Subpanel for Ham question.

[texas taco]

I just purchased a Blue Seas 100 amp panel for my truck. One of the circuts on it is for my soon to be ham setup. Do I need to run the ground wire from the battery or can i grab it of the frame under my cab, since I am going to mount the panel and radio behind my back seat. The reason I ask is for interferance. I am going to get an engel, wich i would think might generate an rf that the ham could pick up. What is your take on this? Or am i asking a stupid question? I just want to do it right.

 

[gary in ohio]

You should always have the power leads coming from the battery for radio gear. Frame/chassie ground have lots of joints that can rust, forming diodes, the diodes are little radio's that pickup and can generate noise. Use a direct run for your ground.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Bump...

Is it just the ground you are primarily worried about with radio gear, or the 12V DC as well? I want to have my wiring be as tight/clean as possible. I can't stand inline fuses nor a bunch of accessories run off the battery. Would I be risking some nasty interference if I pulled my 2M power from say an aux. fuse panel?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Oh yeah, what about running my 2M power supply (both pos. and neg.) into the cab right along with the power for my CB unit? Am I going to get into issues?

 

[texas taco]

I am working as we speak on getting my panel mounted behind my back seat. I have the #4 welding lead both positive and negitive coming off the battery. I just soldered the lugs"none of that crimp stuff" then used heat shrink over the lug sleeve to seal it up nicely and take stress of the solder,and the fine wires in the lead. I am going to use a 100 amp breaker from Sierra Expeditions. Just havent orderd it yet. I also don't want alot of things coming off the battery. It has to be neat clean and electricaly, and mechanicly safe.

 

[xcmountain80]

I just purchased a Blue Seas 100 amp panel for my truck. One of the circuts on it is for my soon to be ham setup. Do I need to run the ground wire from the battery or can i grab it of the frame under my cab, since I am going to mount the panel and radio behind my back seat. The reason I ask is for interferance. I am going to get an engel, wich i would think might generate an rf that the ham could pick up. What is your take on this? Or am i asking a stupid question? I just want to do it right.

I used my seat bolt as a ground. The Yotas or at least the newer ones make it hard as heel to find a good ground on the frame.

Aaron

 

[ntsqd]

The higher the power radio the more you want both power & ground straight from the battery. The battery acts to clamp most line noise, so every connection in the wires to the radio is a noise risk.
Any supply or ground line loss shows up as less than optimum radio performance.

Patch's V8k is wired to an isolated stud under the dash on the power side, and straight to the battery on the ground side. Also running off that stud is the stereo (+amp), CB, and 3 power points. No noise, but I was ready to re-wire direct if there had been.

The Sub's V8k is directly wired.