Motorola vs. Ford

SheriffDspatchr · Post by **SheriffDspatchr** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 5:16 pm

As a follow up to a post from last year "Splashover on another freq" in General Discussion, my Department continues to struggle with this issue. In the last year of pursuing this with Motorola, I'm being told that the culprit lies within Ford and the cooling "fan" they used on 2003 Crown Vics, supposidly when the radio is transmitting and this fan kicks on, it will cause this type of interference. Without a lot of in depth knowledge of radio technology or automotive, I'm just a little skeptical of this story, however I'm told that other agencies - both far and near are experiencing this same problem. Any ideas . . . . . .

wx4cbh · Post by **wx4cbh** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:19 pm

I've seen it on some of the low band (42 mHz) radios in some of the NCSHP CVs. Most of it has been eliminated by NOT utilizing Ford's noise-ridden police option wiring harnesses and wiring all the radio gear to the large terminal at the fuse/relay box under the hood. We've even had to remove the camera wiring from the option harness and power it from the same source as the radios to prevent false record signals. Sometimes the Code 3 independent strobe light units mounted on the rear package shelf and beside the rear view mirror on unmarked units will add to the problem. Also, mounting the antennas to clamp-on trunk/hood mounts instead of body mounting seems to exacerbate the problem.

Hope this helps.

Post by Pj » Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:27 pm

We had a problem with a 04 (maybe 05) CVPI. The VHF XTL5K would click on the Whelen speaker and do some other stuff. It was the only car that did it. Move the antenna (basic 1/4 wave) all over the place.

Ended up putting a 1/2 wave antenna on the trunk, and solved all the problems. Heard that a couple of other depts ran into the same problem and had to do with that run of cars.