I have been asking around and no one seems to be able to help (yet).

Do any of you run HF in your 6.0L PSD? What year? What radio? Do(did) you have any RFI issues? Fuel pump? Injectors? Computer? Anything? Did you do anything about it? How was it resolved?

I am considering getting an 06-07 PSD and want to know what I am getting in to before I buy one. I am under the impression that I am going to be **** up a creek with the noise. I don't know until I talk to someone!

If you can't answer my questions do you know anyone that can?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Steve, KC8QVO

 

I have been using a Icom IC-8000 75 watt and a Kenwood TM271a 60 watt for two years no problems (2 meter radios). I mounted the units in the overhead compartment and used a roof mounted ant.

 

Thanks for the reply. I am looking for HF specifically - vehicle systems (and lots of other things as well - cell phone chargers, inverters, etc) play havoc with HF. The higher frequencies aren't affected like shortwave is. AM is the worst, SSB second.

If you know of anyone that runs HF and can get in touch with them I would appreciate any information.

Noise blankers usually can knock out ignition popping on gassers as well as cut down on fuel pump/injector noise, but there is only so much a radio can do. If I turn the NB off on my CB it pops like popcorn. The Icom and Kenwood HF rigs on AM aren't quite as bad.

In my 2003 silverado 5.3L I get S-9 noise sometimes. I tried wrapping the spark plug wires with copper foil and tieing it all to ground. That helped but didn't cut it down completely. The fuel pump is making a bit of noise too. The lower the band the worse it gets.

Steve, KC8QVO

 

I'm not sure what to expect running HF in the later model Diesel. I'd like to know just out of curiosity.
It will become a sticky issue when you decide that you want more power than the radio will produce. Most of these radios are already at 100 watts and I believe you will be asking for trouble when you try and push the envelope knowing you have a 1400 amp 12 volt power supply with the PSD's two batteries.
Keep checking with HF guys on Ham web sites and ask those guys that run HF rigs in their diesels. I'm sure you will come across those with the 6.0 as well as the 7.3 ford owners.
This web site won't have as much response as those sites will.
Personally, I like my Yaesu 2M/70cm pushing 160v/100u Mirage's through a Daiwa into a Diamond fold over, did the HF thing since the 70's so I guess this change is in order.
Let us know what you find out regarding HF and the 6.0

 

Well I am certainly going to pursue this one

I have a Tarheel model 200 screwdriver antenna that runs 80-10m. I am just running 100 watts, not much of an amp guy (yet).

Again, if anyone has any information on RFI in the 6.0L PLEASE CHIME IN!

Steve

 

If I were you, I'd call Ford and ask them!! They should know this answer more than any......

 

I would rather have an unbiased report from a licensed amateur radio operator. Unless a tech happens to be an amateur radio operator and knows from operating these radios in a 6.0L truck he/she will not understand the situation from my perspective. Therefore, the tech won't be able to offer the specific information I am looking for.

I am more concerned with how the systems in the truck affect my radio than how my radio will affect the systems.

Steve

 

I don't think it will Steve.
there is no High Voltage / AC gap generation other than an alternator but every car and truck has one of those.
No spark plugs to worry about or related sparkage.

I was of the opinion you were interested in just the opposite, and more interested in what RF will do to your trucks electronics than worry about QSO RFI.

 

Howdy fellow HAM! I'm running both, a 2m 440 Kenwood and an Icom MkII HF radio. The Icom radio is mounted under the passenger seat with control head on the dash. I run coax to the right side about half way down my flatbed where it feeds into the AH4 antenna tuner. It then has about a 4 inch run to a ball mount. I trade off using a 4 foot firestick CB antenna or a full size steel CB whip antenna.

There has been no problems with the HF or other radios interfering with the trucks electronics or operations. However the truck sure interferes with the HF radio! If I'm running the engine and trying to HF I get what I believe is injector noise. It's pretty bad and will obscure any weak signals. I can still work stronger stations and have learned to live with the noise although at first it will drive you nuts. I've done most of the usual grounding tricks and such with some limited success. I've just learned that to work the weak stuff I have to stop and turn off the engine. I've been running this setup for over a year now and no issues or problems. About the only other improvement I can make is when I run the full size whip antenna it does seem to cut down on the noise. Oh and the radio does have an inline power filter and even adding another didn't make any difference.

Hope this helps, ask me any other questions if I've missed something.

 

Thanks for the information! Finally someone understands, from my perspective, what I am asking.

You say you have tried the "usual" grounding techniques. Can you elaborate on this? What ALL did you ground? Have you sniffed out the noise at all? What leads you to believe it is the injectors?

Steve

 

The injectors are only my best guess since the noise is a lot like spark plug noise used to be. It rises and falls with throttle input, is there constantly with engine running and seems to come in through the antenna system.

As for the grounding stuff. I either purchased or made my own grounding straps. Wide sections of braided unshielded multi strand wires. Much like the old lighting storm ground straps. I'd put eyes at each end. Then I ran them from the radio itself to a good grounded bolt. Did the same for the antenna tuner, the ball mount too. On my old truck I also added a strap from the frame to the truck bed. (don't need too on this bed) Also on the old truck from the cab to the frame and the negative battery post to the frame. Yeah I've been lazy on this truck and haven't finished grounding every single item. lol! What I have done has helped some but I don't think this will eliminate the noise entirely.

There are other ideas to try if you want, larger and better shielded coax with grounding points along it's length. Better shielding at the antenna tuner might help since it's just a plastic case. But I think that in the end I'll just have to live with some noise so it makes getting to carried away kind of pointless to me. I'll just pull over and work the weak ones. Good luck!

 

One thing you may want to try is grounding the exhaust pipe near the cat. The pipe is directly grounded to the engine block. It is a relatively large diameter conductor for any RF produced at the engine. By grounding it you will bring that circuit (transmitter-antenna) to the ground potential of the rest of the vehicle, there by detuning it and, if it works right , attenuating or cancelling out the noise.

W8JI has a page on is site (www.w8ji.com) on his 2003 PS installation. There is no mention of whether the engine is the 7.3 or 6.0 though.... He uses the grounding techniques of cab to bed and pipe to frame apparently with great results. I guess it is worthy of trying. At least if it doesn't work you aren't going to screw things up any more

Steve

 

is the noise a like a whine that increases and decreases with the throttle? If it is it could be your alternator, my f150 also had fuel pump noise. I haven't tried HF on my 6.0 yet.

 

There was a series of posts a few years ago on this topic. I was having some problems with my Kenwood dual band UHF/VHF rig.

I traced the noise to the fuel injectors and even went so far as to put an O'scope on the DC lines to measure the timing of the spikes and confirm that the timing of the noise pulses matched the injector timing.

It was definitely not the alternator.

I've tried to receive HF in the cab using an ICOM VX-6's general coverage receiver but the noise level was quite high.

If I get the time, I may search and dig up the original post I made from way back when.

KJ4KK

 

Here's an older thread I found:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/2...ml#post1927310

I also found the original thread from back in 2003 but strangely there weren't any other posts in there besides the first one. I know there were several more posts in there when the thread was active. Too bad as there was some good info in there.