petbytes
Member
Last year I installed a Diamond wideband discone antenna on the outside of my house by mounting it on the non-used chimney. I ran RG-8X coax from the antenna, under the eaves of the roof and into the wall, and routed it a Uniden BCT15 scanner. The length the of the cable run is 90 feet.
I wasn’t impressed with the reception I thought I should get since the antenna is at least roof height, but I know the 90 foot coax run is pretty far. My hand-held Uniden BCD 396T receives radio traffic very well indoors with the included rubber whip.
Recently for some reason, I’m not picking up radio traffic like I had in the past. I’m only hearing close strong traffic, about 5% of what my handheld gets.
These are some possible causes I came up with:
The RG-8X coax runs next to TV cable under the eaves for about 40 feet, but nowhere do they touch. The TV cable is shielded RG 6. Could this be an issue?
Is the RG-8X is too long of a run and I’m suffering attenuation loss?
I had to add the BCN connectors on the cable ends. Could they have come loose from the cable?
Anything else I might look at or do to diagnose?
I wasn’t impressed with the reception I thought I should get since the antenna is at least roof height, but I know the 90 foot coax run is pretty far. My hand-held Uniden BCD 396T receives radio traffic very well indoors with the included rubber whip.
Recently for some reason, I’m not picking up radio traffic like I had in the past. I’m only hearing close strong traffic, about 5% of what my handheld gets.
These are some possible causes I came up with:
The RG-8X coax runs next to TV cable under the eaves for about 40 feet, but nowhere do they touch. The TV cable is shielded RG 6. Could this be an issue?
Is the RG-8X is too long of a run and I’m suffering attenuation loss?
I had to add the BCN connectors on the cable ends. Could they have come loose from the cable?
Anything else I might look at or do to diagnose?