mdyam

I have a 1998 GS400. Has anyone heard on any remedies to hearing some very loud cellular phone signals through your Nakamichi Stereo, whether you are listening to the Radio, CD or Tape? This cellualr signal is only audible when there is an in-coming or out-going call or when the cellular signal switches from tower to tower. The sound is so loud that it sometimes will scare you! The problem is worse if your phone is near the front center part of the car. I would appreciate any "Feedback" (Bad Pun) that you may have.

audax

iTrader: (10)

I've seen the same thing on many cars, many phones and many different stereos. Every car I've had before (all Hondas) had the same issue with factory or aftermarket stereos. I've yet to experience this problem on either of the Lexus cars I've owned. Both had navigation and the premium factory stereo.

Joe C

Do you have a nextel?

audax

iTrader: (10)

The problem is caused by phones on TDMA/GSM carriers communicating the in the 800/850Mhz band. Your car stereo is picking up RF interference. Now I see why I've not had this problem is a long while... I switched from Cingular (GSM) to Version (CDMA) about a year and a half ago.

mdyam

Thanks for your replies. I have Cingular GMS. So when you switched to CDMA, did that get rid of your problem? Was your RF interference problem resolved and was your cellular noise that you heard through your stereo really loud?

mikal

lol, i would have asked the same question.

If you have a nextel, try putting it next to your computer speaker. You'll hear the same thing. And if you have a crt monitor.. you'll see your monitor flicker when it picks up signal.

Lubs

It happens to me all the time. I'm on a GSM network as well, but my phone is only triband (900/1800/1900). My network is 850+1900, so 1900 does it as well. It's not as loud as you describe though, just some buzzing. That maybe due to the higher frequency. It occasionally happens randomly (which I'll now attribute to switching towers), but usually due to a text message or phone call. I actually don't mind it, it's a rudimentary Bluetooth stereo cut-off equivalent.

mdyam

Well Lugs, my issue sounds just like yours, except the volume of mine seems to be much louder than yours. I have heard the same buzzing noise in other cars and that is just a small inconvenience, but mine if you are listening to the stereo at a moderate volume will blast the buzzing noise throughout my system! Thanks for the comments!

Lubs

Sounds like it's the 850 band to me. See if your phone allows you to easily switch to 1900 only. If it does, put it on 1900 and see if it's just buzzing at that point. Depending on how good the 1900 band is covering your area, you'll probably want to turn 850 back on outside of the car. The 850 is supposed to be better underground and through concrete, but only when 1900 is weak.

Hope that works. If not, I suppose you can try a different phone or a CDMA provider as suggested by Audax. Or stating the obvious, you can kill the radio, crack a window and listen to yourself driving. I'd probably kill the phone though, I love my Nak.

thetopdog

I have a 99GS400 with the Nakamichi system and my old Nokia made some horrendously loud noises when it was anywhere near the stereo. It was so bad I had to keep the phone in the driver side door pocket, which made it pretty inconvenient to reach while driving

Now I have a Samsung and there is absolutely no noise at all, I guess the Nakamichi system just doesn't work well with some phones

Exsys2000

I had the same problem in my 98 GS300 with Nakamichi. We thought it was something wrong with the stereo. It was quite alarming at times. Since the CD changer did not work, we changed it to an aftermarket Pioneer unit with in unit cd/MP3. Have not heard the cell phone interference since.

mdyam

Thanks for your suggestions. I am glad that when you changed to an aftermarket stereo the cellular phone noise disappeared. At least I know that there is a solution.

Thanks again everyon!

bmgs400

Yep...it's due to the 2G GSM (TDMA) technology. The 2G CDMA2000 that Sprint and Verizon use don't have the issue.

I just switched to Cingular and got a 3G UMTS (HSDPA) phone. UMTS is CDMA technology, but the phone is still GSM compatable...that's a whole different set of problems. Sprint and Verizons 3G technology is called EV-DO and is CDMA.

Since my area when to 3G (9/27) I haven't heard any interference. But if I travel to a non-3G area I have to keep it away from my stereo and TV or else get the Morris-Code like dit-dit-dit,dit-dit-dit,dit-dit-dit sound over the speakers.