Optimax Radio Interference

[Daisy Burnett]

Hi Guys
I am looking for a little help or advice. I recently bought a new boat (Tabs 5.7 Platey). On this boat I had the dealer install a two Uniden radio's a 27 Meg and a VHF. All good so far. Tested the radio's at home and they both worked very well. I then took the boat out to run it in and then the radio problems began.
When the motor is running there is a great deal of "white noise/squelch noise", to erase this I have to turn the squelch nearly all the way up. This of course cuts out a great deal of readable radio signals. I recently took the boat back to the dealer for its initial service and to get them to deal with a couple of annoying problems, the main one being the radio's. After the boat being in the shop for three weeks and numerous phone calls, by me, the end result is the radio problem cannot be fixed. Personally I find this ridiculous and told them so. They say they have spoken to a couple of experts and Mercury who gave them some idea's but nothing worked. They also say they went the length of putting a separate battery, radio and antenna in the boat, just loose on the floor and the same thing happened. The manager of the dealership stated he has the same problem with his boat (rigid Inflatable with Opti) so he just turns the motor off when he wants to use the radio. I must admit I nearly dropped the bloody phone when he told me that. They said they disconnected the alternator whilst the motor was running and that made no difference, they checked that suppressed plugs (never heard of them) were being used, they checked wiring, batteries and antenna's, still no joy. They say that Opti's put out an extra strong electric field that is causing the problem.
I am at a short end for idea's, the only thing I can thing of is if it is an extra strong electrical field of some sort would be to line the Cowl with some sort of heat resistant rubber sheeting. Dont know if that would work or if it would crowd out the motor causing overheating problems.
In short guys I am buggered if I know which way to go. If anyone has experienced this problem with an Opti or has any idea's I would be very grateful for your advise. By the way my electrical knowledge is minimal so please keep it simple if possible.

Thanks in Advance.

Daisy

[cormorant]

Is it only happening on alloy boats.? Is the motor 100% isolated from the hull?

Did teh radio in teh boat parked next to it have interferrence?

Pulling the alternator wouldn't help as it will be from the high voltage and impulse and that happens from injectors and computer.

For a motor to be putting out interferrence 10 feet away that is inducing problems in a radio reminds me of the issues they had with some early Ficht motors. In those the high voltage and frequency cause interferrence and was increased as the wiring harness that ran up to front of boat acted like a aerial and induced the ulses into the power cables going to accessories.

It is probably illegal and motor wouldn't meet relevant standards ifit is" transmitting "high frequiency.

If it doesn't happen with all motors it will be a fault with something or the way it is set up. I would look at the aerial as well as we broke one and the new one was a dog but another different one was all good.

[Daisy Burnett]

Cormorant
Not just happening to ally boats (I think) The manager of the dealership says the same thing is happening to his RIB.
Is the motor isolated from the hull? I am not sure I get the boat back tomorrow and I will check. I assume you mean isolated electrically?

Daisy

[peterbo3]

The suppressor plugs were most likely"ferrite" plugs which clip onto your radio cables & are to reduce "white Noise". Could you borrow another brand of VHF (ICOM or GME) from a mate & try that. It may be be that the Uniden is susceptable to interference. Is your sounder or GPS playing up?
I doubt if lining the cowl will help.
As a an aside, you should be OK for a full refund on the radios as they are not operating as they should.

[cormorant]

Supressed plugs are just spark plugs that don't cause electrical interference ( well not as bad) as normal spark plugs. They have aresistor in them I think.
The ferrite magnest are the circular magnets you see on cables , like the one going into a CRT computer moniter that prevent electrical noise .

In reference to the RIB many have ally hulls .

Was trying to narrow out if teh issue was with the way motors are fitted to aly hulls

In regards to motors being isolated and electrical ststems some motor manufacturers seem to bond all parts of teh motor with cables to stop corrosion and that then bonds with the hull via mounting bolts. Some boat manufacturers seem to bond part of the electrical system to the hull ( I don't mean use it as a earth return for electrical equipment) . I don't know if these issue affect radios.

