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Posted: 11/20/2014 9:25:36 AM EDT
[#1]
Anyone have any ideas for grounding the exhaust pipe that won't lift and move?
Keep in mind, I'm in the North-east/mid-atlantic, so they salt the fuck out of roads. Anything not stainless steel will be gone in two years. The hose clamps I'm using keep moving around slightly, and cause all kinds of strangeness with the noise level. |
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Posted: 1/12/2015 2:39:06 PM EDT
[#2]
Got some guy on an island yesterday afternoon on 10 meters. :D
Gave me a 57, said "good audio" too. 
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Posted: 1/12/2015 5:24:21 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Anyone have any ideas for grounding the exhaust pipe that won't lift and move? Keep in mind, I'm in the North-east/mid-atlantic, so they salt the fuck out of roads. Anything not stainless steel will be gone in two years. The hose clamps I'm using keep moving around slightly, and cause all kinds of strangeness with the noise level. Drill and star washer? |
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Posted: 1/12/2015 5:39:19 PM EDT
[#4]
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Drill and star washer? I'm not sure about doing that into an exhaust pipe. Maybe a flange if I can get enough contact area. |
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Posted: 1/29/2015 12:17:38 PM EDT
[#5]
I picked up some cheapie U-Bolt exhaust clamps to replace the hose clamps I was using. Dropped the noise floor again, I think they weren't making good contact after the salt/ice/snow season started. Noise is back down again. Amazing how much of a difference bonding the exhaust pipes makes.
I'm considering moving from the lip mount on the hatch to something like this: 
The issue is that my mounting area looks like this: 
So I'm figuring I'll have to run a couple self tapping screws into the monocoque there, using the provided holes. My other concern is the antenna hitting the hatch when I open the hatch, so I'm considering putting some heat-shrink tubing on the antenna where it'll rub, that way it's not really an issue. What do y'all think about strength on it? Right now it works, but I have to have a lot of wire, as you can see here: 
And I want to get rid of it. Maybe I'll decrease my noise floor at the same time. |
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Posted: 1/29/2015 3:03:23 PM EDT
[#6]
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Moved from coax to some HV-rated wire connecting the tuner to the antenna. That got the noise down some more, but the noise I'm having trouble shaking is related to the hybrid system. I know it's the IMA system, because it coincides with the use of the electric motor. I'm going to get some ferrites that are of a size to fit over the HV cables (100.8vdc), electric motor control unit, battery controller, and then see what the noise looks like. It's supposed to be well shielded, but who really knows what they call "shielding" as Honda may use something as mechanical shielding. I'm going to put my SDR into the car at some point so I can "see" what the noise looks like. IMHO, using a wire to connect the tuner to the antenna may work but it will greatly reduce antenna's efficiency. You simply loose a lot of TX power inside the trunk. A center loaded mobile antenna, like the Tarheel on Derek's pictures is way more efficient. Just my 2 cents. |
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Posted: 1/29/2015 3:21:15 PM EDT
[#7]
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IMHO, using a wire to connect the tuner to the antenna may work but it will greatly reduce antenna's efficiency. You simply loose a lot of TX power inside the trunk. A center loaded mobile antenna, like the Tarheel on Derek's pictures is way more efficient. Just my 2 cents. Yeah, I'm trying to get rid of all of all of the HV wire I can. I can't run a center loaded antenna because of ceiling clearance issues where I live. Sometimes I twang my VHF/UHF antennas. If I put something like Derek45's tarheel on my car, I'd have to park outside, and that's not a tradeoff I'm willing to make. I'll cut a hole in my car and put a ball-mount on it before I do that. |
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Posted: 1/29/2015 3:56:59 PM EDT
[#8]
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Yeah, I'm trying to get rid of all of all of the HV wire I can. I can't run a center loaded antenna because of ceiling clearance issues where I live. Sometimes I twang my VHF/UHF antennas. If I put something like Derek45's tarheel on my car, I'd have to park outside, and that's not a tradeoff I'm willing to make. I'll cut a hole in my car and put a ball-mount on it before I do that. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
IMHO, using a wire to connect the tuner to the antenna may work but it will greatly reduce antenna's efficiency. You simply loose a lot of TX power inside the trunk. A center loaded mobile antenna, like the Tarheel on Derek's pictures is way more efficient. Just my 2 cents. Yeah, I'm trying to get rid of all of all of the HV wire I can. I can't run a center loaded antenna because of ceiling clearance issues where I live. Sometimes I twang my VHF/UHF antennas. If I put something like Derek45's tarheel on my car, I'd have to park outside, and that's not a tradeoff I'm willing to make. I'll cut a hole in my car and put a ball-mount on it before I do that. I park my truck in the garage every day with my Tarheel antenna. I put a spring and a quick disconnect on the whip. It takes just seconds to remove the whip. The spring keeps the antenna from being damaged if I forget to remove the whip (it happened a few times  ).
