Radios

[Ursidae69]

When I come out to AZ the 11th, I can bring my copy of Now You're Talking if anyone wants to borrow it for a few months or whatever. This book is all you need to pass the technician level exam. You can mail it back next year when you've passed your test. :elkgrin:

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Engine Noise Heard on CB Radio

I guess I'll ask this here since the topic is "Radios".

I have my good 'ole trusty 1976 Johnson CB Radio hooked up in my 4Runner......with a direct battery connection with fuse......then I have it grounded to a bolt under my passenger seat.

When I start my truck.....I get engine noise on it....I can tune it out with the squelch.....but then can't hear out as far on the radio.

I first had power to it through the cig. plug...........same thing...so I tried the above.....same thing.

Any Idea's.

I know they make noise supressors.....I've seen them at radio shack and they are huge monsters!

How can I just wire it right..... to do away with the engine noise?

I've used this radio for almost 30 years in all types of vehicles and have never run across this noise problem.

Thanks!



..........trying to prepare for our trip to Arizona Al ......so I can have a good copy on ya there good buddy!

 

[mountainpete]

DC noise filters work pretty well and are basically wired after the fuse. If you go to a CB radio shop or a truck stop, you should be able to get a small cheap one. But first check and make sure it is engine/electrical noise...

Turn on your radio and listen for the noise. Then disconnect the coax connection to your antenna from the back of the radio. Do not try to transmitt, but rather listen for the noise. If the noise disappears, the noise is coming from your antenna and a DC noise filter will not help you.

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Thanks Pete.........

I've tried disconnecting the antenna......same thing......engine noise.

I read some where that there are so many electronic things running in these toyota's.....that they just generate noise.

I also read some where to make a full battery connection....hot and ground. Somebody wrote that if you ground in the cab.....you are actually making an antenna to pick up the engine noise with your power leads.

I just don't know enough about it.

So.....maybe next on my list of test's is the full battery loop power test.

Can this harm my radio?

Thanks...........Mark

 

[BajaTaco]

That's what I would suggest - run the ground directly to your neg. battery terminal (and fuse it just like the power wire). This will also keep your radio more safe in the event that the chassis gets spiked due to a "short".

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Thanks BT.....

Kewl idea on the second fuse!

 

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Radio Mounting Ideas

I ran across this and thought I would share it for a radio mounting idea.

Some may have seen this.....others may have not.

It's been around for a while. There were some questions in another thread about drilling holes.....maybe this will help.

Radio Mount LINK

 

[Pskhaat]

Here are the options for us:

The citizen's bands without license are the 11meter (or CB ~30MHz), FRS, and MURS (~150MHz). FRS shares some frequencies with another type of service called the GMRS which is a licensed UHF band. You simply need to pay the FCC $ to get GMRS access (as well as a GMRS mobile radio, sometimes they are combined with FRS and are limited). The $ is just a barrier-to-entry so you don't get the jokers/crackers like you do on 11 meter `CB.'

Now Ham/Amateur radio encompasses a good # of other bands/frequencies that require eductation and passing verious tests, however there are a few benefits to Ham: non-professionals (like us) can communicate on superior equipment at superior power. But there's more, we can:

1. Create repeaters that listen on one frequency, re-transmit on another. Put this high on a mountain and you get 100s of miles of coverage,

2. Connect these repeaters. A repeater in AZ might be connected to a repeater in CO. Coversations on one repeater are `repeated' or echoed on the other repeater. Coverage area starts getting very large.

3. Connect repeaters to the internet, digitize the communicae, and tunnel it across the internet to other repeaters. Now from no-where UT I can talk to my sailing buddies in the Virgin Islands.

4. Connect to the phone system. You can place phone calls from other radios that are connected to a phone. This is good for calling home or 911 in emergency!

5. Broadcast your GPS location over the radio (and over these repeaters) & receive other's GPS broadcasts. Other GPS equiped radios can recieve these signals and plot the locations of those to whom you are listening.

