grounding

[caveman73]

I am wanting to do some grounding on my 98 chevy 4x4 pickup to cut out the noise on my radio as much as possible and wondering if anybody here ever ground the alternator to the frame? and if you have any other grounding suggestions that will help, let me know thanks

[caveman73]

oops misspelled subject title sorry

[ww228kidd]

it should be grouned already....it has to be..or it will not produce volts...must have positive and negetive ...have you ran your lead straight to the battery?

[caveman73]

yes my lead is ran to the battery

[linx]

I ran a ground from mine to the frame. Did nothing. I think ww228 kid is right about that. It's grounded with the motor. I've also grounded the chassis, radio, amp, just about everything I can think of, and mine still has noise in it.

[TwentyTwo-Zero]

If the noise is originating from your ignition system, you may be able to eliminate a good portion of it by putting a noise suppression filter on the power lead of your radio. Install it as close to the radio as possible. Sometimes noise will enter the receive of the radio through the antenna (street lights, power wires overhead, etc.) Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to suppress this type of noise...

[dud muck]

Depends on what "noise on my radio" means.

If the DC power to the radio isn't directly on the battery, often the an audible whine from the alternator can be heard on your transmit.

If the trouble is your receive, then possibly something in the vehicle is generating some radio trash. Its important how it sounds then.
Ignition noise is a ticking that follows your engine RPM.
Fuel pump noise doesn't follow engine RPM, but could change a bit depending on how much gas is flowing. This noise may start before you crank the starter.
Alternator noise can follow engine RPM a bit, but the voltage regulator in the alternator varies its tone.

[skullcracker]

The one dude is right about the alternator and i wanted to add another grounding suggestion that will never fail for a base radio settup...run a peice of old trackline to the groundrod running down from your electric meter on the side of your house or garage etc then connect the other end of your track line to your radio or the negative side of your power supply instead of grounding it directly to your antenna..it is necessary to use trackline because it will give your setup the right amount of ground and any kind of heavier wire or cable will give it too much ground and will weaken the signal or db gain'this is only what i have discovered from expierimenting when i had a ground problem with my antron 99 which lead to high SWR and lots of static noise and using this methid solved all my problems but like i said this is what i discovered to work best for my radio setup and im not positive of this outcome its just somthing to try