Nassau County Antenna Help

[eastrocks400]

I have spoken to some people about this including W2LIE.. but looking for more info.

I am located in EAst Rockaway and i have a pro-106 scanner and a pro 528.

In attempt to get better reception, i have purchased both larsen tri band and larsen LM490C. Both of these antennas have done worse than the stock antenna on UHF, but better on low band. (antennas not even meant for this.) Why would this be?

Also, i cant receive freeport fire dispatch, but can get syosset. I assume this has to do with repeaters...?

And for W2LIE, with what antenna do you use to receive the whole county? (or at least most of it)

~Skyler~

[scannerman5555]

Freeport Fd is on Uhf 453.3625 now and Hi band 155.100


0453.3250 Freeport FGnd 136.5 NFM 12.5
0460.3625 Freeport Ops 167.9 NFM 12.5
0155.1000 FreeportDispatch 123.0 FM 5.0
0155.0250 Freeport Fgnd 123.0 FM 5.0

East Rockaway Fd
0460.2125 East Rockwy FG 423 NFM 12.5

[eastrocks400]

listen-- did i mention one thing about asking for frequencies? please re-read the post.


FYI my scanner is programmed with all nassau fire, police, and medical frequencies. I DO NOT need help with that.

[tommyscan]

East Rock, I use the watson line of antennas as they are telescopic and can be used for any frequency you wish to to hear.You may not be able to hear not so much because of antenna but from possible rf in your neighborhood or some other obstruction like a nearby cell site. Try moving the scanner to a sweet spot within your listening post. The antennas you have are quality and should do just fine.

[w2lie]

Skyler -
Maybe Don was trying to help you by making sure you were listening to the correct frequencies - since you did not give the frequencies you were listening to, just to the towns you were trying...

I use a Scantenna ST-2 up on a 15' mast on top of my house.

I am not familiar with the Larsen antennas you are talking about, but they look to be mobile antennas?? You didn't mention if you were using them mobile or at home. If you are using a mobile antenna at home, do you need the ground radial kit?

As far a Larsen antennas go - I have always had good luck with them. There is a Larsen Dual Band w/ Radial Kit feeding my "Freeport" scanner feed.

[W3MOT]

If your using a mobile antenna (NMO type) you're going to need a groundplane kit. They're on ebay for about $24.00. If your not using a mobile antenna, cool. Here's a quick fix.

If you have a way to mount some sort of mast, (even if it's a five foot mast) you're going to want to get a UHF antenna. Now, for a scanner, anything should work fine. You just have to know how to hook it up. Your going to want cable with a "PL-259" male (yes, I know, they're crap) connector on the end, as this is what most base antenna's have. If the antenna is made by Motorola, It'll either have an N connector or a Mini-U (AKA Motorola Type). But since we're just trying to start you off with the basic's and not confuse you, we'll explain the "amateur" way first.

You can go to Radio Shack and purchase a scanner antenna. On the base of the antenna is a Female PL-259 (or SO-239) connector. Get a cable from radioshack with PL-259 Male connectors on it. The connector on the back of your scanner is called a BNC connector. You will want a BNC-to-PL-259 connector. Basically it'll convert your PL-259 connector on your cable to a BNC on your scanner. After all this crap, you should be connected. That's THREE part's that you'll need.


Parts needed:

Part Number 278-120 = PL259-to-BNC adapter
Part Number 278-979 = Antenna cable with PL259 adapters (this cable is 10 feet. You can purchase this in different lenghts, tho!)

Part Number 20-176 = VHF/UHF scanner antenna

Any dummy can set up an antenna. You'll have this down pat in no time!

[eastrocks400]

I've already tried that and it has made no difference......

Now im stuck- i just threw an old piece of coax into my cable splitter and other into scanner and it actually works pretty good, better than larsen. (essentially cable antenna is being used for scanner.)

[eastrocks400]

delete

[w2lie]

Did you make the cable connections from the scanner to the antenna yourself?? It might be possible that you have bad coax, or shorted out an end in the connector, or even worse - have no connection at all.

The other piece of the puzzle which you FAILED to mention is the fact you are using a cable splitter.. What type of splitter are you using?? Some of them do more HARM than help. What happens if you do not use the cable splitter at all and run it direct to the radio in question?

Most cable tv splitters have a frequency cut off range. They also attenuate the signal by at least 3dB - depending on how many times the signal needs to be split.

Where is your Larsen mounted?? Is it outside on the roof, inside in the attic, or do you have it propped against the wall?? You also didn't answer if you were using the ground plane kit if this is a mobile antenna converted to base station use..


If you wanted to try another antenna, I suggest going to LNL on Robbins Lane in Syosset and picking up the ST-2 Scanner Antenna. It will run you UNDER $50, comes with RG-6 Coax (I've swapped mine out for low loss 50ohm coax) and an F to BNC connector so you can use the coax with your radio. You will have to buy the mast and some method of mounted the mast to your house.. Its cheaper than the RS Discone and I'm happy with mine.

Skyler - please answer some of the questions that were asked in the above e-mails so we can better help you...

[eastrocks400]

Ok. Right now the cable coax antenna i mentioned is being used on a splitter. Just this morning i started getting static while using it. I turned the squelch all the way up and it still didnt matter, so i am going to scratch this idea.

The larsen i usually have on a baking sheet around the house... upstairs or downstairs. It doesnt make a difference on first floor or second but i put it in the attic and it made a slight difference on Low band and VHF... (and it's meant for UHF)

When the larsen is downstairs, i get no better reception with that than the stock. If anything, worse.

I would go for the ST2 but you have to somehow ground it, and that's a pain.

[w2lie]

Originally Posted by eastrocks400

I would go for the ST2 but you have to somehow ground it, and that's a pain.

There are plenty of people who put up antennas and do not ground their install.

BUT - IMHO it is bad practice and only takes a few extra minutes to ground the antenna. Just sink a ground rod, and run the ground wire from the mast (not the antenna) to the ground rod.. That is all !! If you are routing coax there is no excuse (in my book) for not running a ground as well... ( I still have 1 antenna at my location to ground, and its simply because the bracket that was supposed to fit my mast was too big).

Things can be taken one step further by adding a ground to your coax as well.

[eastrocks400]

Yep i have heard all of this already. My dad will not let me ground it and dig under ground and have more wires running.