Newbie Firefighter needs help.

Hello,
I am a new Washington D.C. Firefighter and I need help setting up a system so my family can hear DCFD communications. I am located about 35 miles away in 21012 and would like to be able to monitor the 800 mhz system. I borrowed a friends PRO-96 with a 8 inch duckie and i can't get any reception. What type of Antenna/scanner would be best for this situation?

I Have A Radio Shack 800 Mhz Antenna And It Does A Good Job. Also Is Your System that you want to hear analog or digital ?

Rookie, 35 miles is a bit far to try to receive 800MHz communications, IMO. Not that it's impossible, but a lot of different factors come into play. Height of the transmitting antenna, height of the receiving antenna, transmitted power, any obstructions between the transmitter and receiver, etc.

The best antenna for this would be a directional Yagi type antenna for the 800MHz band. Do a Google search for "800MHz Yagi antenna" and you should get a lot of hits. You would need to mount this antenna up as high as you can safely get it, and feed it with good quality coax cable, like RG-6 at a minimum, or Times Microwave LMR-400. Keep in mind that depending on the conditions I mentioned above, reception at 35 miles might still be difficult or impossible. But the only way to know for sure is to try, there is no way to give a definitive yes or no answer for this issue. Good luck!

I appreciate your help. It is a digital system that i want to listen to.

Rookie85 said:

I appreciate your help. It is a digital system that i want to listen to.

Click to expand...

Digital vs. analog doesn't matter much, although digital might be more difficult as far as reception in a fringe area. Fringe area analog = noise; fringe area digital = nothing! Antennas, cable, etc. are exactly the same digital or analog.

I am getting a lot of hits for a wilson 800mhz Yagi, it seems to be for cellular phones. Would this work for my application or is a cell phone antenna different from a scanner?

Rookie85 said:

I am getting a lot of hits for a wilson 800mhz Yagi, it seems to be for cellular phones. Would this work for my application or is a cell phone antenna different from a scanner?

Click to expand...

Doesn't matter, as long as the frequency range is the same (say 806-896MHz give or take) it will work.

Rookie85 said:

Hello,
I am a new Washington D.C. Firefighter and I need help setting up a system so my family can hear DCFD communications. I am located about 35 miles away in 21012 and would like to be able to monitor the 800 mhz system. I borrowed a friends PRO-96 with a 8 inch duckie and i can't get any reception. What type of Antenna/scanner would be best for this situation?

Click to expand...

Two things to try:
1) Ask in the Wash. D.C. Forum.
2) There may be a scanner online you can hear on your computer.

Check your PM.

You can get instructions for use of a DC Fire audio server at:

http://www.geocities.com/dcfirefeed/

Requires you to download and use Teamspeak.