Does wind affect radio mic transmission?

Question

I was shooting on a beach with gail force wind... The actress was literally acting at a 45º angle to prevent from flying away! Thanks to the Rycote lavalier windjammers, the wind didn't destroy everything.

That said, I feel like the wind added a lot of interference. Spurts of interference to be more precise. I really had to be as close as possible to the transmitter to minimize this. I obviously changed channels to check that that wasn't the issue.

Is this a common problem? Or is it merely a coincidence?

I have the Sennheiser G3.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Concerning physics this should not happen at all as far as i know Andrew. The wave length of the broadcast is far greater and very different than the actual wind frequencies.

Probably the wind was so strong that surpassed the windjammers?

Answer 2

Radio frequencies are essentially transmissions of light. We'll stay away from the discussions of wave based matter (photons) since that not what this site is about....that and the fact that I'd be talking out of my ass. ;)

Nikos is probably right. As an example, they do have the "high wind" variants for the zeppling kits, which are a lot denser than the typical dead cat.

Another possibility is that wind was putting strain on the receiving antenna. If alignment with the actual signal gets off, you may pick up interference. That's my best guess outside actual wind noise.

Answer 3

Wind by itself cannot effect wireless transmissions, but it can have side effects that can, like raising the static electricity in an area. Also, if the wind was a byproduct of a storm front, lightning and thunder storms can effect the signal, too.

What wind can do, though, is greatly distort sound waves by changing the air pressure between the source and the mic -- and, thus, changing the speed and direction in which the sound waves are traveling.