Advice

[JRM5204]

I have the cheap RS antenna mounted in my attic fed with decent cable and it works good on VHF-HI and UHF-T but not so good on 800MHz. I wan't to hook this antenna up to atleast two scanners maybe three. I ran my coax down from the attic through the walls into my basement. I only have enough room for one cable and can't find anywhere else to run a another cable through the walls (older home two solid fire walls and the rest plaster) and I don't want to run a line outside so I am going to use a splitter. I read the sticky above and it didn't really help on picking one. I didn't see the RF Systems SP-3 splitter/combiner sold by Universal Radio. Has anyone used or use the SP-3 splitter/combiner?

Next I want to use a pre amp in front of the splitter to make up for any loss and get a boost on 800MHz. I know the pros and cons of using a pre amp, I have used GRE & Uniden pre amps for years. I just broke my GRE super amplifier 3001 so I have to get a new one. I am just thinking about getting the newer GRE but any suggetions on any other pre amps that cover VHF to 900MHz?

I think if I get a decent splitter and pre amp I will be happy but how if I got two splitter/combiners and hooked up a second antenna on the other side of my attic like a 800MHz Yagi to improve reception on 800MHz? Would that work or make the reception even poorer?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[DELCOLHFC]

I've had good luck with electroline.

Joe we are almost neighbors (I'm in the Elwyn section of Middletown). I also use the RS "sputnik" antenna in the attic fed by RG-11 cable. It does do pretty well on VHF and UHF but as you stated not so much on 800. I think the idea of combining 2 antennas in the attic into one cable would yeild less than hoped for performance. I added a rooftop Wilson 800 Yagi on a rotor to cover the 800's, it really made a big improvement, I had to run the LMR400 cable for it outside to my basement shack. In my case the cable from the attic also had to run on the outside, but they both come down the least visable corner of the house so the Bride stays happy. As far as splitters/amps go I have had pretty good performance using the Electroline EDA2400 cable dropamps. They split the signal into 4 ports and provide 7db gain per port. I have picked them up on ebay for 10 - 25 bucks, I even used one in the car for over a year as they are powered by 12VDC. They come with little wallwart power supplies but in the shack I just have them tapped into the Astron power supply. You know where I am in comparison to you so to guage their performance you can listen to my Tri-State PA-NJ-DE feed on scanamerica.us. I'm currently shuffling some things around on the feed but aside from the Philly and Delaware TRS traffic everything else passes through the RS 20-176 antenna and one of the Electrolines. That includes VHF /UHF traffic from Lancaster to Camden and Bucks to Queen Annes MD.
Good luck with whatever you wind up doing, let us know how it works out.
Tom (54-9A)

 

[JRM5204]

Tom,

I have listened to your feed, pretty impressive especially from Elwyn. I'm down in Tinicum Twp. and my main problem is the Philly TRS, I get it good sometimes and other times not so good. It came in pretty decent with the GRE pre amp but it still broke up here and there I'm on the border of the city. Funny thing is NJSP Troop A system comes in loud and clear and Camden City EDACS pretty decent since they rebanded but the Delaware State TRS I get 1 bar, Montco East nothing.

I have a BC996, RS Pro 106, and RS Pro 2067 but I only have the 996 hooked up to the rat shack antenna. I just moved my stuff to a room I built in the basement and the Pro 106 did pretty good on Philly, and the 2067 did ok on the county with the back of the whip antenna but since I moved the radios down here there pretty dead.

My thing about the electroline splitter is don't you have to use a lot of adapters to hook the antenna and radios to it? I mean I have a round screw on thing (PL259?) on the end of my coax about the size of a half dollar that I have to use a BNC adapter because a BNC fitting won't fit on the coax. So I would have to get a F adapter, then three more F adapters for the jumpers to the scanners? I thought it was a bad idea to use a lot of connections and adapters?

Joe we are almost neighbors (I'm in the Elwyn section of Middletown). I also use the RS "sputnik" antenna in the attic fed by RG-11 cable. It does do pretty well on VHF and UHF but as you stated not so much on 800. I think the idea of combining 2 antennas in the attic into one cable would yeild less than hoped for performance. I added a rooftop Wilson 800 Yagi on a rotor to cover the 800's, it really made a big improvement, I had to run the LMR400 cable for it outside to my basement shack. In my case the cable from the attic also had to run on the outside, but they both come down the least visable corner of the house so the Bride stays happy. As far as splitters/amps go I have had pretty good performance using the Electroline EDA2400 cable dropamps. They split the signal into 4 ports and provide 7db gain per port. I have picked them up on ebay for 10 - 25 bucks, I even used one in the car for over a year as they are powered by 12VDC. They come with little wallwart power supplies but in the shack I just have them tapped into the Astron power supply. You know where I am in comparison to you so to guage their performance you can listen to my Tri-State PA-NJ-DE feed on scanamerica.us. I'm currently shuffling some things around on the feed but aside from the Philly and Delaware TRS traffic everything else passes through the RS 20-176 antenna and one of the Electrolines. That includes VHF /UHF traffic from Lancaster to Camden and Bucks to Queen Annes MD.
Good luck with whatever you wind up doing, let us know how it works out.
Tom (54-9A)

 

[DELCOLHFC]

Yeah, some adapters......

I have BNC male ends on my RG-11 cable from the RS "sputnick" in the attic, so its the 259 to BNC at the antenna then a BNC female to F male at the input jack on the Electroline. I had several 5' jumpers with BNC male ends that I was using before I made my desk console, I used more of the F male to BNC females at the output ports on the dropamp. Since I have now made my setup at home more of a permanent deal I have cut most of those jumpers in half and attached a F male compression connector to the cut end to eliminate some adapters. From what I have read (mostly here) that PL259 connector on the RS 20-176 really renders it near useless at 800 mhz, as it's performance drops off above UHF. I'm no expert but I have seen that posted several times.
I have a very hard time picking up the Montco East TRS unless I have the yagi swung around towards them but then I can't hear Wilmington. There are so many decent VHF patched from the TRS in Montco so I keep them on the feed and leave the Yagi set to a sweet spot that picks up Philly and DE pretty well. I have also found that the Wilson 800 Yagi (can't remember the model # ......30111 or something like that...) does an excellent job on our area's UHF T-Band freqs. It still picks up VHF too but I didn't really do a lot of testing with it on VHF. I can run some VHF tests on it to see how it does on systems in the area if you decide that it may be an improvement over the "sputnick" if you are limited to a single antenna and want to improve your 800 performance. Let me know, I'm working a lot this and next week but I can switch the feed over to it for a few days while you decide.

Tom

 

[JRM5204]

Tom,

Thanks for the advice. I found the electoline 4 port drop amp on E-Bay for 25 dollars plus shipping.

You don't have to alter the feed but thanks for the offer. I will just get a 800 Yagi and try to run a second line somewhere. You and another RR member convinced me the RS antenna is just not going to work on 800 like I want it too.

I'll let you know how it works when I get it hooked up.

Thanks again!

 

[DELCOLHFC]

and the shack grows...................

Good luck with the Electroline, I hope you are as happy with yours as I am with mine. Same with the 800Yagi, it really made a big improvement. You should have no problem with Philly (or DE you might even catch some Montco East and Burlington NJ's T-Band TRS) once you add the Yagi to your shack. Make sure to use high quality cable with it, I use LMR400 that i got via a link on these forums.
Let us know how it works out.

Tom