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I’ve been swamped with work and the weather hasn’t been cooperative for working on the boat, but I did take a few monents these last few days to rework the interior of the truck for the N’th time.

I didn’t take before photos, but generally, it looked like this:

I moved all the radios into the closing center console compartment, which frees up the center console for storage and allows free access to all of the accessory buttons under the radio. I also moved the CTS2 into the console using a ProMounts mounting kit I found online. The two ham radios are connected using both automotive exterior attachment tape and some scrap aluminum that I cut and drilled in order to create a makeshift mount, that is ultimately tied to a RAM mount. I can still use the storage area under the radios, but it’s difficult to get to, so reserved for large, rarely accessed items. All of the wiring comes up through the bottom and I cut out the bottom panel, which is easily replaceable if I ever want to back out these changes in the future, in order to allow the wires to pass through.

All HF TX issues resolved!

The antenna mount I was using was just a stud through some angle iron I mounted to the bed of the truck. It worked well for a while, but I found I had to continually tighten it, and when I went to this last weekend it broke. It couldn’t stand up to the stress of supporting the Tarheel, and the 6′ whip I used to run probably exaggerated the issue.

As you can see, it was just a stud supporting the antenna.

I decided to decouple the connection from supporting the antenna, and finally bought the overpriced Tarheel MT1S mount at $114.  I considered fabricating something comparable in my garage, but don’t have all the right tools, which is something I hope to alleviate in the future. Once the part arrived I tried to used the built in holes with #10 self tapping screws to secure it to the angle iron. Those screws broke, and the drill bits I had broke as well when trying to drill them out. Instead of breaking more expensive bits, I found some #14 self tapping screws left over from another project, and used three of them to anchor it by creating new holes, in addition to the one successful #10 screw. I hope I never have to remove this antenna and bar, because the truck bed probably is a mess underneath from all the holes used to mount and ground these antennas.

Properly secured using the Tarheel MT1S mount.

I previously posted about how my 30M APRS beacons were working, but seemed to be causing major RFI with the truck. I’ve done everything I know to do to track that down: add ferrite chokes, ground straps, etc, but have not found a solution. During my research, I kept finding myself back on this page. Unfortunately, when I ran the initial feed, which runs through a difficult to access port in the back of the cab to between the cab and bed (almost as difficult to access), I used a LMR400 cable just long enough to reach. The recommended method to choke the RF on that site will not work for me without replacing that cable, and even if I replaced the cable I couldn’t fit that assembly back there without removing the toolboxes, hitch, and bed from the truck for the install. Instead, I found this feedline isolation balun that exceeds the specs of the loop the site recommends building. It’s in a 4″ x 4″ x 2″ box that I will mount on the top rail of the truck bed behind the tonneau cover, and run the current feed into, and run another 1′ LMR400 feed to the antenna. All of this company’s baluns and isolation feeds have excellent (5.0/5) reviews on eham.net, including the one I bought. I also picked up eight Fair-Rite 18mm ID type 31 chokes to wrap the power leads in.

I installed the 30M APRS system today and APRS works great. I saw it gate at https://aprs.fi in both Brownsville, TX (300mi away) and Sugraland Run, VA (1290mi away, as the crow flies!). I was playing with TX power between 30w and 150w, so I’m not sure how far it travels with how much power. Of course I think that’s subject to a lot of conditions other than power.

Where this went wrong is shortly after installing it and getting it working properly, my truck began intermittently losing power. After a little while longer, several alarms popped up including ABS, StabiliTrak, Park Assist and Trailer Brake Controller malfunctions. I thought it was the radio, but after turning it off, pulling codes (none found), and clearing them anyway, the lights remained. It also seemed to have come on right after hitting a bump at 35mph, so I thought maybe something pulled loose. I spent a couple hours under the vehicle double checking all of the connections that seemed as if they could be related to those specific errors, but all were fine. I started the truck again and the lights were still on. After a while of idling while I searched online for potential fixes, the light went off.

With the light off, I began experimenting with the radio configuration. My findings were:

• 10.147.60USB (APRS freq), 30w transmit, no noticeable changes
• 10.147.60USB (APRS freq), 50w transmit, noticeable dip in truck power only when beaconing, no lights or warnings
• 10.147.60USB (APRS freq), 150w transmit, lights/alarms come on after approximately 3 beacons
• Keying up manually on 10.147.60USB does not seem to cause issues, but testing here was limited because it is data only
• Transmitting, even at full power, on 14.213USB does not cause issues
• Unplugging only the DATA port of the TS-480HX (TT4 connection to radio) ceases issues
• Several (unmeasured) minutes of idling clears the alarms

Since I don’t need HF APRS most of the time, I decided to leave it unplugged unless needed. I’m not really sure where to troubleshoot from here or how to fix this, aside from the several RF chokes I already tried (improved, not fixed the issue, and I don’t think chokes are the issue at this point.) When I do transmit, it seems 30w is going to be the practical limit unless I can find ways to eliminate the interference. I ordered some more RF chokes and ground straps to try.