2way Radio Woes

l have a 21 OR, and l installed a 2way radio in my truck placed the unit in the cubby in front of cup holders. All was fine for about a month then while out on a trip in the same area as before calling my miles in the same places when l transmitted my truck went into limp mode saying an ABS Throttle Block failure so l reset the codes. Truck ran fine after the reset the next transmission it did it again.
l asked Dealership what was going on he said its in the manual and if any parts fail because of the radio it won’t be covered.
l have not used the radio since and am concerned about trying again, but a local radio shop said the brand of radio l have has been known to cause concerns before due to poor shielding, yet other shops say its the antena,
Anyone running a 2way radio without issues? if so which unit? hows it mounted, direct power to battery, antena placement? Thanx

 

Interesting! RF Interference can do weird things. Tell us more about your radio.
Have had a dualband Yaesu mounted in our 2005 and 2017 for over ten years with zero issues.

 

So, If it was the Antenna, it is a rather simple VSWR test if you have access to a wattmeter. Basically, too much RF energy is being reflected rather than being transmitted giving a high VSWR rating. this can be happening because of a poorly matched antenna (wrong or not enough freq range), bad connections, bad ground plane and various other reasons. This can result in a failed transmitter and/or excessive RF transmission through the antenna cable (transmitted power has to go somewhere). Cheap cable also has something to do with it. Tripple shielded cables can definatly help as well.

If it is the units shielding some possible fixes are a dedicated Case ground, using a good aluminum (100MPH aviation tape) or copper tape on the inside of the radio case (where possible) as well as "Sealing" all seams, material transitions, screws and openings. If these don't work than its a new unit.

 

its a Uniden 5100 or something close to there, tuned to 25 watts VHF 155-173 frequncies “ish”

 

this is the 4 th truck its been in and this is the only truck to give me issues, new antena fender mount each truck.

 

so is it modified?

 

nope programed like that is what l was told wattage turned down from 40 to 25 said it would be more reliable but l never did believe that

 

Interesting indeed. I’d inspect the antenna cable and connectors for frayed insulation to start. Clearly something is leaking a lot of rf

 

thanx the cable is new and when l removed it from the truck it looked good, is there a way to see if l take the whole setup to a shop and test for leakage?

 

Take it to BK 250-562-4856 or Central 250-564-5517 both in PG.

 

ok l will start there

 

Every time I had weird RF related issues with Ham radios it was due to an antenna or antenna grounding issue.

One time the antenna feed was shorted to the body
One time the antenna had a loading coil which had failed and caused an extremely high SWR
One time the antenna was supposed to be grounded and was not.