My Tarheel is the same model as Derek's. There are shorter, smaller models available as well. Tarheels work exceptionally well and require no antenna tuners.. 
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Posted: 1/29/2015 4:06:33 PM EDT
[#9]
Nah, the real issue is trees, signs, and tunnels. Unfortunately I live in the North East, where stuff has almost no clearance beyond a car. It's typical for police SUVs and State Trooper cars to nick their antennas on stuff. The County doesn't like to trim trees because all of the huggers go nuts.
I need to move. |
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Posted: 1/29/2015 4:19:35 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Nah, the real issue is trees, signs, and tunnels. Unfortunately I live in the North East, where stuff has almost no clearance beyond a car. It's typical for police SUVs and State Trooper cars to nick their antennas on stuff. The County doesn't like to trim trees because all of the huggers go nuts.
I need to move. OMG! Do they deliver UPS parcels in Geo Metro cars? |
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Posted: 1/29/2015 4:31:58 PM EDT
[#11]
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I'll cut a hole in my car and put a ball-mount on it before I do that. That's a great idea! 
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Posted: 1/29/2015 5:43:36 PM EDT
[#12]
I'm probably looking at a Tarheel setup like Derek has on his tool box. Any grounding issues with that setup?
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Posted: 1/29/2015 7:07:29 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted:
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I'll cut a hole in my car and put a ball-mount on it before I do that. That's a great idea! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41190821/ham/tarheelinst3.jpg Take some pictures on how you ran the cables? |
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Posted: 1/30/2015 12:39:14 PM EDT
[#14]
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Take some pictures on how you ran the cables? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
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I'll cut a hole in my car and put a ball-mount on it before I do that. That's a great idea! https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/41190821/ham/tarheelinst3.jpg Take some pictures on how you ran the cables? I can do that. The cable from the antenna is only 5 feet or so, as the radio is in the trunk on the left side. I ran all the control cables for the mic, head unit, Antenna switch, and speaker, up the left footrail. It's really pretty clean, though it does cover up my traction control switch...meh. |
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Posted: 1/30/2015 2:48:52 PM EDT
[#15]
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I'm probably looking at a Tarheel setup like Derek has on his tool box. Any grounding issues with that setup? I ran some thick ground braid from the bottom of the toolbox to the trucks frame Works fine |
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Posted: 1/30/2015 3:07:39 PM EDT
[#16]
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I ran some thick ground braid from the bottom of the toolbox to the trucks frame Works fine Through the bed? |
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Posted: 1/30/2015 3:55:31 PM EDT
[#17]
Yep
Thru the front drain hole...down to the frame |
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Posted: 1/30/2015 6:22:35 PM EDT
[#18]
So, I switched from the single HV wire to a piece of coax, and it seems like I've got more sensitivity, even though it's just a capacitor.
Maybe the noise when the engine is running will go away.  If not, I bought $200 in ferrites I'm going to be putting on everything that carries a signal, along with using some of my aluminium tape to cover shit that seems like it would be a good idea.
One of the big things is the spark plug coil packs... The headcover on this car is polymer, so, yeah... Might be tricky. Once I get rid of the noise then I'll consider dropping more money into an antenna, because, honestly, a more efficient antenna won't matter when I've got noise. It'll just mean more noise, lol. |
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Posted: 1/31/2015 2:25:36 PM EDT
[#19]
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Posted: 1/31/2015 2:34:43 PM EDT
[#20]
How did you route the coax to feed the tarheel?
Is the ball mount RF-Hot? |
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Posted: 1/31/2015 3:17:40 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
How did you route the coax to feed the tarheel? Is the ball mount RF-Hot? Exactly. One of the black cables going into the jack storage area is the antenna feed. |
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Posted: 2/2/2015 10:34:25 AM EDT
[#22]
While driving:
And while stopped (auto-stop kicks in, killing the engine):
It looks like adding those u-bolt exhaust clamps did a lot of good, as well as using coax to feed the antenna as opposed to HV wire. Now it's time to try to shield the Coil-on-plug packs, and figure out how to reduce the noise coming in from the Hybrid system. I can hear and predict the difference in noise if I watch the hybrid assist's Charge/Assist meter. ETA: why is the formatting on posts with videos in them so screwed up? |
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