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CB radio LED light interference

chaplinfj60

chaplinfj60

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 17, 2020
Member Number
3057
Messages
3,553
Loc
marshalltown iowa
good morning all,

i stepped up the gme and put a cb radio in the buggy. ok i know there are better radios out there. not the point of this. we have a bunch in our group who use CBs.

with that being said i found out my LED lights cause interference and my radio will barley transmit or receive. besides turning off my LEDs what else can be done. AND no the LEDS will not be shut off.

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chaplinfj60 said:
yes wired to fuse panel so basicly directly
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If your lights are also wired directly to that fuse panel, you could be getting some weird RF noise going through it.

Got a spare battery? Set it in the passenger foot well and wire the CB directly to it. If the noise goes away, you have interference through your wiring. A RF filter may or may not help.

If the CB is still having problems wired to the spare battery, then the lights you have are giving off the interference and the only fix is different lights.
Edit: Yes, cheapo crap LEDs will do that.
 
so i dont hear the noise. only when i broadcast out, its like they cant hear me. but sometimes i heard them and they heard me. but very few times was it good.
 
chaplinfj60 said:
no should i start there noob here......
Click to expand...

Yes. All CB radio installs need to be matched. SWR meters are cheap and easy to tune with if you have a tunable antenna. Even if it doesn't fix this issue, it will help you transmit and receive better once you do have it fixed.

BUT, if it's only happening after you turn the LED lights on, then you are still getting HF interference and you will still need to make other changes.

First step there is to try the radio on a completely separate battery to isolate it from your on-board electrical system and see if it is coming through your wiring or HF interference through proximity between the antenna and the LEDs.
 
If you were near SW MO. I'd give you my SWR meter as I haven't used it in yrs since going GMRS
 
I think Soden still has his CB tuning equipment, check with him to fix up your CB. Who do you wheel with that has a working CB? Haha
 
China LED lights put out shit loads of RF. I have seen a few of them tested and it's pretty horrible. Putting a filter on the lights will not cure this. Either turn the lights off or replace them with good lights like Baja Designs. They are tested to pass mill spec tests for RF both radiated and through the power lines.
 
My cheap light bar fucks up the factory radio in the tacoma too. I gave up an run one or the other:homer:
 
They will mess with VHF radios too. The chingchong HID's have the same issue.
 
Move the antenna if you can. LEDs put off a bunch of RF trash. I put LED bulbs in my garage door opener one time and it took me months to figure out why the door wouldn’t open unless I was parked right against it.
 
So. Let’s say I move the antenna. How far would I have to get from the leds? I will also look for some trailer led lights that are shielded. That’s all my leds are. I could move the leds to the back bumper.
 
If it's radiated RF, moving them to the back bumper might help. If it's putting noise down the wires, distance won't help.
 
To test if it is radiated or noise on power wires, hook the LEDs up to another battery.
If it is noise from wires, that can be fixed with a capacitor or two.
Else buy better LED lights.
 
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