Hi

I've been operating mobile from a 2004 Prius since about 5 years. I have had a great deal of success, but eliminating the noise from the DC-DC converter AND the gasoline engine was a lengthy and time consuming job.

My antenna is a Hi-Q 3.5 with capacity cap, roof mounted, where I placed an aluminum plate under the roof for structural reinforcement. I can now shake the car by grabbing the Breedlove ball mount.

When i started, there was significant noise from about 3 MHz to 15 MHz, with peaks at about 4 and 7 MHz.

To actually reduce the noise to acceptable levels (from 20 over to about S3) involved wrapping most of the HW wiring in 3M11 copper foil tape, adding multiple ferrite beads to each electrical line leaving the engine compartment, proper bonding of 'everything' to the chassis, and building custom HV capacitive filters and installing them directly inside the DC-DC converter.

The noise on 17 meters is very low, and coincidentally, it is my favorite band to operate mobile, though I have often operated on 20 meters, and sometimes 80.

And there is still some annoying impulse-type noise when the electric motor first kicks in.

Saying all of that, I have heard, but not verified, that the later model Prius, is much better.

If you need any help or pointers, ask, and I will try to respond.

Cheers

VE3XKD

 

Just another thought. If you order online from a US outlet your delivery will possibly be held in customs until you clear it, and the paperwork and additional brokerage fees  will be annoying. However if you order from EKEL
http://www.elkel.com/en/home.asp?pageID=374 they are in Trois Rivieres (Three Rivers) and can possibly deliver to Montreal. Same for Durham Radio in Toronto http://www.durhamradio.com/. There are one or two other stores that I can't recall for the moment. Enjoy your trip!

Hi

I was in Montreal yesterday! Fabulous city to visit.
Most of the ham radio dealers have gone. The big outlets are  in Toronto. Try contacting hams at the Montreal Amateur Radio Club: http://www.marc.qc.ca/. They might be able help you out.

Most of us order online these days.

Frank.

That's great news on the 2011 Prius. I (and a lot of other hams) are greatly encoraged! I had it on my 'to do' list to take a portable spectrum analyzer to my Toyota dealer and measure he noise levels and compare them to he values from my 04. It gives me hope as my 2004 will go to my daughter next year and I will buy a new Prius. BTW....The older Prius had noise from the regenerative brake system when the brake pedal was pushed but it was easily resolved by bonding the rear brake hubs to the chassis. My Icom 7000 is mounted under the passenger seat, with the control panel mounted on a gooseneck holder bolted to the floor. The 7000 display is interfaced to the Navi unit, making for easy viewing. 73 VE3XKD

Hi

I've installed both HF and VHF in my 2004 Prius and have been successful in operating both. First, neither will interfere with your Prius electronic systems. The Prius 12v battery is very small, you will need to add in a secondary battery if you operate with the Prius 'off'  for extended periods. save yourself some trouble and drill a hole in the roof for a VHF-UHF NMO mount. I tried the hatch mount route and ended up with scratched paint and a faulty coax.

HF is a bear. Unless you have a lot of time, money and significant skill, getting the noise to low levels (S3) on 80-40-20 is hard. Noise comes from two major sources and a whole bunch of minor ones. Source 1: the COP ignition. Follow the guidelines on Alan's site and you will be successful in reducing but not eliminating the noise from the COP. Source 2: the DC-DC inverter, also called the 'Synergy Drive'. This source transmits broadband noise from about 3MHz to 15 MHz. There are two broad noise peaks at about 4 and 10 MHz. This is for a 2004 Prius, your 2011 may be different. Curing this source was a major headache. It involves modifying the Synergy Drive by adding in home brew filters, plus, a whole lot of bonding and shielding. I did this, but I wouldn't recommend it again. I am experimenting with a second approach, involving copper screening of the engine compartment, but it is very much a work in progress.

Good luck. You should be able to successfully operate bands above 20 meters without too much work, but as your car is a2011 and mine is a 2004 I can't say for certain since the Synergy Drive has changed over th years.

Cheers

VE3XKD

Hi

I bicycle over 9000 kms every year, including the Canadian winter. I've operated VHF mobile from my bike many times. I have used several radios but like the VX3R for its light weight and small size. The longest trip i have done in a single day with my radio is 400 kms over two days. You will need a 'better than the stock' whip.  I have not Tried recharging the radio from the bike I only carried extra lithium batteries and recharged them over night though I know of several hams who used a generator to recharge a ni-cad on the bike and then ran the radio and lights from the ni-cad.

The radio easily fits in a top tube nylon carrier and a speaker mic is very useful, though at high speeds the noise of wind in your helmet will cause you to turn up he volume onthe HT and then the  mobile flutter on VHF receive will drive you crazy.

