Radio help please - I have no idea

[bradp]

Can you pull the breakers / turn off each radio to see if the problem follows? 

[Cruiser]

best test is at rpcc suggested above.

Turn off everything except the radio and then start turning things on one at a time. 

[Sime]

I also was experiencing intermittent static on my radios. I'd read here about a USB charger plugged into the 12V port that was causing a static issue. I also have a USB charger and I leave it plugged in, but I don't always use it.  So, I went for a fly yesterday and plugged my iPad in, and I had bad static. So I removed the charger completely and I immediately eliminated all static. Plugged it in again: static. Removed it: no static.

Seems the charger (only) when under load will introduce static in the radios. I'm just going to make sure the iPad is fully charged before flying so there will be no need for the 12V charger, and will carry a small power bank if I need additional power.

[EricJ]

4 hours ago, Sime said:

I also was experiencing intermittent static on my radios. I'd read here about a USB charger plugged into the 12V port that was causing a static issue. I also have a USB charger and I leave it plugged in, but I don't always use it.  So, I went for a fly yesterday and plugged my iPad in, and I had bad static. So I removed the charger completely and I immediately eliminated all static. Plugged it in again: static. Removed it: no static.

Seems the charger (only) when under load will introduce static in the radios. I'm just going to make sure the iPad is fully charged before flying so there will be no need for the 12V charger, and will carry a small power bank if I need additional power.

This phenomenon is typically charger-specific.    I examined several with a spectrum analyzer and, surprisingly, the cheapest one (that I got free as a spiff) was the quietest.   Even among several of the same model I saw some that were noisy and some that were quiet.   These days if there's a problem and it gets narrowed down to a USB charger, I just swap it out with another.

 

[Sime]

1 hour ago, EricJ said:

This phenomenon is typically charger-specific.    I examined several with a spectrum analyzer and, surprisingly, the cheapest one (that I got free as a spiff) was the quietest.   Even among several of the same model I saw some that were noisy and some that were quiet.   These days if there's a problem and it gets narrowed down to a USB charger, I just swap it out with another.

 

Fair call. I had thought about changing out the charger and trying the another one to see if there will be any difference. This was a cheapy from Ebay. Will try another. Can't hurt.