I have a two-way radio installed in my SuperCrew for my job. I just added an amp to my system and now the two-way radio does nothing but squelch. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

 

What kind of amp is it? Where is the amp mounted? Where is the 2-way mounted? Where is the power and ground connections for the amp and where are they for the 2-way?

You could be having trouble with the amp itself, the 2-way or the way it is wired.

 

The amp is an Alpine. And is located inside the front center console.

The power is to the battery and the ground it to a bolt that hold the console down.

The Radio is mounted in the area behind the rear seats and the head for it is up in the dash area. Power to the battery and ground to the rear seat bolt. I made sure not to have the amp cable and the battery cable close when I made the power run.

Both have good grounds.

 

I would suspect the grounds to be your problem. You need to make sure there is also bare metal contact when running grounds. Either remove the grounds and sand/grind some bare metal on the chassis to put put your connectors on or drill a couple holes and nut/bolt the grounds down to bare metal.

I'm assuming the amp is new? If not, it's hard to say but that would be a good start to troubleshooting this.

 

The Alpines are not typically large RF noise generators like some amps can be. Older amps from back in the 70's, 80's and very early 90's where notorious for generating RFI and could actually knock out am reception almost entirely. The newer amps from about 93-94 and later are pretty good for not generating RFI. What you can do is condition the power and ground of your radio with a loop (meaning simply wind the wires a time or two into about a 6" circle) and add on a torrodial choke (can get them from Radio Shack) around the cables themselves. If your still having problems you could try some aluminum foil shielding over the cables to the 2-way and possibly even over the body of the main unit. I would also advise you to check your antenna lead for the 2-way as well sounds like that may actually be where your getting ingress. Make sure all connections are tight and shielded. It is kind of a tough problem but you can overcome it if you can isolate where it is coming in at.