Attic TV/VHF-UHF antenna and Scanner dilema question

[scanomanicodz]

I live in a Condo Complex and in the attic they have some Old VHF_UHF antenna and they are connected to the units via a Wall- Jack.

I did unscrew the cover to the TV jack and then I pull the cable and connected to my Portable Scanner ( I cut around the cable ( jacket and breaded shield) until I had a straight center conductor so I could put it in the Bnc Connector of the scanner and I was able to pick up stuff like local Pd’s and MSP (I do not believe that anyone in the condo complex use the old vhf-uhf TV jack (they all have Comcast of FiOS) and I was happy as it believe that the Attic antenna will do a better job then the telescopic cheap antenna that come with the Pro-197.

Unfortunately, I could not test on my pro 197, as the cable coming out of the wall is very short.

My Pro-197 is about 17 feet away from the Jack and not sure if there, any gizmo I can use to connect that jack and then connect a RG 8 RS cable to the scanner.

Any help or advice is appreciated

 

[kb2vxa]

I don't know what you connected to but it's not the CATV antenna in the attic. Originally it fed the wall jacks through an amplifier and distribution backbone but likely the rats got at it in a manner of speaking so you're looking at a run of dead coax to nowhere. All you're getting off it is stray signal pickup.

 

[wv8mat]

i use a old set of rabbit ears, vhf/uhf set like that on my scanner and it picks up real well. just try using some wire and invent you something and let us know how it works

 

[smokeyjones666]

Well, I'd say if you have a separate jack for cable tv then there's always a chance the antenna jack may still be connected. The only bummer is those old MDU MATV setups usually use crap antenna cable that wouldn't even qualify for garbage RG-58, so if it's got more than a wisp of copper strands for shielding then it may be more than stray signals you're picking up. A lot of times if you can look into a maintenance room or a closet you'll find a big amplifier or a bunch of smaller amplifiers that are cascaded - this may or may not be a bad thing, depending on the frequency range you're looking for. A quick and dirty test would be to hook up a tv and see if you get a clear picture, but you better hurry - you won't be able to do it for much longer

Truth is, however, you'll most likely never be able to be 100% certain your wall jack is actually hooked to an aerial unless you can gain access to the antenna feed line with a toner. My suggestion would be to figure out the name of the maintenance guy who's worked there the longest and then find out what kind of beer he likes or what kind of smokes he smokes - a small price to pay to gain a new friend, IMHO.