Connection Help?

Well... where to start.

I have a 25 foot mast ontop of a 20 foot house. I'm in Florida. Luckily, most directions are clear LOS.

I have 4 Antennas and feeds, A ST2, Radioshack Discone, VHF/UHF Airband, and ADSB Antenna from Flightaware. These 4 RG-6 (Quad Shield) go down to the base of my mast, where they have F-Type connectors. These are in weatherproof boxes, where they then go down to another set of F-Type grounding blocks. The total run is approximately 50 feet per feed. The system is grounded both at the roof, at the base of the mast, and also on the base of the house before the feeds run inside (via grounding blocks, bonded to a 8 foot copper rod and to my houses' neutral.)

1) The ST2 sounds good.
2) The Radioshack Discone sounds great!
3) The VHF/UHF Airband antenna is non-existent. When I connect the antenna, I can't even pick up the local NOAA weather station.
4) The ADSB Antenna is fair-poor, but it should be superb based on placement.

I guess my question is, I don't claim to know everything, but should I change all connections to N-Type or something else?

If so, what lightning suppression is recommended?

TFlanary said:

Well... where to start.

I have a 25 foot mast ontop of a 20 foot house. I'm in Florida. Luckily, most directions are clear LOS.

I have 4 Antennas and feeds, A ST2, Radioshack Discone, VHF/UHF Airband, and ADSB Antenna from Flightaware. These 4 RG-6 (Quad Shield) go down to the base of my mast, where they have F-Type connectors. These are in weatherproof boxes, where they then go down to another set of F-Type grounding blocks. The total run is approximately 50 feet per feed. The system is grounded both at the roof, at the base of the mast, and also on the base of the house before the feeds run inside (via grounding blocks, bonded to a 8 foot copper rod and to my houses' neutral.)

1) The ST2 sounds good.
2) The Radioshack Discone sounds great!
3) The VHF/UHF Airband antenna is non-existent. When I connect the antenna, I can't even pick up the local NOAA weather station.
4) The ADSB Antenna is fair-poor, but it should be superb based on placement.

I guess my question is, I don't claim to know everything, but should I change all connections to N-Type or something else?

If so, what lightning suppression is recommended?

Click to expand...

Changing to "N" connectors will provide you with less loss, but not enough for you to notice. "F" connectors should be just fine, but may require adapters to match what they're connected to. Replacing the "F" on that end to what it matches may help (and you may need different connectors on each run, or even each end of the cable, but that's OK. The ST2 is probably "F" and no change required. The Discone is probably "UHF" type so a PL-259 (with the appropriate reducing adapter quite likely) may be what you need there. For the other two, it's probably also the "UHF" type, but you'll need to check to verify this.

One thing though. RG-6QS is designed to use the crimp on (or preferably the compression) "F" connectors and generally is not easy to solder the shield to the connector. You may be able to use correctly matched crimp connectors, but check with your vendor to make sure that they will work correctly with the coax you have. Also make sure that you have quality crimp tools that are designed to work with that cable and those connectors.

On the scanner end, you may need BNC or SMA connectors. They do make compression BNC connectors for RG6 so that would be a good choice. For the SMA connector (if required), your existing adapter is probably best or a high quality small jumper would probably be recommended (with the appropriate connectors so it directly connects or at most uses just a barrel connector).

Chances are, your F type ground blocks should be OK for grounding. You could spend more and get somewhat better protection, but probably not enough to make it worth it. Even the best will not help for a direct strike and most, including the typical CATV ground blocks, will work to drain any static buildup or for a fairly weak indirect strike.

For your issues with the VHF/UHF antenna, you may have issues. Start by checking the coax (with 4 runs, try swapping it out with one of the working ones to see if the problem follows the changed coax). You could have a short (shield to center connector most likely) or bad coax run. If it stays with the antenna, you could have a bad antenna. Try the NOAA signal using your discone to see if that picks it up correctly. If so, try that coax swap with the discone to see if you can isolate the problem.]

If the problem isn't with the coax or antenna, it could also be issues with a nearby strong signal overdriving your radio. Try the attenuator to see if that helps. You might need an FM trap or other specialty filter to help block out strong signals to prevent your radio from being swamped by them.

four antennas

Are all four of those antennas on the same mast? If so , are the ones working ok the ones higher up the mast? I've had some disappointing results placing different antennas on the same mast, even if they're several feet apart. Of course, try the cable-swapping idea out first.
I just mentioned this because I have an ST-2 and it is huge, so I couldn't picture having much room left on 25' mast for anything else.