Will I get good scanner reception?

[RIVERSMVP09]

I'm on a 2nd floor, but I'm in a semi-rural wooded area.

[rafdav]

You gonna mount antenna outside? How high? You give us nothing to advise you with. Sorry 'bout that.
Here's a little help:
A yagi is directional and usually mounted o/s up high as you can get. That's your best bet.

[RIVERSMVP09]

I will have a handheld scanner.

[N_Jay]

There are no hard and fast rules, just rules of thumb.

(well, there are but the tools and calculations are usually beyond the hobbyist, and the number of variables to be considered that are not obvious to the casual hobbyist make a lot of good solid reasons seem lost in the randomness.)

Higher is better than lower.
Outside is better then inside.
Properly designed antenna is better than a random collection of elements.
Larger antenna is better than smaller.
Larger cable is better than smaller cable.
Less cable is better then more cable.

Well, those are the big hitters.

[RIVERSMVP09]

Well I do have a ledge ouside I could the antenna for minimal cable, or I could go higher above my room on the roof but use more cable.

[SkipSanders]

The bottom line is, Scanners are line of sight.

If you're in a valley, you will receive things inside the valley, and not much else.

If you're on a hilltop, you'll do much better.

The higher your antenna is, the further away the 'radio horizon' is. The higher the transmitting antenna you're trying to listen to is, the further away you can hear it.

Vegetation and buildings tend to absorb radio, especially at UHF and above, so if you're 'looking' through such things, signals will be weaker/nonexistant.

The rule of thumb for reliable radio range is to take the square root of the height (in feet) of the receiving antenna, and add the square root of the height (in feet) of the transmitting antenna. This is the range in miles. Though the actual range may be 1.5 to even 2 times as much, it also may not be.

So, if your receiving antenna is 25 feet off the ground, that's sqrt(25)=5. If the transmitting antenna is on a mountain somewhere, or a tall tower, at 100 feet up, that's sqrt(100)=10. Expected reliable range (if there are no hills in between!) is 15 miles. Might get as much as 30 miles if you're lucky.

A pair of handheld radios, figure height 5 feet. Each gets 2.25 miles (rounded up a bit), so 4.5 miles to a max (unlikely because of foliage/buildings in the way) of 9 miles. In practice, because of those buildings and foliage, most handhelds are good for 2 miles max reliable between each other.

[RIVERSMVP09]

ok so high on the roof is better, but what about cable loss?

[SkipSanders]

As long as you get good cable (NO RG-58 or RG-8M), you should be ok unless you get more than 50 feet of coax, though the better grades of coax will have less loss. It's most critical on 800 MHz and above.

Some folks just use RG-6 (TV coax, F connectors), with suitable adaptors for your antenna and scanner. Yes, it's 75 ohm instead of 50 ohm. No, it doesn't make a damn bit of practical difference for receiving, in reality. Of course, you want good grade RG-6, too. Radio Shack is known for poor grade cable, sadly. Check for a local Ham Radio store, if you really want good cable.

[RIVERSMVP09]

cool thanks for all the info.

[MPSCS]

Originally Posted by RIVERSMVP09

I'm on a 2nd floor, but I'm in a semi-rural wooded area.

Where in Michigan are you located, and what are you trying to receive?

I have small RS-800 Radio Shack rubber ducky antennas on both my PRO-197's, inside my home on the first floor and I can monitor every system I want to with no problem. I monitor all of Macomb County, MSP in S.E. Michigan, and Warren Michigan (which is 13 miles from me).

If you monitor some of Michigan's simulcast systems, sometimes less antenna is better.