Ok, this is what I got going on. I have an 04 Tacoma with a Grant LT, and my SWR is right about 1.2 on all channels with a 5' firestick mounted on a bedbar. I have the radio running strait to the battery, truck off — all is fine, start it up and I have a low static/popping noise coming through the radio. When I accelerate the noise accelerates in tune with the motor. This to me seems like the alternator,( but.....) so I unplugged the antenna and sure enough the noise disappeared. So it is obviously something the antenna is picking up, but what? Does the fuel pump accelerate with the truck? Can the antenna pick up the alternator? What should I look for or where should I start? I purchased some ferrite snaps, just don’t know where to try them. Thanks for any help.
-
You can now help support WorldwideDX when you shop on Amazon at no additional cost to you! Simply follow this Shop on Amazon link first and a portion of any purchase is sent to WorldwideDX to help with site costs.
Help with static
- Thread starter jeffrice6
- Start date
s
Jeffrice6, I'd be willing to bet it's coming in from the fuel pump through the antenna. Fords and Toyotas are notorious for fuel pump noise. To check, use a 'sniffer'. Unhook the coax from the antenna and keep connected to the radio, (you need to use a long enough piece of coax for this), and with your engine running and with someone in the truck listening to the radio, walk around the truck with the coax end in your hand, hold the coax right up close to the fuel pump, alternator, ignition wires, computer, etc. This will sniff out where your noise problem is coming from. You may want the person inside the p/u listening to the cb to rev the engine from time to time when you are sniffing different components.
Hope I wasn't too confusing, LoneWolf TN
Jeffrice6, I'd be willing to bet it's coming in from the fuel pump through the antenna. Fords and Toyotas are notorious for fuel pump noise. To check, use a 'sniffer'. Unhook the coax from the antenna and keep connected to the radio, (you need to use a long enough piece of coax for this), and with your engine running and with someone in the truck listening to the radio, walk around the truck with the coax end in your hand, hold the coax right up close to the fuel pump, alternator, ignition wires, computer, etc. This will sniff out where your noise problem is coming from. You may want the person inside the p/u listening to the cb to rev the engine from time to time when you are sniffing different components.
Hope I wasn't too confusing, LoneWolf TN
When 'sniffing' for a noise source, it really helps to turn OFF the ANL and NB, and turn the volume up. Keeping the exposed "sniffing" end of the coax cable less than 3 or 4 inches long seems to work best.
73
73
Sorry J6 )-: ....I know what your going through ....Engine Noise sucks !! .....sometimes it can be more work sniffing and ridding that crap then it's worth )-: been there done that !! ....I've capped my ass off in these situations ...got lucky here and there and lessened certain noises but never ever completely ...sometimes it's just the luck of the operator and the vehicals they possess. Your LT should have pretty good noise anl/nb built in ...if you can't knock it out with that to the point it is decent enough to hear others and not drive you crazy ....you got some major filtering to do )-: and that's the part that should truly get you busting your ass.My car is a tuff one when it comes to noise .....I've capped a few things fan/alt and it has help alot to the point I can hear the guys 30 miles away ....without those little caps i wouldn't be able to hear them, Also some radios seem to be better then others ...IM no expert for sure or totally understand why this is ? better anl's and nb's on some I would suppose ? ....I ran a Grant XL in the car I have now .....it was truly fair on the noise blankers but still really wasn't good enough for what I wanted .....I switched to a Cobra 29 LTD Classic and the noise was less but the damned anl/nbs on those radios would also act like a RF gain control !! that I surely didn't need !! sure it killed the noise ! but it also killed the incoming signal by about a S unit ....now IM only talking about AM operations here ....SSB is totally different and I didn't have the same annoying noise on SSB as I did AM on my Grant XL in this car ....After the 29 I went with a older 25 LTD Classic ....There is an RF God !!! The 25s and there built in auto anl and the nb are just what the doctor ordered for my ear holes and this car !!! ....I've had a lot of great radios over the years and ones that just wouldn't knock out the noises depending on what car I had at the time )-: .....some guys get really lucky and others have to deal with the elements of noise and how to get rid of it ? ....LM and MTI filters are some of the best out there ....you might want to do a interent search on those. Good luck to you.
Fuel pumps generally do not change in rpm with the accelerator pedal. The fuel is under constant pressure so the pump's rpms don't change. That doesn't mean they don't emit RFI though. Try running your B+ wire from the radio straight to the battery terminal. Get two ferrite beads large enough to wrap a couple of turn of that B+ wire. Place a bead near the terminal and the other closer to the radio. Keep the rasdio's negative wire short and to a known good ground. Use braided shield and ground the truck's bed to the cab and the frame. Ground the hood to the body and motor. Often that does the job.
