Had a major computer crash here last week. Somebody responded to my plea
for help concerning noise in an F-150 that is killing my FT-857's HF
ability. I lost everything since I had to reformat the hard drive and start
over again.

Someone pointed me to a website that had a Technical Service Bulletin for
fuel pump RFI. I'd like to get that again to print out. It doesn't appear
that it (fuel pump) is an issue in my truck, but if there is a TSB for the
noise, I'd like to make them do it under warranty. All I got today was
"Good Luck!" from the Ford dealer. I took a book on RFI to show them
possible causes and the guy kept saying the 2003 doesn't have spark plug
wires so that can't be the source. Then I said it has a coil and they said,
nope, each spark plug has its own coil attached right to the top of the
plug. I concur, but there is a coil (in fact, 8 of them) and as long as
there is, it must be generating high voltage to fire the plug, therefore,
there is a primary circuit that tells the coil to fire. My contention is
that any RFI generated by the spark plugs could be radiated back out of the
coil through the primary circuit. The tech disagreed by stating that there
is no primary circuit, that the coils are controlled by the computer
directly. Duh. There is a wire connected from the coils to the computer.
Sounds like an antenna to me. First thing they said was that my (cheap)
radio doesn't have enough filtering on the DC power line. Bull****! When
the truck is off, it's quiet as a mouse. Start the truck and the noise
starts. Popping goes up and down with engine speed. Noise blanker helps
cut noise from S9 to S3, but I want better than that! If I disconnect the
antenna from the radio with the truck running, noise goes to zero. So, you
tell me that the noise is coming in through the DC power leads.

I asked if there was anybody I could contact direct at Ford...Nope. I guess
Ford has no employees or engineers in Detroit. Model company...no wonder
they can give away trucks...NO OVERHEAD!! Ya, right...

****ed in Wisconsin,

Scott N0EDV


--
Scott
http://corbenflyer.tripod.com/
Building RV-4
Gotta Fly or Gonna Die