[Icom] IC-2100H alternator whine problems

Kevin Schuchmann [email protected]
Thu, 09 May 2002 20:13:34 -0700


Hi Gert,
   what I would recommend before you spend a lot of money, is to figure out how the noise is really getting into the radio...
disconnect the antenna... noise gone? if yes they relocating the antenna or adding the  bandpass filter might help... noise still
there? then its probably coming in on the power leads... make sure... connect the radio to a battery and see if the noise is gone...
if the noise disappears when on the battery then make a good filter... I like running the power lead through a diode to a large cap
1000mfd or so then through a choke to another 1000 mfd cap then to the radio... this has worked for me in the past...
also if you can find one of the "large" feedthru caps rated for the same amps or higher than your alternator you can splice that
into the large lead coming from the alternator... to try and kill the noise at the source...

btw the ferrite beads or a large toroid... are used by looping the power leads through the center several times... does the same
thing as the choke... traps rf out of the power line...

anyway a little detective work and you should be able to get rid of the noise...

good luck

Kevin


----- Original Message -----
From: "Gert E. Janssens" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2002 7:24 PM
Subject: [Icom] IC-2100H alternator whine problems


> Hello all,
>
> I am new to this list; or rather "new-again", as I resubscibed after buying
> a new Icom, the IC-2100H. I must say it is a beauty. Everything I need (and
> more) and extremely good audio, both receive and transmit. And at the
> current price I couldn't resist.
>
> However, I have a peculiar problem with it: for some reason it picks up a
> huge amount of alternator noise, and not only receives it but retransmits it
> too.
>
> I had a Yaesu FT-1500M in the car before the Icom, but the 1500 was
> installed in my wife's car. That one does not have that problem; in fact I
> removed the 2100 today and put the 1500 back in to make sure. Didn't do it,
> so I put the Icom back in and the noise was there again. I then put the Icom
> in  my wife's car, and it also picks up the generator's noise there.
>
> I tried an in-line DC filter (Radio Shack) but that doesn't help at all.
> Checked all my cabling, even put on new connectors here and there, all to no
> avail...
>
> What I haven't tried yet are those ferrite beads that are spoken of many
> times, because I simply don't know which ones to use and where to get them.
> After contacting Icom America they told me to use ferrite beads, but were
> unable to tell me which ones... They (Icom) also recommended me to install a
> bandpass filter in the coax line. It seems like I'm going to have to spend
> the price of two radios just to get it working!
>
> Does/did anyone else on this list have the same problem? Any
> advice/help/fixes will be highly appreciated. It's just too good a radio
> (and barely two weeks old) for me to get rid of it...
>
> Thanks in advance, 73,
>
> Gert - K5WW
>
>
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