Telco link to antenna

[rwilcox1951]

When I worked in L/E, our base station radio was connected to the tower via telephone line. Is there a way to connect a scanner to an antenna in a similar way? I would like to mount an antenna on my garage roof (a distance) from the house) and bring the feed into the house via telephone cable.

[n5ims]

Your "base radio" is simply a terminal that is connected via a phone line to the radio which is located at the tower site. The terminal simply controls the remote radio, it isn't actually the radio. What you're trying to do isn't practical using a scanner. While you probably could send the audio over the phone line, you really couldn't control the scanner so it would be stuck working how you left it (and you couldn't see the display to know what frequency it stopped on).

You may do what you want by setting up your scanner to stream (like they do for the feeds on this site) where you could listen using a computer, but this isn't really what you're asking about.

How far is the distance you're trying to reach? You may be able to simply use a good grade of coax and feed the signal from the antenna on the garage to the scanner in the house. The further the distance, the better the coax you'll need (and more it'll cost). For a hundred feet or so, it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

[rwilcox1951]

Thanks. It's maybe forty feet. It was just a thought...

[n5ims]

For a 40' run, a good grade of RG-6 should do just fine and look like a standard Cable-TV run (it's the exact same coax). LMR-400 would be better, but also thicker and harder to work with (also much more expensive).

[rwilcox1951]

Is there a type of coax that is ok to bury? I'm not trying to over complicate this project I'm just trying to do a nice clean install. Do I need to run anything underground in a conduit?

[rwilcox1951]

If I run coax underground, does it need to go through conduit or is it ok to bury it?

[nd5y]

Buy coax that is labeled "direct burial" and make sure you don't have any connectors underground.

[rwilcox1951]

Thanks, Tom.

[benbenrf]

........ the problem of course is protecting buried coax and while in theory the outer poly/plastic mix of most coax sheaths should stand up to been buried so long they are not damaged by stones or garden digging some time later, in the long run in my experience they don't last well.

If the coax isn't spec'd for burial - and I have done this a few times in the past - a solution is to run the coax inside a length of garden hose. Make sure the ends of the hose (in particular the outside end - for obvious reasons) are solidly taped up & sealed - something like 3M Scotch 70 as opposed to an off-the-shelf conventional electrical tape will do fine.

[rwilcox1951]

Thanks for the additional info.

[Rt169Radio]

Originally Posted by benbenrf

........ the problem of course is protecting buried coax and while in theory the outer poly/plastic mix of most coax sheaths should stand up to been buried so long they are not damaged by stones or garden digging some time later, in the long run in my experience they don't last well.

If the coax isn't spec'd for burial - and I have done this a few times in the past - a solution is to run the coax inside a length of garden hose. Make sure the ends of the hose (in particular the outside end - for obvious reasons) are solidly taped up & sealed - something like 3M Scotch 70 as opposed to an off-the-shelf conventional electrical tape will do fine.

That garden hose idea is pretty cool.

[kb2vxa]

Getting back to basics, height is might and the shorter the coax the less the loss. All in all it seems to me putting the antenna on the house roof, or an eve mount is more practical.

[rwilcox1951]

Thanks. I'll probably go with the house roof.

[ChartofVirginia]

Your real interest may be in a computer controlled scanner, i.e. WinRadio or similar which offers a remote radio end located near your antenna, similar to the base station you experienced during your L/E days, and the control computer on an in house network where your local computer affixed near the WinRadio is accessible from your radio room.

This allows for the ability to change the operating information while scanning and not having to sit near your device. Same as the LE base radio except unlike in that instance the frequency can be changed and does not require expensive tone control setups which may or may not have been used at the LE location.

The same is possible from the newer scanners that can be virtually controlled by the PC/IF cable where when left engaged with the scanner running you can control many features while listening.

Same deal, there would be a local computer connected to the scanner which is accessible across an in house network from other computers on the same.

The only drawback is routing audio as most of these configurations do not offer great ways to route the audio heard from the scanner to the end user.

[rwilcox1951]

I'm not sure what I want to do. I'll probably wait till spring now. I'm not really crazy about climbing, and climbing on a snowy or icy roof really doesn't turn me on.