sat phones and prado's

Submitted: Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 09:58

ThreadID: 63136 Views:2925 Replies:6 FollowUps:2

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Member - Todd B (NT)

Hey everyone.....got a strange one for you all.... the banker was driving from Yulara to Darwin last week inour 2001 prado..... she got to Tennant creek, fuelled up, had a feed and continued on..... she was about 60kms from Renner springs and I rang her on the Sat phone..... she pulled off the highway... answered the phone and the car stopped dead.... anyways cut a long story short this happened four times within 120 km... in the end AAnt towed them back to the Toyota dealership in Tennant creek and he found nothing wrong with the car ....no codes on the computer ...no nothing..... this is the first trip that the phone has been in the car(bought two weeks b4) and its never missed a beat..... has anyone heard of the computer being messed up by radios and sat phones ???? . we picked the car up on friday night and drove into Darwin yesterday and it didn't miss a beat but the phone was off and in its case ....keeping it safe.... I'm going to take it for a drive around town today and see if I can get it to breakdown again by ringing the phone...... any thoughts????

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Reply By: time waster - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 10:30

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 10:30

I know with our current model hilux using our hf radio on 16meg or higher with engine running the airbag light comes on

AnswerID: 333115

Reply By: Member - Footloose - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 10:53

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 10:53

Relatively common with HF radios and later model vehicles, unfortunately.
I've never heard of a sat phone doing it as the RF levels are far smaller. Havng said that, did the vehicle have any problems with a normal mobile ?
I'd imagine the ringer is about the only thing that could do much...unless the satphone had a car kit.
What kind of sat phone was it , Irridium or Globalstar etc ??

AnswerID: 333119

Follow Up By: Member - Todd B (NT) - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 11:13

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 11:13

The phone hasn't got the car kit installed... only the 12v and external anntena connected at the time...... the phone is Motorola on the Irridium network and mobile's have no problems...????

Todd

FollowupID: 600994

Follow Up By: Member - Footloose - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 11:26

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 11:26

Just sent you a MM. No help to you I'm afraid.

FollowupID: 600998

Reply By: Philip A - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 12:09

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 12:09

It was not unusual in the past for RF to affect the ECU of vehicles.
Police cars used to have problems often in the 80s and when I was marketing Manager of BMW Motorcycles we had several problems with RF causing police motorcycles to stop.
The answer was to add metal shielding around the ECU.
It may be that the sat phone frequency is one that effects your particular car.
Regards Philip A

AnswerID: 333131

Reply By: Member - Footloose - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 12:15

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 12:15

Just had a thought. The satphone had it's external aerial on. Is the coax on that connected properly with no breaks ?

AnswerID: 333135

Reply By: MEMBER - Darian (SA) - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 14:45

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 14:45

Don't know about Satphone radiation profiles on this subject, but an HF radio (nominal 100w) will certainly upset a modern management system - just had that very experience a few weeks back in my 05 GXL TD landcruiser - sent a selcall while mobile and it killed the motor - I selected neutral and restarted it while coasting on a straight section - normal HF voice comms seems ok (but the noise on channel from the car is usually too great for comms anyway) ......but certainly not the selcall sequence.... bad idea....unsafe too.

AnswerID: 333167

Reply By: Member - John (Vic) - Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 15:49

Sunday, Nov 02, 2008 at 15:49

I have used my Motorola sat phone in the car with external antenna and never had a problem for many years, Same goes for my HF Radio.

Interesting situation would have thought the couple of watts involved in the sat phone would not upset anything on the car, but then again first time for everything I suppose??

Let us know how it works out.