6. Broadcast video (rare, but you can if you want).

Often people talk about 2M, but this is just the VHF amateur band. Just passing the first test gives you a wealth of bands (above 6m or 50MHz) for communication. One overlooked band is the 6m band where you get some of the benefit of long-range (DX) and some of the clarity and line-of-sight propagation like the 2M band. Another popular band is the 70cm (~440MHz) band (lots of repeaters on these) and the clarity is amazing.

To give you an idea, I live in N. Scottsdale, often talk with only 5 watts of power to a repeater on Mt. Lemon in Tucson that repeats my signal way South. How much coverage is this?

Moab has VHF/UHF repeaters for Ham use. Note there are ALSO GMRS repeaters too, but they are few and far between.

 

[Pskhaat]

The kids would get a kick outta being able to chat over the radio with me. HAM capable of this I presume.

This is more for the GMRS license where your immediate family members are allowed to transmit alongside you.

 

[Ursidae69]

To give you an idea, I live in N. Scottsdale, often talk with only 5 watts of power to a repeater on Mt. Lemon in Tucson that repeats my signal way South. How much coverage is this?

On 2M or 440? That seems far for 2M. I was in southwestern NM in early October and could hear Mt. Lemon faintly, but it was too far for me to hit.

Thanks for the other info too. I plan to get a dual band radio next, maybe a tri-band if I really save my $$.

 

[Brian McVickers]

What do you guys think of the hand held 2M radios?

I'm thinking you could use it as a portable Hand Held and then when you get in your vehicle you could connect it to the 12v power and a mounted antennae.--???

 

[asteffes]

What do you guys think of the hand held 2M radios?

I'm thinking you could use it as a portable Hand Held and then when you get in your vehicle you could connect it to the 12v power and a mounted antennae.--???

I have owned a 2m/440 HT for several years now. They are incredibly useful and make an excellent first radio. A 5 watt radio with a quality external antenna is an amazing communications tool. They do have some limitations for vehicle use, however, which include the following:

Tiny controls - Most HTs have very small buttons and displays that are difficult, if not dangerous, to use while driving. If you intend to use mainly simplex frequencies and don't expect to fiddle with the radio's settings much, this isn't a big problem. If you are hopping around the band or looking for repeaters (and thus also doing squelch tone scans) you'll start to wish for a mobile rig with a big, bright display and larger buttons.

Heat management - HTs are great for intermittent communications but they can suffer from excessive heat if used constantly at full power. Using an external power source can exacerbate this, as the radio will be pushed by the full 13.8 volt supply from your vehicle. This can over-drive the finals and result in a very hot radio, if not permanent damage. Turning down the RF output power can help, but then you'll be using less than 5 watts and that may become an issue if your contact is already a marginal one. Mobile rigs have big heatsinks and fans to keep them cool at much higher power levels. You'll still want to be mindful not to drive your mobile radio at full power all the time or for extended periods, but full power is really not required all that often, anyway.

Messy cables - Hooking up an HT with external antenna, remote microphone and vehicle power cables gets old. The cables go all over and sometimes pop loose. HTs are fine for ocassional comms, but using them as a substitute for a real mobile rig all the time does get a bit wearisome.

Limited power - 5 watts is fine if you're near your contact or working repeaters, but low power operations do have their limitations. It's nice to be able to bump up to 10, 15 or even 50 watts when you need it. For this reason I wouldn't depend on an HT for emergency work, but then again I would rather have an HT than no radio at all. You could use an external RF power amp, but you'll approach the cost of an inexpensive mobile rig. I would spend a few more bucks on a mobile and be glad to have the convenience of the HT and mobile at my disposal.

Hope this helps.

 

[Brian McVickers]

Great info
Thanks!

 

[Offtrack]

Many things you can do with Ham radio. Been a ham a long time here and it is great and part of the fun in Expediton travel as good communications is needed.

One thing you may look into also is APRS. This is where you can track others and your rig. You can even send short messages over it. I have a home station that sends out weather data from my weather station as a back up to the main weather web page I have.

A good web site for info and reviews on radios I have found this site helpful.
http://www.eham.net/

Hope that helps.

KB7DZR

 

[Brian McVickers]

This is an old thread but rather than starting a new one I figured I'd just tack on another post .......



For a first radio would you get:

A 2 meter or a Dual Band?

A Hand Held or a fixed mount mobile?


:wavey: