InterceptRadio.com Forums

Seriously...

Pacific County, BTW....

One of their unmarked Tahoes....






I've installed some low pro NMO UHF and 800 antennas on rear decks of CVPIs, but seriously? The antenna is probably grounded to the damn body with the whip stuck up there...

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

Is that wad of cable the feeder for the antenna? I have done temporary installs with more care... Surprised the top whip wasn't simply "bent to fit"... Seen that a time or two. For obvious RF safety and propagation issues I have a really big problem with installing antennas inside the occupied portion of a motor vehicle in the first place when there are really cool methods of effectively transmitting and receiving the RF "outside the box" without the "antenna" being visible. You know, cavity slots hidden in luggage racks... DDRR's, etc... Those "unmarked" SUV's used by "agencies of the state" need a bit of the "redneck" treatment to make them "plausible" as anything BUT the typical (insert agency here) "unmarked" SUV...

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

Had a spotlight too..

I LOLd...

Like I said, I've installed 1/4 waves for 800 and UHF/UHF-T on rear decks of SAP CVPIs, and Wimpalas, but these were 15W and 25w radios (respectively), on systems with 90% coverage for 3W and 5W portables.

improper grounding, improper groundplane, poor RF radiation pattern, higher RF exposure, SWR must be through the roof, etc.


Reminds me of the agencies that used their fleet mechanics to install lighting/communications.......


I'm having flashbacks to wire nuts and telephone cord used to wire stuff in, and... stuff like this.... :shiver:

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

Grommet! What's a grommet? ;)

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" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

Grommet??? What's Thaaaat??? (Expletives, several, come to mind) Let us say for the sake of "argument" that, after tearing the whole shop apart one was unable to locate a "proper" grommet but still wanted to prevent a significant electrical fire one might... MIGHT... consider several layers of electrical tape around the wire, sufficient to prevent movement of the wire in the hole?????? Falls into the category of "doing SOMETHING even if it's wrong"... and a few cents spent on the electrical tape and the time to install it preventing the destruction of a new vehicle? Priceless ;)

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

enough said.

you should see their KO peak radio site.

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"A well regulated breakfast, being necessary to the healthy start of the day, the right of the people to keep and eat food shall not be infringed."

1/4" split loom. Works wonders in a pinch. Run it around the edge of the hole, creates its own grommet.... the wire gets put in split loom. Plastic on plastic, should anything vibrate/move (should be secured/tied anyway), instead of sharp metal vs cheap rubber/plastic sheath...

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

I haven't, but having built, worked on, and visited around a hundred or so give-or-take a dozen or two, I will be content to use my imagination. In general, newer sites tend to at least pretend to provide a decent equipment shelter, feedline protection, antenna support structure, sufficient electrical service, and a functioning protective ground system, as "best practices" have developed over time... Early examples, not so much ;)

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

And in the absence of "split loom", and doing this in the "fleet mechanic" shop, rubber fuel line hose, sliced lengthwise would "gitter done"... If passing a large wire through a large enough hole, then a chunk of dead coolant hose could be similarly sliced lengthwise, slipped over the wire, ziptied or electrical taped into place, and together with the fuel line on the sheetmetal, you got wire protection as good if not better than a factory wire pass-through, for next to no money in material and but a few minutes with a sharp knife to create. A squidge of RTV gasket maker on the engine side and it becomes moisture/gas tight!!!

Contrary to rumors to the contrary, "this ain't rocket science" ;)

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.

You're preaching to the choir...

I once had a vehicle come in from an agency who used their mechanics to install...They only outsourced when they were stumped....

'Blows fuse when lightbar activated'....

First thing I do is try the pursuit switch... lights up... but nothing comes on.. OK... so the controller has power...

pop the controller out of the console...

NOTHING hooked up to the high amp outputs...

about 15 butt connectors spliced to other butt connectors daisy chaining down from a 14ga wire to 2 other 16ga wires to 2 other 16ga wires to.. ad nauseum....

All connected to one 14ga wire, tucked into a single 10A position....which they had inserted a 30A fuse into. One of the last strobe lightbars in the fleet... They pulled it from an old unit and mounted it to a new cruiser to save a couple bucks, but opted to use the new controller instead of the old one.

Looked at the controller, the button for it was labelled 'LIGHTS'.....all the other labels were missing/blank..

Not kidding. They had wired THE ENTIRE LIGHTBAR, alleys, low power turn on, front cut off, take down, EVERYTHING to a single 10A circuit, that they replace with a 30A fuse.

They ignored the pursuit switch, which was rated for 3-30A loads, and the 2 - 20A load switches, and used one of the 4 -10A switches...

So I rewired it, standard practice... pursuit switch ,first position for front cutoff (rear only), 2nd position front and rear, 3rd position front/rear and siren.. set the alleys and takedowns on their own switches, you know, the NORMAL way....

Work is signed off for, then get a call back about 30 mins later.. 'lights don't work'...

WTF?!

Got in my rig and drove to their FMD (Fleet Maintenance Division)...

The 'mechanic' is there punching what WAS the 'lights' button, which is now blank, and saying 'nothing works'..... I went over the 'new' options, and said that 'it wasn't the way they did things'.......and started explaining how ALL their cruisers are set up to activate the lights with just one button...

Then I noticed a STACK of what appeared to be brand new controllers sitting in a corner, but with wiring cut off... We're talking a good $800 a piece... and about 20-30 of them just sitting there... looking like someone installed them, then cut the wires and pulled it out.

I asked him what was up with all the controllers sitting over there.....

'Those are crap, we've had nothing but trouble from these things since day one. The fuses they put in them suck. They work for a month or two and then they burn out'...

Weird.....

Curiosity got the better of me, and I started walking around the other cruisers..

ALL of them had the same controller, but newer LED lightbars.....

Every last one of them was completely blank, except for that ONE 10A position that was labelled, you guessed it... 'LIGHTS'...

Then I noticed the BOXES of 30A fuses....

I started putting everything together.....

They were putting 30A fuses in the 10A position when the 10A fuse blew, which caused the relay to overheat, and fail, and no longer work...

So they ripped out the 'broken' controller and put in a new one....

Now, with an LED lightbar drawing less current, it was more than 10A, but usually less than 20A, so it would take a month or so for the relay to fail, without blowing the 30A fuse...

With the strobe/halogen lightbar, it was drawing far more current, and the 30A fuse was blowing immediately...

Shortly thereafter, they hired trained techs to wire their cars.....

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

I worked at the ARCO refinery in Blaine as Instrument Technician for a few years way back when.

We had an automotive repair shop there and the mechanic told me that the older trucks had generators that made volts and the

newer trucks had alternators that made amps.

_________________
" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

There is a crowd that believes that if you correctly ground a site that only then will the lightning come. That R56 is only good for Motorola to make money on. (I believe thats what they use their APX portables to do.)

There are certain counties and many installers in this nation that do things to later increase the number of service calls and keep them with cash in their pockets. I still compete with county radio shops for commercial business. I thought that Wa state voted to take the state out of business of competing with commercial ventures but thats another story.

Last thing I ever want see is a fire truck burning to the ground due to bad install practices but its something I have seen. Its not a pretty site.

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"A well regulated breakfast, being necessary to the healthy start of the day, the right of the people to keep and eat food shall not be infringed."

I was outbid numerous times by such a company.

A bid so low it was IMPOSSIBLE to use industry standard practices and high quality connectors, and still have labor to get the work done on schedule. They then billed for 'warranty' work, claiming XY was covered but Z wasn't.

I actually LOST a renewal contract because, and I quote, 'We saw you once, when you first did it (upfitting the cars), and we never saw you again'....

So I asked him, 'did any of your vehicles fail?'...

He thought for a minute and said no... then I told him it was because of such a good job that I did....

He had already awarded the contract to another company, but still, it was like, WTF?! You never saw me because it was done RIGHT....

I'm like a Doctor; Needing to see me every couple months because things pop up is a BAD thing...

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

did someone say gromet? All kidding a side, Some scary install stories. If you know the series this dog would do a better install than some of that stuff....

Thanks for the laugh!