TV Switch Box Interference

[Tempest]

Does anyone else find they have some interference on their screen (a little snow) when they use a TV Switch Box (RF Switch)? Is it just my cheapo Radio Shack box or is it normal? I always seem to have that trouble. Of course I also have a Genesis RF Switch hooked up to it as well, would it cause that much interference though? It's more of an annoyance than a probelm, but since it gets better (or worse) when you jiggle the box a bit I figured there was a techincal problem with.

 

Tempest

[+Cafeman]

I have a newer Radio Shack RF for use with my 5200, and I sometimes need to jiggle it or its connecting chord to remove static. It's fine once it gets going, though the strange 'patterns' can be seen in solid colors (do you know what I mean?).

 

The Colecovision I just got had no RF, so I'm using an auto-detecting RF that I got with my SNES. It didn't seem to work, then I disconnected the cable TV chord from the auto-detecting RF's cable port, and then I saw the (rather poor) Colecovision image. It's way worse than the 5200's on that Radio Shack RF. I cannot use the Radio Shack one with the CV since I'm missing a chord (the one from the CV to the RF -- the 5200's chord is attached inside the machine).

 

Any suggestions or comments on how I could get better RF connection for my Colecovision?

 

I just assumed that the auto-detecting RF was not calibrated to read the weaker CV signal when the cable was plugged into it.

[cschell]

Tempest - Try and RCA to coax converter in place of the switchbox. I recommend it to everyone that has problems with RF interference from the long cables on the Intellicart or Cuttle Cart. So far it has helped for everyone who has tried it. You can see a picture of what I'm talking about on one of the 2600 pages on this site.

 

Cafeman - Most of the older consoles do not have sufficient signal strength on their RF output to work with automatic adapters. Why not just purchase an RCA video cable? You can buy them cheaply from Radioshack or other places that sell AV equipment.

 

--Chad

Very tired and sore from assembling Cuttle Carts

[+Cafeman]

C. Shell -- I plan on doing just that. I had hoped this cable was available someplace, and I just have never gotten around to checking Radio Shack yet.

[Tempest]

I picked up a adapter today it and works great! Unfortunetly I had to argue with Skippy the Radio Shack guy who "Knew Everything". He kept telling me that it wouldn't work and that I'm wasting my money blah blah blah. I had to argue with him for 10 min. to sell me the part! I've never seen someone who was so determined not to sell something. But then again, he knew "everything".

 

Tempest

[Genki]

I learned long ago not to let them know what you are going to do. I had them say they don't sell any Macintosh battery yet they have one peg full of 1/2 AA 3.6v Lithium battery labeled for Macintosh.

 

It's just not worth taking advantage of 'you got question, we have answer' motto.

[cschell]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tempest:

I picked up a adapter today it and works great!

---

 

Glad to hear that it helped. As for the quality of Radio Shack employees, that sounds about right. I've only met one so far that actually knew anything.

 

Ok, this is off topic for this group now, but how many of us, back the 8-bit days, knew kids who would go into Radio Shack and program the Trash 80 computers to say things like "This computer sucks - Don't buy me!" repeatedly on the screen and then laugh at the fact that the employees couldn't figure out how to stop it without turning the computer off?

 

(And for the record, no I never did things ilke that.)

 

Chad

[Tempest]

quote

"This computer sucks - Don't buy me!" repeatedly on the screen and then laugh at the fact that the employees couldn't figure out how to stop it without turning the computer off?

 

Oh wow! Does that bring back memories...

 

Tempest

[Genki]

I remember pulling something similiar with Commodore PET. And the best part is you can even disable the whole keyboard with one or 2 POKE command, forcing those poor librarian saps at my old school to turn off the whole computer.

[Albert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by C. Schell:

Tempest - Try and RCA to coax converter in place of the switchbox. I recommend it to everyone that has problems with RF interference from the long cables on the Intellicart or Cuttle Cart. So far it has helped for everyone who has tried it. You can see a picture of what I'm talking about on one of the 2600 pages on this site.

---

 

I'm a little late into this discussion, but I just want to second this. I wasn't able to get a clear picture from my 2600 (or 7800) until I used one of those RCA to Coax converters, which only cost a few bucks at Radio Shack. To invoke the overused cliche, the difference was like night and day.

 

The page on AtariAge that talks about that is here:

 

How To Connect Your Old Videogame System

 

..Al