Amplifier

[Aaron88]

Will this help improve reception on a pro-2096 or will it damage it? I have discone antenna with 50ft of 75ohm coax.

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Antenna_mounted_Amplifier_Project

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-CABLE-SATALIT...ryZ39803QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[hoser147]

An external antenna and good coax will do you better than an amp. You run more of a risk of overloading a allready hot scanner. Hoser

 

[Aaron88]

How long does your coax have to be before you start experiencing signal loss? Thanks Hoser

 

[hoser147]

Depends on the coax itself the shorter the run the better. What antenna are you using on it now?

 

[HOLEBILLY]

I put a amp on my 2096 and it works great. I pull in alot that I could nenver here before. Some channles on vhf did get overloaded but I just put on the att for the ones that was overloaded and they came in great. By the way I live in the sticks.

 

[hoser147]

http://www.ocarc.ca/coax.htm here is a coax index that shows the different losses.

 

[Aaron88]

My osp area is district 9 and I live in Wheelersburg and the patrol post is in Lucasville and should I still be able to monitor MARCS in my area?

 

[Aaron88]

Depends on the coax itself the shorter the run the better. What antenna are you using on it now?

I am using a Radio Shack discone. I am also using low loss quad shield rg6 75ohm coax.

 

[hoser147]

How long of a run do you have? What are you wanting to monitor besides MARCs? Ive got both RS discones and really dont think that much of them on 800mhz. Right now Ive got a Scantenna up there and in my opinon it blows both of my discones away.

 

[Aaron88]

50 ft. run and should I try scantenna? I usually monitor Scioto County fire departments (mostley Porter Township), New Boston and Portsmouth Police and Scioto County Sheriff. I want to try Marcs now though.

 

[hoser147]

You can get them cheap enough under 40 bucks shipped, they work good on all bands. If you do you want to reinforce it as it shows in the Wiki which isnt a major feat. here is a link for one on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290187448730&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=019

 

[Aaron88]

My discone will reach Ashland Ky fire dispatch clearly from Wheelersburg with my discone and the freq. is 154.250

 

[hoser147]

I like my discones for that range of freq also, just dont seem to get it on 800. Have you tried using the 800 rs ducky? Or you may want to go with a better coax and see if that helps.

 

[Aaron88]

No I haven't tried rs ducky.

 

[Aaron88]

I am thinking of replacing my discone with a Scantenna and what are the pros and cons of Scantenna?