CB Radio

[NeoPrius]

Originally Posted by Wa1hog

Now all I got to do is find a place on the dash for it.

When you get it all hooked up and working right, I'd be interested in hearing the details on where you put it etc. Maybe a few pictures if you have them.

I'm definitely going to install one in my Prius, but it's too new right now, I want to wait until I've run it through the first couple of dealer inspections before I start taking things apart (so if anything goes wrong with the car initially, they don't say I did something to it).

I'm still thinking along the lines of using my Prius FM radio antenna and the little multiplexer box I mentioned in my previous post (#11). That worked fine in my truck. Who knows what the antenna pattern is going to look like, but the Prius roof should make a nice ground plane. I suspect that due to the angle of the FM antenna, the pattern is going to be aimed upward a bit, but who knows...

Are you hearing any of the Prius hybrid electronics noise?

[Wa1hog]

Right now I have a scanner with a window mount antenna,
A 520 CB with a window mount antenna
A 220MHz ham radio with a mag mount antenna.
I also have both Sirius and XM. I dont use both at the same time. Depends on wether its baseball season or football season. The satellite radios are inside the center console but im pretty sure im going to place the radio on teh dash .

I have no noise problems.
I am thinking of replacing the 220MHz ham radio with a triband 144, 220, 440 ham rig. I can use one triband antenna with this radio.
I also really like the 10Meter ham band. I do have a few 10 meter radios but right now things are getting crowded,

The scanner is mounted below the radio and CD storage area.
I have the CB placed inside the CD storage area. The ham rig is just squeezed between the center console and the passenger seat. Havent really had time to find perminate placed for the CB and ham rig.

[Zack]

Take magnetic antenna. take one with kind of flat magnet and they come with quite long cables and you can feed it along the edge of 5th door.
For actual CB radio that Uniden 520 sounds like good choice.

[NeoPrius]

Regarding using the prius antenna as a stealth CB antenna using a multiplexer/tuner box, you can't do it. See my edit on post #11. There's a little AM/FM antenna amplifier between the radio and the prius antenna base.

'Guess I'll have to figure something else out.

[Wa1hog]

I did get the 520. My first abt was a window antenna. It sucked. I then bought a mag mount antenna. Much better.

I do have a couple of bars of EMI noise due to the Prius electronics. But for what I use the CB for it works just fine.

[Joe C.]

I just installed a CB in my girlfriend's 2008 Prius, option #3, and I'm getting a constant 2-3 bars of RF signal while the car is running. The signal strength varies slightly with acceleration and deceleration but "coasting" produces no signal. There is no sound coming from the speaker and I have not yet received a CB transmission to my knowledge. Will this thing work only on strong signals above 2-3 bars? Does anyone out there have experience with CB's in a Prius? The radio works fine in my Pontiac Bonneville.

[NeoPrius]

Originally Posted by Joe C.

I just installed a CB in my girlfriend's 2008 Prius, option #3, and I'm getting a constant 2-3 bars of RF signal while the car is running. The signal strength varies slightly with acceleration and deceleration but "coasting" produces no signal. There is no sound coming from the speaker and I have not yet received a CB transmission to my knowledge. Will this thing work only on strong signals above 2-3 bars? Does anyone out there have experience with CB's in a Prius? The radio works fine in my Pontiac Bonneville.

a) what are you using for an antenna?
b) did you tune the installed antenna using an SWR meter?
c) what is the location of the antenna?
d) where are you taking DC power from?
e) do you have a good ground attachment on both the power supply negative lead (-) and on the chassis of the radio itself?

If you paid attention to all of the above during the installation, then try putting some clamp-on ferrite beads around the antenna coax and on the power supply leads. That will help keep noise from getting into your radio.

Ferrite bead - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Joe C.]

Antenna is a Radio Shack #21-994. I do not have a SWR meter. Antenna location is on the roof, rear right side 12" from the AM/FM radio antenna. Powered from an aux. 12 VDC outlet (cigarette lighter type) in the center console, using a plug-in connector. Power is factory grounded at this connector, the radio chassis is not separately grounded. Wouldn't that potentially cause a ground loop? Those are not good in LAN designs (I used to be a network design consultant).

[NeoPrius]

Okay, based on that, I think it might be your antenna is mismatched. If it is severely mismatched, then you won't hear any CB signals from outside. You will eventually also degrade your transmitter if you are transmitting into it. If your radio is picking up noise from the car at 27 MHz (and other spurious frequencies), then that's what you're hearing instead. There are a couple of things you can do. If you have another CB radio, you can have someone transmit from a distance and adjust your antenna until you can hear the signal the loudest. You can also get an el-cheapo CB SWR meter on ebay for about 20 bucks. Channel 19 is the best channel to tune your antenna with, since it's roughly in the middle of the band.

In your LAN, multiple/indirect/combined signal returns will corrupt the data on your signal lines, but on the radio, the RF/DC will choose the path of least resistance to the car chassis. The antenna also uses the car chassis as a reference. It would be better for you to provide a local ground to the car chassis very close to the radio than to go through the wiring harness. If you have a (+) and or (-) connection through the (very noisy) wiring harness, then it's a good idea to loop the wire through a ferrite bead to keep noise from getting into/out of the radio.

[Wa1hog]

Ive got about 2 bars of noise on my 520 CB radio. It is RF noise from the Prius.

Yes, you will make contacts with this kind of noise but dont expect to get out 10 miles. What you can try is to turn the car and CB radio on. Note the noise level of the S meter. Remove the antenna from the radio. You should see the noise drop to 0.

If you still have noise then its coming down the DC line. Any RF noise filter will clean that up.

Ive been going to move my antenna round on the roof of my Prius to see if I get a minumin noise level. Havent tried it yet.