A local ham radio geek with a ocilliscope would narrow down the frequency and source of the inteference


25 years ago when FM radios were Oh so new in cars we had a "squealer" that was a battery operated box with a probe that basically squealed when it went near high fequency non supressed High tension spark plug leads or spark plugs. Was probably just a FM reciever. They moved from copper to carbon and then to silicon spark plug leads to stop inteference. Back then we would use it to find the source of the noise. We would then fit supression fittings in the aerial lead ( these were recieving radios only) . We didn't know about ferrite magnets back then.

[pig75]

You could try turning the engine cover into a Faraday cage

[GBC]

Wow, I've run an opti for a fair few years and a number of different radios and have never heard or experienced this.

Maybe test the hull of the boat to see if it has current from loose wiring?

[Noelm]

seems to be more and more common these days, not only with Mercs, kind of think it is more to do with modern motors having such high voltages, (ignition systems are so much better) and modern radios being made cheaper and cheaper, add these things together and you have a problem, it is a very common issue with some e-tecs as well.

[cormorant]

seems to be more and more common these days, not only with Mercs, kind of think it is more to do with modern motors having such high voltages, (ignition systems are so much better) and modern radios being made cheaper and cheaper, add these things together and you have a problem, it is a very common issue with some e-tecs as well.

Do you know how they are solving it with the etecs.

With some it was as simple as using proper battery terminals and tightening them but not sure if there was proper technical fixes??

The only other fix was running the wiring harness on the other side of the boat to the accessory paowe leads to stop a induced interference?

[Kero]

Try a test using a handheld radio. this will at least rule out any wiring within the boat.

[murf]

is it with both radios? 27meg and VHF?

the smaller Etecs are not nice to the 27meg radios and from what I have heard "yep yep" the yanks don't care as they don't use 27meg

cheers Murf

[sambos]

Hi daisy .
M8 we had problems on our last boat it was a glass boat with optimaxes.Thought that was the problem.Turned out it was from the lowrance gps.make sure ya gps an radios wired totally separate.goodluck

[Moonlighter]

Had the same problem, but only with 27 meg, with the TLDI Tohatsu.

Its the fuel injection. Optis virtually the same desgn as the Tohatsu and heard at the time that they suffered the same interference. Spoke to everyone, conclusion it was RF interference and no amount of trying by the experts, filters etc could sort it. Only solution was to change to a VHF radio - no interference there.

Youv'e not said that I can see whether youre getting this interference on both 27 and VHF? If only 27 meg, solution = flick it, get refund because dealer should be well and truly aware of the issue as its been around for quite a few years.

Cheers

ML

[cormorant]

Had the same problem, but only with 27 meg, with the TLDI Tohatsu.

Its the fuel injection. Optis virtually the same desgn as the Tohatsu and heard at the time that they suffered the same interference. Spoke to everyone, conclusion it was RF interference and no amount of trying by the experts, filters etc could sort it. Only solution was to change to a VHF radio - no interference there.

Youv'e not said that I can see whether youre getting this interference on both 27 and VHF? If only 27 meg, solution = flick it, get refund because dealer should be well and truly aware of the issue as its been around for quite a few years.

Cheers

ML

Moonlighter is right on this.

Boat should be fit for purpose. They need to fix the problem and if that means VHF so be it.

[Daisy Burnett]

You could try turning the engine cover into a Faraday cage

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a Faraday cage.


Try a test using a handheld radio. this will at least rule out any wiring within the boat.
Great Idea. I had not thought of that. Thanks I will give it a go.

Hi daisy .
M8 we had problems on our last boat it was a glass boat with optimaxes.Thought that was the problem.Turned out it was from the lowrance gps.make sure ya gps an radios wired totally separate.goodluck

Mate great tip I will check the wiring out first thing tomorrow.

Guys
Thanks for all the tips I really appeciate them. Some really good idea's and that is what I need about now. As for the VHF. I have one fitted and that is also effected though to a slightly lesser degree.

I will keep on pluggin away.

Cheers
Daisy