I dunno, if you haven't run into audio or video interference on a wired device, you're lucky or have quality cables. I've definitely picked up radio stations on headphones or had nearby electrical currents induce an annoying buzz in a microphone or distort a video signal.
A bad ground in a USB power brick made Spanish talk radio leak into my video mixer's audio interface. Through the chassis, the BlackMagic SDI card, the SDI card, and the BlackMagic HDMI->SDI converter being powered by the cursed USB brick.
> I've definitely picked up radio stations on headphones
Not exactly the same, but makes me reminisce the days of the iPod nano. It offered FM radio using the headphone cables as an antenna. I haven’t seen that supported anywhere since, which is a shame because I’d really like to get local stations on my phone.
FM radio using headphones/headset as antenna is a common feature in phones. I've seen it on feature phones in 200x, and on some Androids as well. Only you can decide if it's important enough to outweigh other must have features though. There are also lots of apps to stream local radio if you have a consistent data connection (doesn't need to be fast, though)
IIRC, USA pushed for some time for inclusion of radio receiver as mandatory, while GP mentions the need to support DAB if selling to France, resulting in weird situation where it might be software "fuse" involved.
Here in the EU, it tends to be disabled in software even if the hardware has it.
I blame the French. They introduced a law that forbids radio receivers that don't support DAB radio, as a way to make the newer DAB format take off. But globally, DAB never did so phone hardware don't have it.
In the EU, distribution chains often cross borders and it would be too bothersome to have models with special firmware just for France — so instead, nobody gets FM-radio.
My Xiamoi Redmi Note 8 Pro that I bought from Orange (french telephone provider) here in France in 2020 definitely is currently receiving FM Radio (uses the headphones for reception) and it is even documented on their site https://assistance.orange.fr/mobile-tablette/tous-les-mobile...
> It offered FM radio using the headphone cables as an antenna.
That was common on phones in general. Headphones acted as antenna.
If you open the FM radio app without connecting wired headphones, it'll ask you to connect it.
This was common in Android phones as well.
My current Android phone does not have headphone jack. And I can't use FM radio (although there are services that play radio over the internet, but that isn't really the same...).
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About phones which have the capability but which are disabled, I wonder if it's because of security implications.
Where I live, the allowed frequencies were from 87 MHz to 108 MHz or something. Consumer FM radios could only be tuned in this range.
That's because on frequencies outside this range, other transmissions — for example, police transmissions — might be taking place.
The aforementioned allowed range is different in different countries.
Also, in my country long long ago (like, ≈50 years ago) you needed to get the permission of the government (via a license or something) to get a radio. You couldn't just go to a store and buy one. That changed later, however.
Now that I think about it, it might have something to do with semi-secret transmissions happening on frequencies outside the allowed range.
A friend told me it's possible to take apart the radio and tune to non-standard frequencies because in most radios the "dial" to select the allowed range really works by physically jamming the dial with another block. If you remove that block, you could keep turning that dial. Haven't tried this myself, so take that with a pinch of salt.
I know you have a bunch of responses already but I got to say this, every single phone (dumb and smart) that I've used or seen used by my immediate family and friends has had this feature, I'm more susprised by the implication that there are phones that don't!
I actually just built a $4 FM receiver kit that uses the headphones for the antenna.
It was very common in previous decades because it was cheaper and allowed more room in the device (the alternative was the metal “pull to extend” antennas).
It’s been almost 15 years but I do remember always knowing when my pre-smartphone cell phone was about to ring. It’d make my stereo system buzz loudly moments beforehand.
Obviously the phone caused it. The signal from the tower wouldn’t be any different from all the other calls going to all the other phones on your block. They didn’t have beamforming that narrow.
There were even led accessories you can attach to your phone that will light up when the phone is transmitting a signal. Basically just some leds attached to some coils to harvest energy transmitted by the phone.
Got any tips for eliminating or mitigating the interference? Recently some retiree in my area got himself a new, illegally-high-powered CB radio so he can talk to truckers from his house. It comes through on the wired headphones I wear while working from home.
Find a HAM in your area and ask them to do a "Fox Hunt". Many enjoy hunting people violating the laws and giving a detailed report the the FCC, which has some rather impressive fines that they DO levy.
First, HAM is not an acronym. It’s ham, a friendly joke referring to amateur radio operator.
Second, hams are not vindictive people, and most interference issues are sorted out locally, possibly with support from the ARRL. Some sources of interference can be very hard to find.
The FCC only levies massive fines when their instructions are being ignored. They don’t play games, that’s true.
The only incidence of wired interference I have personally experienced was a ground loop in a car (car cigarette lighter-usb adaptor-usb cable-phone-aux cable-aux input on car stereo). I seem to recall fixing it with a <$5 component that isolated the signal, this was about 10 years ago and other vehicles I've owned haven't had the same issue.
