Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Congratulations on your license; now the purchasing fun begins! I run a Yaesu FTM 400 which meets your requirements. The detachable faceplate is secured via the Ram mount which is secured to the DMM mount. I'm very happy with my selection and it does not restrict viewing of there Entune display.

 

Kenwood has the best APRS solution in a bottle. The TM-D710ga is the most simple radio to get APRS running with minimal fuss and good performance.

The TM-V71A is another great radio. You can easily add APRS with a mobilnkd TNC and an Android phone. Just about any modest used phone from eBay will work. It's a little more fuss to get operational, but not too bad if you buy cables rather then build them. you'll have a color moving map display of the other APRS stations near you.

The FT-8900 and other options from yaesu are excellent radios. It's not practical to add APRS to them like you can the Kenwood's. The FTM-100dr has APRS built in, but doesn't dual receive. So you can't do FM voice and APRS at the same time. It's one or the other. The FTM-400 seems like a nice rig if you're into YSF. However, it's lack of full duplex capability disappoints me. I find the TM-D710ga more intuitive and simple to use.

 

Read this....
Understood 3 words.


Reread it 3 times....

Understand 2 words.

 

I really like my FTM-400.

I would make sure you get a brand whose digital mode is supported by repeaters in your area though. Find out what modes people around you are using.

 

APRS linked right to the phone from the Kenwood Tm-v71a / mobilelinkd device.

 

I have a few problems only the ham radio thread on TW can solve, I believe they are all related:

Relevant Mods:

• Behind the grill LED Light Bar
• Ditch Lights
• President McKinley CB Radio
• 3 foot firestik (mounted on ditch bracket)
• Kenwood TM-V71a
• Comet SSB-5NMO (mounted on ditch bracket)
• Hella Horn
• Blue Sea 12 Fuse Box (which all mods draw their power from)
• Off Grid Engineering Dual Battery Kit (with isolator)

Problem 1: When my ham radio is on, all signal cuts out when I turn on the LED light bar, but not the ditch lights.
Problem 2: When my CB radio is on, I get a TON of noise when I turn on the LED light bar, but not the ditch lights.
Problem 3: When my ham radio is on and I honk the horn, the ham radio turns off. I think this only happens with a prolonged honk, not just a short toot. I haven't been quite far enough away from others to confirm this yet.
Problem 4: When my CB is on and I honk the horn, I get noise through the radio for the duration of the horn honk.

Thanks guys, 73s!

 

Prob 1 and 2 are related to RF noise. I'm gonna guess you are using something on the order of a Caliraised / China lightbar? Try a ferrite choke on the power cable of the bar.

Prob 3 / 4 sounds similarn in nature. What are you using the factory horn or something else? if there is noise on the CB, I am wondering if the ham shuts off from some sort of RF overload like autogating bright light on NVGs.

 

Not exclusive to low brand led companies. Ferrites should knock it down a bit. Grab a ton. Some of the guys have had to make cages for them too.

 

Yeah, I suppose you are correct. My high dollar BD products have had no issues, I usually hear about it on cheaper bars is why I said that.

 

Oh for sure. I knew where you were going with that. Just didn't want him to think it was limited to that. Had issues with my KC's as well. Haha.

 

Come to think of it, my S8 and my RTL have a big blister on the cable right before the load. Would make sense that that is a ferrite choke considering the amount of radios and other comms/nav equipment that desert race vehicles have.

 

Yup damn leds haha the uhf side isn't impacted at all with mine. Just vhf. Brings an s9 to s2-3

 

LED lighting is a royal pain. I install Avionics in aircraft and deal with this all the time due to the new wave of lighting systems. Key to noise abatement is taking care to ground properly.

What we end up doing if the product comes with its own wiring is hacking off the power cord and run double shielded wiring, grounded (drains) at both ends to keep the noise inside the cable. Audio wiring is different to this however. This is only for power or data wiring. We also recommend You ensure the light fixture it’s self is grounded with a wire as short as possible. Longer than 18” wires for ground end up acting as antennas. Your radio should be grounded in the same way. Very short wire. Don’t run ground for power all the way to the battery or a fuse box.

Grounding all key components including your radio at its source will help illuminate noise being picked up over transmission and powerlines.

I also use triple shielded coax. The aircraft rated stuff can get pricey but I like rg400/142. Works from hf through 500mhz very well. Anything higher in freq and we have to jump to lower loss cabling.

 

I agree with the RF advice, but also check basics.

Make sure the transceiver is powered with a dedicated power line off the battery, not on any other circuit.

Make sure your antenna is working right, good clean connections, no water intrusion, either “grounded” or not per spec and away from other sources of RF.

Isolate and test. Disconnect everything and make sure the ham works. Then add back each offender and see if you can isolate it with chokes, distance (move the bar or antenna) and etc.

In the end you may need to decide which is more important, and live with some challenges.

Part of ham is trial and error! Good luck.

 

As other have said, sounds like the LED drivers are making rf. However, the horn issue sounds like a bad ground. Have you done other extensive mods?

Ground EVERYTHING to chassis. EVERYTHING. use a multimeter to check resistance from radio ground to the negative battery terminal. Also check resistance from the LED grounds and the horns ground. If you have high resistance, then you have a bad ground somewhere that needs improvement. Did you paint anything? Like chassis parts or other corrosion prevention measures that may have created a high impedance ground?

Have you done the math on all wiring you added? That the wire is sufficiently heavy to carry the most amps under maximum load?

If the issues are related, it sounds like a bad ground.

 

Avoid wide voltage range LED's they use switching supplies.

 

Yes, the lightbar is a cheapo from Amazon. I have read others' issues with lightbars and wasn't super surprised when I noticed this with my setup, but I thought it was a little strange that the ditch lights didn't do it too. Which side of the power line should I add the choke? Power side or closer to the light?

 

Usually ferrite chokes are put close to the load side of a wire, but there is no harm in putting one on both ends.

 

Start at load end...you are trying to disrupt the EM field, so you may have to try different sizes/combinations and etc. Try to move the power line to other locations as well, especially if it is a factor of the wavelength away, you may have luck moving it 1/4 the distance.

 

And I'm in.