On 10/9/2017 2:01 PM, Dauer, Edward wrote:

Jim –

Good ideas from you, as always.

The impact of RF on the car’s systems interests me the most, as I hadn’t thought of it before. Yours was a Sequoia.  Mine will be – if I buy it – a Lexus GX which is effectively the Sequoia’s cousin, if not half-brother.  So even if I conquer all the challenges of bonding and antenna-making and all the rest, there is still the risk that HF RF will affect some processor on the vehicle at the worst possible time and place?


Yes. BUT -- that was a brand new 2006 model. Let's hope Toyota/Lexus has learned something about these issues in 11 years. :)

How do we deal with that sort of problem? Operate QRP only?


I'd say it's a business problem -- that is, between you and Toyota/Lexus. It might be worth checking with ARRL about HF mobile in current production of these vehicles. MAYBE things have improved. After having the issues with my SUV, I did a lot of poking around online and found indications that another brand was far better for RFI. But by then I'd made a bunch of trips from W9 to W6 and had 45,000 miles on it. :)

Many years ago (1973) I had a HW-101 in a Fiat Spyder, which in those days still had the traditional coil and condenser ignition system.  To control noise I installed coax  braid over every spark plug wire from the distributor and the line from the coil and whatever else I could at.  Then one day the braid shorted something at one end or the other – right at the point where the Hollywood Freeway goes through Cahuenga Pass and (in those days anyway as I remember it) narrows to three lane, and at about 5:30 PM. With a cold dead Fiat I blocked at least one of those lanes for at least the hour it took me to rip out all the braid while suffering the horns and the hand gestures of about 400,000 people whom I made late for dinner.

I don’t want to ever do that again.  How vulnerable are today’s cars’ systems to HF RF?


That's a good question to poke around the internet in general and ARRL in particular.  Also ask the guys who do serious mobile operation during state QSO parties. W0BH, W4NZ, KU8E, and K4ZGB are some guys who have done a lot of this.  They also know how to put out a good signal from a mobile -- I've worked several mobiles from TN and GA on 80 CW, including K4ZGB last month in the TNQP.  And they will have also solved any issues with noise from computers or computer power supplies.

73, Jim K9YC
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