UHF questions

Joined: 06 Apr 2007 Location: Cambridge Park

I am mounting my aerial near my fuel filler/overflow bottle (sierra), are there any static issues caused by doing this?

Also, I heard that power for radios should come from the battery directly, and the ground should also go to the battery - Is this true?
Mine is wired into my compressor circuit, which is direct to the battery anyway, and grounded to the frame - will this cause issues or noise if the compressor is running?

Thanks, Linc.

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Location: Happyrock

Aerial should be fine as long as its all bolted down well, and the connections are fine. I wouldnt be too worried about that. However, it is really best to run direct cables for the radio, especially an earth wire. It will eliminate lots of problems with interference caused by the cars standard electricals, and anything else you have installed.

Also, your radio might not like the sudden voltage drop associated with a big current compressor starting up, its unlikely to work property at best, and the extra current draw it requires could fry it (if you are trying to transmit at the same time). The compressor will draw big on start-up, and load, dropping the voltage to the radio too.

Its really not too expensive for some dedicated cables. You could of course always just turn the radio off before using your compressor too.

Sam