RadioBanter - 2009 Hybrid cars with HF radio and RFI

On Feb 21, 3:10*am, boB boB@ wrote:
Does anybody have experience with any of the 2009 *Prius or Honda
civic hybrid cars with HF installed ?? * *I hear that at least 2006
Prius' have quite a bit of RF interference that evidently can be
cleaned up quite a bit.... *BUT, how about the 2009 Prius OR 2009
Honda Civic Hybrids.

And, any experience on HF antenna mounting on the Honda hybrid ??

boB , K7IQ

Have no ideas about the noise. I'm running a Corolla.
But from an antenna mounting issue, any of these small
cars are a real pain when it comes to mounting a "good"
HF antenna. Any antenna of weight will need a strong mount,
and the sheet metal on these cars is pretty thin.
So you either have to rig up some kind of below body mount,
like a hitch mount or whatever, or use a lighter antenna on a
body or trunk mount. IE: ham sticks, or other fairly light antennas.
Some use the roof magnet mounts, but I'm paranoid of messing
the paint up, or creasing the metal when I try to yank one off.
I could use a trunk lip mount with a light antenna. Might be my
best option..
The last Honda Accord I had, I cut a hole in the trunk for a
mount. But I had to reinforce the whole bottom of the trunk lid
for it to be strong enough to handle my antenna. I used thin
steel plates, and a large steel circle plate at the base of the
antenna.
But.. I just can't bring myself to do that to my present car,
which has not a single dent in it.. :/ It's still like new basically,
and I just haven't been able to get myself to drill holes.
I know on the Accord, even with the reinforcement, it eventually
slightly warped the trunk metal. Not real bad, but noticeable.
And I don't want to take that chance with this car.
So far I've been going radio less.. :( I just take my radio
with me and use it portable when I get where I'm going.
If I try a mount, it will probably be a trunk lip mount if I can
be fairly sure it won't damage the trunk. And I'll probably
stick to pretty light antennas.
BTW, I hate bumper and hitch mounts cuz the antenna
base is too low to the ground, and the ground losses are
excessive vs a body mount.
I still have two trucks, both with good antenna mounts,
but I don't drive them as much as I used to. They guzzle
gas vs the car.