If you need power from the bike, a solar panel will be very inconsistent. Most serious Long distance cyclists who need power especially for powering lights for night riding use hub generators like the Shimano for their low drag and steady power. The output is not very clean, as it is meant for lights only, and conditioning and a regulator will be needed to power an HT.

I suggest that you take a bike repair course and learn how to change flats, fix broken spokes and repair broken cables and also chain links.


Good luck, I envy you.


VE3XKD

I experience a similar problem driving in and out of the city. Fortunately i can often avoid tose routes. You might try a Timewave ANC 4 noise canceller. I've used one at home and it worked ok. I am not  sure about how well it would work in a mobile installation though.

Good luck

John

VE3XKD

Bob

One thought, I use the Icom 7000 on HF, it is mounted much like yours, radio under the seat and panel attached to a bolt on gooseneck mount. I routed the display to myPrius navigation display and it is much easier to see and operate this way. I don't know if your Nissan has a display but it is worth considering.

With the radio mounted under the seat, it can also be areal pain to access any wiring,  I found that I needed to tie wrap all wires in place to keep things neat and stable, I also labelled all wires so that I could see and troubleshoot everything without having to take the seat out.

Good luck on Your mobile. I am upgrading my antenna to incorporate a larger cap hat as I find I am having more fun mobile theses days than in he shack.

73

John
VE3XKD

Hi

I don't have experience with your truck, but my 04 Prius was a labor of love to reduce the noise to acceptable levels. Saying that, I enjoy many QSOs on 20 and 17 meters and have worked a lot of DX.

When I used a spectrum analyzer, the 04 Prius showed extensive noise from 3 to 15 MHz, tapering off at 21 MHz. I managed to reduce the nose to about S2 or S 3 on 20 through 15. 40 is about S 6/7 and 80 is S9.

Bonding should help, and I certainly found that things such as the wipers needed to be bonded to chassis as they radiated noise from inside the engine to the outside. In the Prius, simply bonding the wipers to ground reduced the noise by several S units. In the end,  I opted to open up my DC-DC inverter and place in new filtering capacitors and ferrite chokes in the HV lines to get the noise low enough to operate. I also added in several dozen ferrites in each external HV line as well as wrapping all HV and ignition lines in copper foil tape.

In the 04 Prius, the least noisy spot for the HF antenna   was the dead centre of the roof, so I had additional mounting issues to deal with such as reinforcing the roof to take the HiQ screwdriver antenna. You might want to move your antenna to different locations and see how the noise is at the different locations.

Good luck. let us know how you make out if you decide to undertake the project.

That's correct. Same good voltage on both filament pins, but one tube glowing more brightly than the other.

All

Thanks for the recommendations. I get about 600 watts out on all bands when driven by my TS 940 (Bird wattmeter and dummy load) except 160 and 10, where it's about 450 watts. i will replace the sockets as soon as I can find some on the web.

73

VE3XKD

Poblem Solved. It was the filament pins of the tube socket. I sprayed them with contact cleaner, Q-Tips, followed by another spray of more contact cleaner to get any residual cotton out of the way and then squeezed them slightly. Both tubes now light equally.

Many thanks for all the tips and kind help. Will let everyone know how it works when it gets all put back together.

73 VE3XKD

Hi

I have picked up a non-working FL 2100ZB that the previous owner stated 'had some problems'. I checked out all of the voltages, and they seem fine. However I notice that the L2, the Choke in the filament supply, had melted insulation and when the Amp is powered on, one tube lights up quite brightly, and the other quite dimmly.  Swapping the tubes around shows that it is not a tube issue but some kind of socket or power supply issue. It looks like someone has previously used a soldering iron on the tube sockets, I am wondering if anyone can help me understand why one tube would glow more brightly than the other. BTW, I tried two sets of tubes, and both sets exhibit the same issue, in the same sockets so I assume that there may be something wrong with the delivery of the filament voltage. Both tubes show about 6.5 volts across the filament pins, but is it possible that the choke wires may have been unsoldered and reversed and that this might cause the problem?

Hi

It is a labour of love and countless hours of work to quiet a 2004 Prius synergy drive. I have several tens of yards of 3M1181 copper foil tape and dozens of beads. However I have been rewarded with S3 noise (down from 20 over). I also had to take apart the Synergy drive and add in beads, bypass capacitors, and fix the RF leaky gasket used by Toyota. I was lucky to have access to a TEMPEST engineer to help me re-design the RF gasket and to find one that works and would fit.

I have no experience with the Lexus, but it is likely similar to the Prius.

Good luck, if you lived nearby I could help out but I am up in the land of the Frozen Chosen so to speak.

Alan

Thanks very much for the offer. Once I realized what was needed I found something locally. The bands have been terrific lately up here in the "Great White North". Cheers

John