About a month ago I installed an outdoor antenna. My issue - I ship lots of packages, and my awesome 6-month old shipping scale is in the room that adjoins where the tv antenna is mounted on the side of the house. My scales recently started going NUTS. In researching whether others have had similar problems with these scales, I found an Amazon review describing the same issue & stating: this scale is pretty sensitive to RF interference. If you have a “loud” RF transmitter nearby, this scale transmits random weights." Hmmmmm - the only change in 6 months is the recent addition of that antenna. Is it the culprit?
What kind of antenna? Preamp or powered?
I would not expect a passive antenna to cause any issues, but if it has a preamp or is otherwise powered then it’s possible.
Honey, if I had any idea what that means… the coax runs from the antenna, about 30’ & into a window that’s 2 rooms away from the malfunctioning scales. The coax connects to an amplifier that plugs into an electrical outlet & a short run of coax connects the amp to my Tablo. My prior (indoor) antenna used a similar amp, but it was fully within room #2, away from the scales. Hopefully that answers your question?
It sounds incredibly unlikely that your antenna and amplifier could be the cause of this, but also incredibly easy to test and determine the outcome one way or another.
How often do your scales misbehave and is it consistent enough that you can determine if switching off the antenna amplifier is a cause?
Try unplugging the amplifier when you’re not watching or recording a show and see if the problem goes away.
make/ model of the scale?
There may be a cost effective means of shielding the scale from whatever is producing your interference, be that your amplifier or something else- especially if you can determine where said interference is originating. (The idea is to shield either your scales or your interfering device whichever is smaller with what amounts to a DIY faraday cage.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
I am assuming that your scale is talking to a smartphone or the like (“transmits random weights”).
Great suggestions! So, most likely it isn’t the antenna itself, but maybe the amplifier. It’s a great distance away, but easy to test. The scales aren’t actually “transmitting,” but the display is attached by a cable. The display recently began showing random weights, going higher - lower - higher, when there’s nothing being weighed. It’s an Accuteck ShipPro W-8580. A few others reported similar behavior in Amazon reviews, but the one guy attributed it to RF interference.
There’s also a wireless Acu-Rite weather station mounted outside the same wall as the antenna. That may be a more likely culprit, but the scales have worked great since the weather station was installed in April, until very recently.
I have several packages to prep for shipping tonight. I’ll disconnect the amplifier & test that theory, soon as the Sunday night shows are over!
My guess is that the cable (or the joint - soldered or plug-in) has problems. Far more likely that RF interference. See of you move the display whether some random weights are displayed. Surefire test for connectivity issues.
I found the review you mentioned, and I am less convinced that interference is your actual issue. The cable from the display to the scale (or one of the connections that plugs in to) may have had the normal internal shielding break on you. This can happen from normal use or damage due to heavy items landing/ resting on/ pinching the cord. If that is the case, than your device would lose its normal protection from all manner of interference sources.
DIY shielding like I mentioned can still help, but replacing/ fixing the damage is better.
When looking for an intermittant problem in a cable the best method is usually slight movements and mild bending until the (OH MY GOODNESS SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENED) problem shows itself. (Expanded version of what Bardel said)