Radio Discussion Community

Hello,

As the title suggests, me and 2 friends are having issues with the T-600.

We are all using the same kit.

T-600 Radio
Full Sized Orbiter
Side body mount.

We bought these mainly because of the cost as it wont be an every day use, but for our off-roaders when we go on camping trips or general offroading for ease of contact especially with how much we will likely break down

now we've set these up and when next to each other we can just about make contact with each other, its very crackly.

we are on NRC 7, No VOX and auto squelch. on FM.

when we get to about 100m + away from each other all contact is lost so something is definitely wrong.

2 Defenders and a Discovery. The Defenders both have roof racks on, and my aerial is angled away from it but the others is touching his rack. Is this an issue?

my aerial wiring to the mount is also a bit dodgy, think the terminals were cut off at some point in its life (i've had the cable ran almost 5 years) so im not sure if ive crimped them up correctly, but ive ordered another side mount kit with the pre crimped cables as a precaution.

Is there anything else we should be checking?

Thanks

Hi There,

Those antennas are more than capable of achieving 10 miles, so it sounds like there could be a couple of issues causing your range problems.

The antennas should definitely not be touching anything and ideally the coil of the antenna needs to be above everything else on the vehicle, otherwise the signal will be deflected.

We would strongly recommend getting an SWR meter, as although those antennas are a pre-tuned length, there are other factors that can affect the SWR reading, for instance ground plane, signal deflection from nearby objects, poor cabling, etc.

The SWR reading will show you whether the whole antenna system is working well or not, and if you are not sure about the readings you can always call us.

If you wanted to email a couple of photos of the antenna installs over to us (sales@thunderpole.co.uk) we can advise better.

A basic SWR meter and patch cable is available here... https://www.thunderpole.co.uk/swr-meter ... meter.html

Andy

andy@thunderpole.co.uk wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:22 am Hi There,

Those antennas are more than capable of achieving 10 miles, so it sounds like there could be a couple of issues causing your range problems.

The antennas should definitely not be touching anything and ideally the coil of the antenna needs to be above everything else on the vehicle, otherwise the signal will be deflected.

We would strongly recommend getting an SWR meter, as although those antennas are a pre-tuned length, there are other factors that can affect the SWR reading, for instance ground plane, signal deflection from nearby objects, poor cabling, etc.

The SWR reading will show you whether the whole antenna system is working well or not, and if you are not sure about the readings you can always call us.

If you wanted to email a couple of photos of the antenna installs over to us (sales@thunderpole.co.uk) we can advise better.

A basic SWR meter and patch cable is available here... https://www.thunderpole.co.uk/swr-meter ... meter.html

Andy

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the response.

We are going to do some work on the mounting points and then give it a try, I'll send photos over if we have no luck.

I replaced my cable kit today, and upon testing, it severely interferes with my rear view camera, making the picture change colour and freeze.

anything i should be checking for that?

Cheers,
Matt

Hi Matt,

Generally if you have a bad earth connection, you can get issues with interference, so it is worth checking that.

Also if the antenna is mounted close to the camera that could be an issue, maybe change the location of the antenna.

The other thing to check is the cabling, if the CB coax is run alongside the camera wiring it could cause issues. If there is no other way of routing the cable, then maybe look at upgrading the coax as the better quality coax, such as Mini 8 Super XX will have better screening... https://www.thunderpole.co.uk/coaxial-c ... black.html

Andy