S
soxxs22
Guest
I have the similar problem and im interested to see more input for this posting. Im set up as such.
the radio is a uniden grant xl. the vehicle is a 2004 chevy 2500 hd w/ the duramax with the high output altenator 145 amp for the snowplow prep package. i mounted the cb to the dash panel underneath the radio. i ran the coax underneath the center of the seat to the back of the rear seat (ext cab) and 90 degreed to and through the vent on the passenger side out between the cab and box. zip tied to a Back Rack (www.backrack.com) to the antenna mount connected to a 36" k-40.the back rack sets on the bed liner but is bolted down in the front stake pockets. now the radio's power was first tried via the accessory plug (cigarette lighter) with a radio shack plug in that i connected the leads off the radio to. that failed so i then spliced more wire to the radio leads in ran both directly to the battery. that also failed, so i tried to connect the ground to the motor.well again that failed. so i then proceeded to scrape and sand down some of the grounding points on the truck. 1st was the small ground wire off the battery to the frame, then a ground point that the fuel fill ground strap and some other wire is screwed to the frame and a couple of wires that are grounded to the frame underneath the drivers seat. i have not yet re-fashioned the hood and the cab grounding strap or the other strap that i have not identified but one end is visible near the turbo. so far no luck to rid the radio's static sound that seems to be associated with the rpm's of the engine. this is not a problem when the truck is not running, but is unbareble when it is. this whole period i could not get my swr's below 3 or out of the red. ive also used a radio shack swr meter to verify my swr's with the radio. my last attempt to rid the radio of this enormous amount of static is i ran a ground wire from the frame at the fuel fill grounding point to the antenna stud and anchored the radio's ground to the grounding point on the frame that is common with battery. hey guess what---- i have no more static, but ive found that i cant hear anyone and they cant hear me. i guess all the power to the antenna is going to ground. my next try will be to ground my back rack to the frame instead of the antenna. this is truely frustrating and im desperate for help also as this problem has plagued me all summer with trial and error attempts to solve it.
Two seperate problems on that last one: 1. Bad antenna installation accounting for high swr, and 2. Ignition and possibly other noise.
Take the ground wire off the antenna stud...you just grounded out your antenna. You need to make sure you have a ground path between the antenna mount and the body or frame. If you have paint or powder coat where you're attempting to ground, you probably need to scrape some off. When done with that, adjust antenna for good SWR.
The noise that changes with RPM is probably ignition noise. There's also probably some fuel pump noise in there. Ignition noise can be a major hassle to get rid of. You can start with high quality, resistive plug wires. You can also add torroids to the plug and coil wires. Grounding the coil, adding bypass caps on the power leads to the coils, all can help. If the noise goes away with the antenna disconnected, then it's radiating pretty strong. Improving your grounds under the hood and on the body near where the antenna is mounted may help. If the noise is still there with the antenna disconnected, then it's coming through the power leads. You can buy power line filters which help with that if nothing else does.
In the end, you may decide it's just too much trouble to get rid of and end up buying a DSP speaker, which will make it tolerable.
Take the ground wire off the antenna stud...you just grounded out your antenna. You need to make sure you have a ground path between the antenna mount and the body or frame. If you have paint or powder coat where you're attempting to ground, you probably need to scrape some off. When done with that, adjust antenna for good SWR.
The noise that changes with RPM is probably ignition noise. There's also probably some fuel pump noise in there. Ignition noise can be a major hassle to get rid of. You can start with high quality, resistive plug wires. You can also add torroids to the plug and coil wires. Grounding the coil, adding bypass caps on the power leads to the coils, all can help. If the noise goes away with the antenna disconnected, then it's radiating pretty strong. Improving your grounds under the hood and on the body near where the antenna is mounted may help. If the noise is still there with the antenna disconnected, then it's coming through the power leads. You can buy power line filters which help with that if nothing else does.
In the end, you may decide it's just too much trouble to get rid of and end up buying a DSP speaker, which will make it tolerable.
S
soxxs22
Guest
im sorry, i didnt state that the truck is a diesel, i just assumed because i stated "duramax" that everyone knew what i was talking about. i do understand that not everyone would know. ill give the truck somemore grounding from the cab to frame and back rack to frame and box to frame and maybe back rack to box and clean up the other two ground leads that are under the hood. as far as the radio , would it be better if i could shorten the power and ground wires by running my power lead to my other battery which is closer to the firewall and run my ground wire to a spot on the frame that is closer, disgarding excess wire?
Shorter power leads are always better. Move the antenna around from front to back of the truck to see where the hot spots are regarding the static. That should help indicate the noise source.
- No one is chatting at the moment.
-
-
dxBot:63Sprint has left the room.
-
dxBot:kennyjames 0151 has left the room.
-
-