How can electronic devices be protected from radio interference?

[WolfBox]

What electronic devices do you bring when you off-roading/camping/hunting?

Do you have any practical ways of protecting electronic devices from being intervened by high frequency radio? It would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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[Combustion_King]

i bring my portable Garmin GPS for tracking my trail riding. As well as my iphone 17 with satellite txt. I carry my GRMS handheld in the truck all the time, but i dont expect much help from that unless in a group ride.

 

[Brian_B]

The easiest measure is .. physically move it.

Short of Faraday fabric/mesh or redesigning the circuit board to be less prone to interference in the first place...

A lot of devices where it's critical will line the interior side of the clamshell/exterior trim with EMF shielding paint and ground it - I recall Apple computers used to do this pretty extensively back in the day.

None of that is terribly practical.

 

[totaljustice]

I don't know if this helps or not but when I was a kid, Dad got into Ham Radio heavy and put a 75 ft antenna on the side of the house. Right from the maiden transmission, every time he keyed his mic every house on the street would hear him through their TVs!!! As well as interfere with the picture. He ended up having to go to Radio Shack and buy each homeowner something called a ballast resistor for every TV they had. It was either that or give up the radio, which he was not about to do. But something like that incorporated into your electronics might eliminate the interference. I remember these things weren't expensive and they weren't that large. Being 70's technology and fast forward 50 years there is something much better available. I don't if it would help but just throwing it out there.

 

[AB8DT]

Depending on where you are mounting the transmitter and what is being affected. I had a Yaesu FTM-500 mounted under the dash. Low power was fine but transmitting at high power on VHF or UHF on Ham Frequencies, played havoc with the Bronco's computer and I loss engine power & throttle was sluggish. After turning off then on the ignition it reset it's self and all was back to normal. I put on ferrite chokes on the power cord, coax & control head and it would still have the same effect at high power. I swapped it out for a Midland MTX-275 and on GMRS frequencies I do not have any issues on high power. I plan on mounting the radio on my DV8 ceiling mount and that should separate the computer. As far as the Wolfbox it would make it closer but at least I would have more room to be creative with shielding.

 

[raptorusmaximus]

you put a foil hat on your device.....

 

[Pops]

Try asking that company Wolfbox. They do a lot of electronics design and should know.

"Interveaned"?

 

[EasternSierra]

Depending on where you are mounting the transmitter and what is being affected. I had a Yaesu FTM-500 mounted under the dash. Low power was fine but transmitting at high power on VHF or UHF on Ham Frequencies, played havoc with the Bronco's computer and I loss engine power & throttle was sluggish. After turning off then on the ignition it reset it's self and all was back to normal. I put on ferrite chokes on the power cord, coax & control head and it would still have the same effect at high power. I swapped it out for a Midland MTX-275 and on GMRS frequencies I do not have any issues on high power. I plan on mounting the radio on my DV8 ceiling mount and that should separate the computer. As far as the Wolfbox it would make it closer but at least I would have more room to be creative with shielding.

Thanks for sharing your story. I've been planning to install both a VHF-UHF ham radio and a GMRS radio in my Bronco. I appreciate the heads-up on interference problems, and solutions that should have worked but didn't. We'll have to see if the metal Armadillo top makes a difference in my case.

High power on the FTM-500 is 50 watts while high power on the MTX-275 is 15 watts. That has to make a difference. The UHF ham band is close in frequency to the GMRS band (420-450 MHz vs. 462-467 MHz).

Was the antenna tuned to minimize SWR? It's possible the coax was radiating some radio energy close to the electronics.

 

[AB8DT]

Thanks for sharing your story. I've been planning to install both a VHF-UHF ham radio and a GMRS radio in my Bronco. I appreciate the heads-up on interference problems, and solutions that should have worked but didn't. We'll have to see if the metal Armadillo top makes a difference in my case.

High power on the FTM-500 is 50 watts while high power on the MTX-275 is 15 watts. That has to make a difference. The UHF ham band is close in frequency to the GMRS band (420-450 MHz vs. 462-467 MHz).

Was the antenna tuned to minimize SWR? It's possible the coax was radiating some radio energy close to the electronics.

With the Yaesu it had the HRO MARS Mod and I was using a COMPACtenna LMR Antenna on the drivers A-pillar ditch mount. The match on 2m/70cm/GMRS was decent but not the optimal place to avoid RF exposure to other electronics or myself. For the Midland GMRS I am using the MXAT05VP-3dB Heavy-Duty Bull Bar 28.5" Antenna with Spring Base mounted on the winch basket. Has a good match and positioned well away from electronics and is good performance and strong enough for out in the woods getting smacked around. With the metal Armadillo you can utilize the center of it for a better ground plane and should have a good radial pattern.

 

[Astronaut]

Earlier this year I installed a Yaesu FTM-500 with the Mars mod for GMRS. I had read about 50W VHF mounted in the front of the Bronco causing havoc with the vehicle systems. So I mounted my antenna on the tailgate, the radio on the rear roll bar, and the radio head on the camera mount on the dash. Fishing the 12 gage twin lead power cable from the battery to the radio, and the control head and microphone cables to the front of the Bronco was a pain. But it paid off. I use 50W on VHF/UHF and never have a problem. Here’s some photos of my setup.

 

[WolfBox]

Earlier this year I installed a Yaesu FTM-500 with the Mars mod for GMRS. I had read about 50W VHF mounted in the front of the Bronco causing havoc with the vehicle systems. So I mounted my antenna on the tailgate, the radio on the rear roll bar, and the radio head on the camera mount on the dash. Fishing the 12 gage twin lead power cable from the battery to the radio, and the control head and microphone cables to the front of the Bronco was a pain. But it paid off. I use 50W on VHF/UHF and never have a problem. Here’s some photos of my setup.

Thank you for sharing your solution!

 

[WolfBox]

Depending on where you are mounting the transmitter and what is being affected. I had a Yaesu FTM-500 mounted under the dash. Low power was fine but transmitting at high power on VHF or UHF on Ham Frequencies, played havoc with the Bronco's computer and I loss engine power & throttle was sluggish. After turning off then on the ignition it reset it's self and all was back to normal. I put on ferrite chokes on the power cord, coax & control head and it would still have the same effect at high power. I swapped it out for a Midland MTX-275 and on GMRS frequencies I do not have any issues on high power. I plan on mounting the radio on my DV8 ceiling mount and that should separate the computer. As far as the Wolfbox it would make it closer but at least I would have more room to be creative with shielding.

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Area51BS]

80’s-90’s we used to wrap car radios in Mu-metal to shield them.

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