Ok, it has been long enough for an evaluation of my odd situation with my 2018 F-150 and my FT-891.
First, a little history. My previous truck was a 2003 F-150. My FT-891 worked just fine in that truck for 3 years. I purchased the 2018 truck in June of 2021, and soon installed all of my equipment (FT-891, FT-8900, FT5DR HT, President Mckinley CB). All are ran off the truck power, same as they did in the 2003 truck.
After about 3 months I noticed that the receive in my FT-891 was very weak. A few days later it was gone entirely. The transmitter seemed to still work properly. I uninstalled the FT-891, boxed it up and sent it to California. Not wanting to be without the HF ham bands I made my first trip to the new Winter Springs HRO store and bought a new one. Installation was easy enough; everything was already in place.
The older radio returned fully repaired about 5 weeks later and now I had two of the little monsters to play with. Except that about 3 months later the new radio came down with the same issue, receiver completely dead.
With this happening to yet another of the exact same model, I figured there must be something about the installation that was causing the problem. None of the other radios had any issues.
So, I re-installed the original FT-891 and sent the new one in for service. The same cycle occurred, and in about 6 weeks I had the new radio back (covered under warranty this time). About a month later I was heading out to do some portable operating at a local park in south Tampa. I turned the radio on as I left home and all seemed fine, I was listening to 20 meters with plenty of receive sensitivity. On the way to the park, I went through a drive-through to get a drink, turning down the volume on the radio so that I could order and interact with the two drive-through window people. I was most of the way to the park and turned the volume back up. No receive! It was dead again! I got to thinking about this and came up with the idea that maybe there was an issue with my hamstick antenna hitting the drive-through canopy and receiving something the radio didn’t like. This made sense, I often went through this drive-through before going to the park.
Back goes the older radio to California. Before installing the newer one I put in an antenna switch that I could use to take the antenna off of the radio whenever I went through drive-throughs. All went well for a few months and the older radio came back repaired.
One morning I was headed to work and went through a drive-through for some coffee. I turned the antenna off at the switch before entering, got my coffee, and headed back out to work. When I switched the antenna back on there was no receive! It was as dead as Mozart. So much for the antenna idea. Off goes the radio for repair. The local FedEx office now has a counter set up for me 😊
Back to brainstorming. One thing I noticed with this radio is a “clicking” that it makes while I am driving. I have a voltage monitor connected to my gear, and I also noticed that the voltage of the truck varies considerably due to the BMS system. It seemed that these voltage changes (they happen quickly) are when the radio makes its clicking sound. I got online and found out how to disable the BMS system altogether, it simply requires unplugging the connector that attaches to the negative side of the battery. No more clicking radio. As a bonus, this also disables Auto-Start-Stop. I always turned Auto-Start off manually, but now I don’t have to bother with it. I never start the truck when the radio is on.
Back in went the older radio in mid-February, and all has been fine since. It has been almost 7 months and no more issues. Does anyone else have any experience with the BMS system like I have?
I have attached a screen capture of one of the repair tickets, all of them have been the same. Hopefully no one else is having this issue, but maybe this information will help if they are.
First, a little history. My previous truck was a 2003 F-150. My FT-891 worked just fine in that truck for 3 years. I purchased the 2018 truck in June of 2021, and soon installed all of my equipment (FT-891, FT-8900, FT5DR HT, President Mckinley CB). All are ran off the truck power, same as they did in the 2003 truck.
After about 3 months I noticed that the receive in my FT-891 was very weak. A few days later it was gone entirely. The transmitter seemed to still work properly. I uninstalled the FT-891, boxed it up and sent it to California. Not wanting to be without the HF ham bands I made my first trip to the new Winter Springs HRO store and bought a new one. Installation was easy enough; everything was already in place.
The older radio returned fully repaired about 5 weeks later and now I had two of the little monsters to play with. Except that about 3 months later the new radio came down with the same issue, receiver completely dead.
With this happening to yet another of the exact same model, I figured there must be something about the installation that was causing the problem. None of the other radios had any issues.
So, I re-installed the original FT-891 and sent the new one in for service. The same cycle occurred, and in about 6 weeks I had the new radio back (covered under warranty this time). About a month later I was heading out to do some portable operating at a local park in south Tampa. I turned the radio on as I left home and all seemed fine, I was listening to 20 meters with plenty of receive sensitivity. On the way to the park, I went through a drive-through to get a drink, turning down the volume on the radio so that I could order and interact with the two drive-through window people. I was most of the way to the park and turned the volume back up. No receive! It was dead again! I got to thinking about this and came up with the idea that maybe there was an issue with my hamstick antenna hitting the drive-through canopy and receiving something the radio didn’t like. This made sense, I often went through this drive-through before going to the park.
Back goes the older radio to California. Before installing the newer one I put in an antenna switch that I could use to take the antenna off of the radio whenever I went through drive-throughs. All went well for a few months and the older radio came back repaired.
One morning I was headed to work and went through a drive-through for some coffee. I turned the antenna off at the switch before entering, got my coffee, and headed back out to work. When I switched the antenna back on there was no receive! It was as dead as Mozart. So much for the antenna idea. Off goes the radio for repair. The local FedEx office now has a counter set up for me 😊
Back to brainstorming. One thing I noticed with this radio is a “clicking” that it makes while I am driving. I have a voltage monitor connected to my gear, and I also noticed that the voltage of the truck varies considerably due to the BMS system. It seemed that these voltage changes (they happen quickly) are when the radio makes its clicking sound. I got online and found out how to disable the BMS system altogether, it simply requires unplugging the connector that attaches to the negative side of the battery. No more clicking radio. As a bonus, this also disables Auto-Start-Stop. I always turned Auto-Start off manually, but now I don’t have to bother with it. I never start the truck when the radio is on.
Back in went the older radio in mid-February, and all has been fine since. It has been almost 7 months and no more issues. Does anyone else have any experience with the BMS system like I have?
I have attached a screen capture of one of the repair tickets, all of them have been the same. Hopefully no one else is having this issue, but maybe this information will help if they are.
