In Telecommunications, What is Crosstalk?
In electronics terms, crosstalk occurs when unwanted speech or signal noise manifests in a communication. A common example of crosstalk is hearing pieces of other people’s conversations on a telephone, or picking up part of a broadcast from a different radio station when listening to a radio show. Crosstalk is caused by an inadvertent coupling of transmission media, such as radio frequencies or physical telephone wires, and technicians take steps to avoid it. The term is also used more generally to refer to incidental or unimportant conversation. In the case of telecommunications devices connected with physical wiring, crosstalk happens whenever these wires cross. This causes a disturbance in the signal, which manifests in the ear of the listener as signal noise or fragments of speech. Insulating wiring and tightly twisting it can greatly reduce this type of crosstalk, although wiring will ultimately decay as it ages, necessitating repairs. If a consumer experiences crosstalk on a devi
