Interference from airport equipment and CarPlay

[tmwong]

Noticed an interesting quirk with CarPlay and the nearby airport (SJC). A local freeway (CA 87) runs parallel to the main runway and is elevated near the south runway threshold. Whenever I pass that spot the music on CarPlay wireless will stutter a handful of times, making me wonder if some airport radar is overwhelming one of:

• Bluetooth
• Cellular
• Wi-Fi

As an experiment I’ll try wired CarPlay and see if the music still stutters.

- T

 

[davidliu]

It happens to all wireless carplays. At least for me, my Defender and AGT both suffers from this interference.

 

[tmwong]

A quick skim of the ‘net suggests ILS or Doppler radar interference with Wi-Fi as potential culprits. As an experiment I might try using wired CarPlay on the next drive past.

- T

 

[Adnillien]

A quick skim of the ‘net suggests ILS or Doppler radar interference with Wi-Fi as potential culprits. As an experiment I might try using wired CarPlay on the next drive past.

- T

Unlikely ILS that operates at 108 to 112 MHz. NEXRAD radar operates just above the WiFi band and could easily have out of band noise in the WiFi band.

 

[tmwong]

Well, this is wild. I drove past the same spot today after the 2.2.2 update, waited for the inevitable audio stutter… and the stutter never happened. I’ll check again when I go by but I’m baffled by the idea that a software fix might have fixed radio interference.

On top of that, after I made the original post I realized that San Jose PD HQ is at the same location, and now I wonder if it’s some kind of police radio interference.

- T