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Does Your GSM Phone Cause Speakers to Crackle?

Posted on June 26, 2008 by in Tips & Tricks
closeThis post was published 3 years 7 months 1 day ago. There is a chance that some APIs or software versions discussed have changed since this article was written.

This is a problem I have run into constantly – if my AT&T Palm Treo was within 5 feet of my desktop computer, the speakers would spit out a horrible buzzing, crackling sound. Lifehacker has a potential solution:

Do your speakers buzz and crackle whenever a new text message or call is about to come in on your nearby cell phone? What has come to be known as “GSM Buzz” happens because the wire in poorly shielded speakers acts as an antenna for the frequency the cell phone operates on. Rather than shell out a lot of money for better shielded speakers, you cancel out the speaker buzz with magnets—the tube-shaped ferrite beads commonly found on USB cables. Harvest them from the round block at the end of an old USB cable with a pair of scissors, or just buy a few on the cheap from an electronic supply store. Tape the ferrite bead to the cable of the offending speaker, and the magnet should provide enough passive frequency suppression to do away with the horrible buzzing and popping.

I haven’t tried this yet, but you can bet I will as soon as I get home. Thanks Lifehacker!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • Wonderboy

    Another solution can be found at http://www.stopthebuzzin.com It is a simple shield that you slip under your phone. You can keep your phone close by your computer without any buzzin sound. I use the all day at my desk at work. Check out the video on the site. It shows you how it works.

  • Wonderboy

    Another solution can be found at http://www.stopthebuzzin.com It is a simple shield that you slip under your phone. You can keep your phone close by your computer without any buzzin sound. I use the all day at my desk at work. Check out the video on the site. It shows you how it works.

  • http://www.snipe.net snipe

    That’s interesting – I use a laptop at work, so its not so much an issue at the office anymore, but I’d be interested in giving it a go for my car. Thanks for the tip. :)

  • http://www.snipe.net snipe

    That’s interesting – I use a laptop at work, so its not so much an issue at the office anymore, but I’d be interested in giving it a go for my car. Thanks for the tip. :)

  • This1GoesTo8

    Wow, $5 for a single static bag? That’s a hell of a markup! It can work, though; before I installed a cell repeater at work, I’d stand a static bag behind the phone to make it a bit more directional towards the tower.

    FYI, the GSM noise is specific to AT&T phones in GSM mode. This includes EDGE data connections. It’s an unfortunate product of the way TDMA works; you’re hearing the RF pulses as the phone transmits on and off, in its time slots. Imagine saying “Dit” several times a second. If you could do it quickly enough, it’ll sound like a buzz, and then a tone.

    When you make the move to a 3G device, you’ll never hear it again.

  • This1GoesTo8

    Wow, $5 for a single static bag? That’s a hell of a markup! It can work, though; before I installed a cell repeater at work, I’d stand a static bag behind the phone to make it a bit more directional towards the tower.

    FYI, the GSM noise is specific to AT&T phones in GSM mode. This includes EDGE data connections. It’s an unfortunate product of the way TDMA works; you’re hearing the RF pulses as the phone transmits on and off, in its time slots. Imagine saying “Dit” several times a second. If you could do it quickly enough, it’ll sound like a buzz, and then a tone.

    When you make the move to a 3G device, you’ll never hear it again.

  • http://www.snipe.net snipe

    Heya Shawn – you just trolling my blog for hours or what? lol

    I actually did move to a 3G iPhone phone a few months ago, and I still hear the buzzing, but only when a call or text is coming in, whereas before, it would chatter incessantly whether there was a call coming in or not.

  • http://www.snipe.net snipe

    Heya Shawn – you just trolling my blog for hours or what? lol

    I actually did move to a 3G iPhone phone a few months ago, and I still hear the buzzing, but only when a call or text is coming in, whereas before, it would chatter incessantly whether there was a call coming in or not.

  • This1GoesTo8

    Hmm, yeah, that can happen. AT&T does weird things to their network, so I could totally see voice and texts still coming in over TDMA in some areas, but 3G data is exclusively W-CDMA.

    Here in SD, for a few months my WinMo device would show a [3G] icon that would switch to [H] when transferring data. If I went South of the 52, however, it would stay at [H] all the time.

    It’s been a while since I’ve visited, so I’m catching up. Plus, it just looks so awesome here, I’m trapped :P

  • This1GoesTo8

    Hmm, yeah, that can happen. AT&T does weird things to their network, so I could totally see voice and texts still coming in over TDMA in some areas, but 3G data is exclusively W-CDMA.

    Here in SD, for a few months my WinMo device would show a [3G] icon that would switch to [H] when transferring data. If I went South of the 52, however, it would stay at [H] all the time.

    It’s been a while since I’ve visited, so I’m catching up. Plus, it just looks so awesome here, I’m trapped :P

  • http://menumachine.com/blog Rob Keniger

    The ferrite core fix definitely seems to have worked for me. Great stuff.
    .-= Rob Keniger´s last blog ..Support system problems =-.

  • http://menumachine.com/blog Rob Keniger

    The ferrite core fix definitely seems to have worked for me. Great stuff.
    .-= Rob Keniger´s last blog ..Support system problems =-.