Topic: Picking up AM radio with my UA5 hooked up to my PC???

[Tye]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask please move if it is not.
I don't plan on using my UA5 as a home recording unit. However today I got some
Canare Star Quad XLR's (thanks hzgone) and decided to hook them up to my UA5 and then run out of my RCA's into my mic in on my PC to listen through my desktop speakers.
 Well for some odd reason I started picking up a local AM radio station loud and clear. I could not figure it out everything worked fine except I was picking up the radio?!? As soon as I unplugged the rca it went away so I know it is not my UA5.
  Does anyone know why it would pick up a radio station when the UA5 is plugged into a PC? This happened once before and it was hooked up to my PC,  this would suck at a show in the middle of a good jam!      Thanks

[keepongoin]

I used to get FM signal when I would turn on my wha-wha pedal when it was hooked up to one of my amplifiers...but only when they were in one spot in my room...

it is odd, and I really have no explaination for this sort of thing.

[Tye]

Has anyone heard of this happening in the field? Perhaps people running laptops?

[hzgone]

tye your welcome, and i have no idea about the signal, what do you think of those cables?

[Tye]

Ryan they sound sweet! I was running 25 ' Hosa brand cables so it is a big diffrence! I can't wait to run them  at LOS this weekend. Chris said he is going to run split omnis again I think he is going to use his A51st's.

[hzgone]

awesome hope the tapes come out well

[dklein]

It could be because you plugged into the mic input - that thing will have lots of gain on it and your RCA cables can act as antennas for the radio.  Try plugging into the line in and turn up the output on the UA-5 so you don't need to turn it up on the sound card.

BTW, the UA-5 can be sensitive on the headphone jack - you shouldn't leave headphones plugged in without using the little ferrite bead that came with the UA-5.  I never plug headphones into it when recording.