Cobra Marine Radio Interference

[ToddW850]

So several years ago bought the handheld Cobra VHF Portable Marine Radio MR HH475. Was a great radio. No issues but time to upgrade. Bought the attached Cobra MRHH500. Works great, except when we're on the boat. ?‍. It seems to pick up some kind of interference. You have to turn the volume all the way up and it's kinda static sounding.

Thought I bought a bad radio so I returned it and the replacement does the same thing. Anyone else experience interference with their boats and radios???Radios??? I have a 2017 242X.

 

[marcham]

Have you tried increasing the squelch? I've noticed that having ignition on on our boat generates very slight rfi in the fm radio, frequencies which are not very far from the marine band.

 

[ToddW850]

Interesting @marcham . Although this is automatic squelch. The knob in the middle is just a cover for the external speaker plug.

 

[marcham]

Even though it's automatic, it should still be adjustable in the menus. Are you hearing hum in the speaker without static noise or is the squelch breaking when you turn on the engine?

 

[ToddW850]

Gotcha. I'll check. But no what I'm hearing is it sounds like the speaker is blown when people talk. No noises when no one is talking. I have to turn it all the way up to hearing anything and it sounds like I have the volume at 25% when it's actually 100% very distorted. But at home, sounds perfect like it should.

 

[ToddW850]

We'll be on the boat this weekend. I may walk away from the boat with the radio and see if it goes away.

 

[marcham]

Receive audio is only distorted when the engine runs? If so, I'd suggest a defective radio.

 

[ToddW850]

@marcham definitely happens when on the boat. Not 100% sure if Engines have to be on or not. Haven't been able to trouble shoot that far yet. Will check next time out. But definitely works fine away from the boat. Matter of fact I have it on in my house and it sounds fine. ?‍