Grove Scanner Beam? Is it any good?

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kelltara

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Just got some quad rg/6U and need an antenna to use it on :)
I have my Over the Air TV antenna with rotor mounted on the roof already and I was thinking it would be a good place to stick a directional antenna for the scanner underneath the UHF/VHF.

I spotted the Grove Beam in the wiki and it sounds good and not too expensive. I mainly listen to things to the north of my location so I don't even think I would have to move it much, but I have the rotor to use if needed.

I was looking at the scantenna and the little rs before but if a beam is good I would much rather have one than a full omni.

Any personal experiences or suggustions for this or another antenna? Thank you.
 

WouffHong

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Beam location

Have not used that beam, but what I *CAN* share is that having a Scanner antenna THAT close to an active TV antenna is asking for a lot of TV-Set-generated
"birdies" to be locking up your scanner.

The amount of trash signals emanating from a TV, propagating up the coax to the TV antenna and messing up scanning can be substantial. :-(

Mac

Just got some quad rg/6U and need an antenna to use it on :)
I have my Over the Air TV antenna with rotor mounted on the roof already and I was thinking it would be a good place to stick a directional antenna for the scanner underneath the UHF/VHF.

I spotted the Grove Beam in the wiki and it sounds good and not too expensive. I mainly listen to things to the north of my location so I don't even think I would have to move it much, but I have the rotor to use if needed.

I was looking at the scantenna and the little rs before but if a beam is good I would much rather have one than a full omni.

Any personal experiences or suggustions for this or another antenna? Thank you.
 

quickshooter45

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scanner beam

I used one awhile back and had good luck with it. but you will need to put it in the open and up above

the roofline and away from any metal . tv antenna , pwr lines. etc. using it with a rotor you can
zero in on the weak signals.
 

kelltara

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I don't really use the tv with the antenna much. Most of the time I am on sat, just have the antenna as backup during bad storms etc...

I see wide band and flags go up. Anyone know of a good directional that is for the lower freqs. I really don't need anything above 450.
 

CHAWMAN24

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I have had the grove scanner beam with a rotor for about 2 years now and have had nothing but success with it. Prior to having the beam there were several distant signals that i could not receive. With the beam and having the ability to "aim" the beam towards the signal i can now receive those signals. I am using the quad RG6 also with my beam.
 

timmer

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I have had and used a grove scanner beam and had good luck with it. I have it mounted just below a discone which sits on the top of my tower. (about 45 feet high). I have it (scanner beam) fixed pointing north for two reasons. I live to the west of a medium sized city and had some intermod/overload using the discone. With the scanner beam pointing north, I eliminated alot of the overload and also, at the same time, increased the reception (obviously to the north but overall reception from all directions is pretty good). It does extremely well pulling in NOAA weather stations from FAR away (over 100 miles). I do wish I had it on a rotor, though.
 

iMONITOR

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The Grove Scanner Beam may work ok, but it's not made well and will not last outside if you have any severe storms or high winds. It's made out of very thin aluminum tubing and plastic.

I would recommend DPD Production's log periodic antenna. It's constructed very well and will stand up to any storm that doesn't blow your house down. It performs exceptionally well.

118-1000MHz Scanner LP
DPD Productions - Scanner Antennas
 

timmer

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I agree 100% on that. You are correct. My scanner beam did sustain damage in a tornado 2 years ago. It lost two elements and was twisted by 120mph winds. If I had the money, I would get a DPD antenna instead. However, since I don't, a scanner beam is what I'm going to stick with. A new one is around 65.00 dollars and is light and easily installed. If my financial situation changes, I'd probably go with the DPD. I can add that until that tornado, the scanner beam held up well with no problems with what I will call regular thunderstorms/windy conditions. We had 50+ mile per hour winds a few times without it sustaining any damage.
 

kelltara

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On a side note, can anyone link me to a homemade yagi or directional for ~150 and one for ~450?

DPD looks god but it costs a fortune
 

blueangel-eric

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A Grove scanner beam is a yagi, more specifically it is a multiband yagi. IMO

it's not a yagi. it's a log periodic (VHF/UHF) with a yagi (800mhz) front end for 800mhz like the TV antennas. last i remember.

log periodics are better for receiving as they are more broadbanded.
 

N1SQB

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yagis don't make great scanner antennas. they're not broadbanded and multi banded like the grove scanner beam is.

I agree but I also disagree LOL...Yagis are NOT good for broadband/multiband purposes,you're right. However, if you want to nail down a specific band for a specific reason (IE..Railroad, 800 Trunking, Ham,) they work great. I have 1 for 800 and 1 for 450-470 public safety. They perform like I had an amp on them. It all depends on your specific needs I guess.

Manny
 

FLRAILMAN

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Vertical mount TV ant. Vs. real log periodics

I have a Create #5130-2N log periodic & a DPD LP scanner log periodic antenna & I had a Grove scanner beam which is nothing but a TV antenna with holes drilled in the boom to mount it vertically & is far inferior to these two professional grade antennas, The Create is mainly for purist & is very expensive, the DPD is affordable & almost matches the Create in performance, in your situation I would opt to get the DPD antenna as it is fairly affordable & worth the extra money (You get what you pay for)
FLRAILMAN

Universal Radio shortwave, amateur, scanner and CB radio since 1942
click on: online catalog then antennas scanner then Create CLP5130-2N

DPD Productions - Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist
Click on scanner under products then 118.0 MHz to 1000.0 MHz scanner LP model antenna
 
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jack103

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Go for the scannerbeam with quad shield and a rotator I have one up for more than 5 years and sometimes it works better that my icom discomb!!
 

iMONITOR

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Just got some quad rg/6U and need an antenna to use it on :)

I spotted the Grove Beam in the wiki and it sounds good and not too expensive. I mainly listen to things to the north of my location so I don't even think I would have to move it much, but I have the rotor to use if needed.


What band/frequencies do you monitor?
 
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