
:Did any of you also notice that this morning at sunrise and even now ..it is almost 8am?
:
:I'll check it again this evening when I get up around early evening and let you know.
:Hope it goes away... lol

I used to get this very regular repetitive swirling-swishing noise. Hard to explain exactly. The repetition was about two or three cycles per second. Some radios were more susceptible than others. It didn't happen every day...just some days.

Now I just get wi-fi interference on all of my radios thanks to the new-agers downstairs. .....But that's AM radio for you. You'll always be finding some new noise.

T.

Well here's the follow up:

This morning I went upstairs and turned on my SS digital am/fm stereo set too. It has a digital radio tuner so it's very accurate to make sure you're not off station... y'know?

Well the same thing there... the splatter was everywhere.
It wasn't like static or electrical noise. Not it was very crackly modulated voice... but not intelligible only crackly distorted edges ... sort of like over-modulation to the extreme.

But Tonight.. I'm happy to report every radio sounds beautiful. So io guess it's gone.
We'll see what happens tomorrow morning again.