How Far Out Could I Hear??

[TurkII]

I've been using a simple Radio Shack Pro-2027 scanner for a while and have always been able to hear what I wanted to hear with a simple antenna connected right to the scanner itself. Recently I moved about 40 miles eastward and now have my scanner in a basement area... long story short I can't scan what I want to scan anymore!

If I mounted a better antenna to the roof of my house, would it really make that much of a difference and could I possibly hear what I wanted?

More specifically.... I want to pick up two specific fire departments.... one operates in the 470.xx mHz range and is about 30 miles to my west at about the same elevation. The second fire department uses the 42.xx mHz range and is about 40 miles to my northwest and about 700 feet higher than my location. Do you think I have any chance of picking them up with a good antenna?

Thanks in advance... like I said I've been scanning for a number of years, but never really had to look into a good antenna, antenna placement, or anything like that. Any suggestions you could offer would be greatly appreciated!!

- Turk

 

[jb872033]

Turk....

My shack is in the basement, (not the best place, but it is what space allows) and i have several outdoor and roof-top antenne which work wonders, I can pull in what i want to hear...on all bands...the farthest station is probabllly 60-70 away...you'll want to look into anteanne, i think it would help you...gotta watch for good coax though if it is a long run, make sure all the connections are the proper ones...dont bother adapting or anything, just put good quality new connectors on the coax if it is not what you need...you can find a decent roof-mount style for under 40 bucks in most places, mine was 39.99 to be exact (hustler DCL discone) which is good for middle of the spectrum monitoring...a lil weak in the 800 bands i have noticed though, I also have an 18' antron astro 99 with the ground setups kit, which i use for some HF and CB stuff...all in all a basement is not a good place to monitor from but it is also a rule that the less obstructions between you and the transmit site the better, so the higher you can get an antenna the better....good luck


JB

 

[af5rn]

The UHF won't be any problem with any decent fixed station scanner antenna. You could go as cheap as the $30 dollar Scantenna (search for it. It's discussed everywhere here.) and do well on the UHF. The low band at 40 miles may or may not be a problem, depending upon the power of their system/station. Chances are you may have to do better than the Scantenna for that one though. Rat Shack used to make a ground plane antenna that did awesome on low band, but discontinued it. Now about the best they have is the 20-176 discone http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...052.2032075.2032078.2032098&parentPage=family . While I'm not a big fan of Rat Shack, that's a decent place to start.

 

[jon_k]

To your question "will an antenna on the roof be better than in the basement?"

This is a big YES.

That's why transmitter antennas try to get on a mountain top and even then they make them 500-1000 feet tall. They don't pick a basement for good reason.

You might try with a discone on top of your house. If you want really directional results, get a Yagi.

 

[PHOENIX_SCANNER]

I can hardly imagine a scenario where one needs an outdoor antenna more than having your scanner located in a basement. Big yes to the outdoor antenna.