Diesel noise on HF

If earthing straps and torroids don't turn you on, there is a simple, practical solution.
Don't turn it on unless the motor is off.

Or you could take it to a specialist radio comms place.

Pretty hard to fix, common complaint with the electronic brain diesel. earth strap the hold down bolt on the brain under the seat to the gearbox, which is earthed back through the motor to the battery....earth all opening doors to body aswell, and bullbar to battery. The trick is to have everything earthed back to one point (the battery, or the brain) via the shortest path, and make sure the areas are clean that you earth, and spray them after earthing with paint to seal.

I had same prob with an old hilux diesal and I fixed it by removing the arial to the rear corner of the vehicle. I was told by instructor (teaching Amateur licence) once that people make a living by getting the noise off hf radio in boats etc. Good luck anyway.

Owen

Mate,
Take a multi metre and check the doors, radiator, alternator, and anything else for continuity. If there is a resistance then earth it!!

Otherwise you have done all you can. Maybe some ferrite cores may help though this is getting into white man's magic.

Cheers

George,

Eliminating interference (RFI) is a subject which gets much coverage on a variety of forums, both radio oriented and travel/4WD oriented.

My previous 4by was a Landrover discovery 2.5 Tdi (with no computers/chips etc) and the RFI was noticable, but liveable. Even though I have a bit of an interest and some (not very technical) knowledge about radios and propagation, I ended up giving up! I earthed the antenna well, bonded vaious panels around the car, tried various filters etc, but in the end had little effect on RFI.

Since then, I have upgraded (not trying to upset the Roverites here...) to a naturally aspirated 105 series diesel. When I installed the HF, I crossed my fingers, hoping for a quiet HF..guess what? Not a sound out of the engine/electrics or anything. It is literally the same with the engine running and travelling at 100kph than with the engine off. The only noise I have noticed is generated by other things I may have running in the car at the time... ie UHF radio (whilst scanning), GPS/PDA combination (pretty sure it is the cig charger). Additionally, I have a strange noise on 1 particular frequency that I use, which seems to be from the speedo sensor. None of which I plan to worry about. I have although earthed the antenna well, but nothing else at the moment.

Bottom line is tat it will be a big and/or expensive and time consuming job to eliminate this HF noise......options include:
1. Paying a professional bucket-loads of $$$$ to diagnose and shield the various noise sources.
2. Do heaps of Googling and internet research and spend countless hours diagnosing and fixing the problem yourself.
3. Do as Footy suggests and only use the radio whilst the engine is off...
4. Sell the HF and buy a sat phone....
5. UPGRADE the car to something simpler without all the electrickery.....

Sorry for the bad news, but I invite the more technically inclined amateurs/professionals to come up with any other ideas......

Cheers,

Mark

I'll watch this topic with interest as I have big interferance problems on my Icom UHF when the engine is running (I know, I know UHF is very different to HF)

Hi George,

I notice that you are a member of VKS, they have a bit of a story about Toyota's and RFI in the latest Newsletter. Not good news I guess.

Any Antenna mounted near the engine is less preferable to mounting on the back door. Probably make not much difference.

Try www.outbacker.com.au/ Terry Clinch, he is in WA he may have some clues or you could try Barrett who is also in WA

Good luck

Thanks to everyone for your comments/input. After further investigations and reading the comments, I have come to the conclusion that the interference on my HF radio, whilst the motor is running, is something that would be extremely difficult if not impossible to eliminate. I have now had expert advise. Solution : only switch on the HF radio when the car engine is switched off, what a bugger
Cheers