kd5pqv
Member
I Have A Pro 60 And A Pro 2006 And I Live Partime In An Apartment Lanlord Will Not Allow Outside Antenna. I Want To Hear More Than Local Stuff What Would Yall Recommend I Buy For These Two Scanners .
Appartment Antenna
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kf4pep
Member
Antennas are easy to hide.
Have a balcony or deck? A dual band J-pole becomes a great flower pot hanger with a PVC hook added to the top. Only have windows? A simple dipole made from a SO-239 and some coathangers set right against the edge of the window is virtually invisible.
I would start with the coat hange dipole/ground plane. For VHF (will rec fine up through 800) get two coathangers, straighten them both and cut two 19 piece sections.
Go down to Radio Shack and grab one of these
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...r=1&origkw=so-239&kw=so-239&parentPage=search
And if you don't have one a decent high wattage soldering gun and some solder (check around, gun may be cheaper somewhere like Big Lots or Wal-Mart)
Take your first section of coat hanger , insert it into the center connector, and solder it in place. Take the second section, insert it into one of the 4 holes, and solder it so it is going down opposite the coax. If you wish the second piece can also be held in place by making a loop in it and using a small nut and bolt.
Paint the whole deal to match where you want to hide it, bend the elements at the base to get whatever angle works best (but keep them either straight up and down 180 from each other or at most a 90 degree L shape). Be sure to keep the element coming from the center as close to straight up and down as you can.
A link with the same general idea
http://www.qsl.net/wrav/2mground.htm This one uses 4 elemnets for the ground plane, but for scaner use you can use one just fine.
I ran one of these, but with the elements straight up and down, in an "no antenna" apartment for 3 years with no issues. I painted it to match the exterior and mounted it right on the side of the wall in the window. Of course you reception will be a be more favorable to that side of the building, but it beats a rubber duck in all directions.
Total cost? Under $4.
Have a balcony or deck? A dual band J-pole becomes a great flower pot hanger with a PVC hook added to the top. Only have windows? A simple dipole made from a SO-239 and some coathangers set right against the edge of the window is virtually invisible.
I would start with the coat hange dipole/ground plane. For VHF (will rec fine up through 800) get two coathangers, straighten them both and cut two 19 piece sections.
Go down to Radio Shack and grab one of these
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...r=1&origkw=so-239&kw=so-239&parentPage=search
And if you don't have one a decent high wattage soldering gun and some solder (check around, gun may be cheaper somewhere like Big Lots or Wal-Mart)
Take your first section of coat hanger , insert it into the center connector, and solder it in place. Take the second section, insert it into one of the 4 holes, and solder it so it is going down opposite the coax. If you wish the second piece can also be held in place by making a loop in it and using a small nut and bolt.
Paint the whole deal to match where you want to hide it, bend the elements at the base to get whatever angle works best (but keep them either straight up and down 180 from each other or at most a 90 degree L shape). Be sure to keep the element coming from the center as close to straight up and down as you can.
A link with the same general idea
http://www.qsl.net/wrav/2mground.htm This one uses 4 elemnets for the ground plane, but for scaner use you can use one just fine.
I ran one of these, but with the elements straight up and down, in an "no antenna" apartment for 3 years with no issues. I painted it to match the exterior and mounted it right on the side of the wall in the window. Of course you reception will be a be more favorable to that side of the building, but it beats a rubber duck in all directions.
Total cost? Under $4.
N4JNW
Member
I have the same dilemma you have. I will be moving to an apartment soon, and am planning on running indoor only antennae.
RadioShack has a telecopic "back of set" scanner antenna that extends to about 4 ft. I have one on the back of my Pro-2055, and it recieves exceptionally well on VHF Hi, and UHF. Not sure how it does on a trunked system though.
I can recieve anything within about a 30 mile radius with good clarity, bout at about 35 - 40 miles, it get's pretty crackly, but is still understandable.
RadioShack has a telecopic "back of set" scanner antenna that extends to about 4 ft. I have one on the back of my Pro-2055, and it recieves exceptionally well on VHF Hi, and UHF. Not sure how it does on a trunked system though.
I can recieve anything within about a 30 mile radius with good clarity, bout at about 35 - 40 miles, it get's pretty crackly, but is still understandable.
Apt Antennas
A friend of mine lives in an apartment and he does this with his antennas.
The first one is a piece of coax with like 19/20" exposed at the end hanging from the corner to act like a quarter wave on VHF.
The second is how he hangs the magnet mounted antennas on the air vent. It works. I always wanted to know if the vent portion would really help as it would act like a huge ground plane, but I've never been able to do any testing.
A friend of mine lives in an apartment and he does this with his antennas.
The first one is a piece of coax with like 19/20" exposed at the end hanging from the corner to act like a quarter wave on VHF.
The second is how he hangs the magnet mounted antennas on the air vent. It works. I always wanted to know if the vent portion would really help as it would act like a huge ground plane, but I've never been able to do any testing.
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JHaislet
Member
I'm also currently in an apartment (3rd floor, ~25' AGL) and was thinking about getting a Scantenna for inside my spare room. I want to target more MilAir/Air and try pulling in a couple distant 800mhz systems.
The SD state radio system blows in just fine on a 3" ducky at 159mhz as the tower is local.
I had two questions about the size of this antenna:
1) Are there two different sized Scantenna's floating around?
AW below lists the longest elements as 101-inches long, tip to tip (~8-1/2')
http://www.antennawarehouse.com/Scanner/Scantenna.htm
Yet Grove lists the actual dimensions as approximately 7-1/2' tall.
http://www.grove-ent.com/ANT7.html
2) My ceiling is only 8' tall. If the total height of the Scantenna ends up being about 8-1/2' tall, is it ok to mount it a little off center (vertically)? I'm thinking I could fit it inside while keeping it about 80 degrees vertical.
Or would it be better to mount it horizontal? (
The SD state radio system blows in just fine on a 3" ducky at 159mhz as the tower is local.
I had two questions about the size of this antenna:
1) Are there two different sized Scantenna's floating around?
AW below lists the longest elements as 101-inches long, tip to tip (~8-1/2')
http://www.antennawarehouse.com/Scanner/Scantenna.htm
Yet Grove lists the actual dimensions as approximately 7-1/2' tall.
http://www.grove-ent.com/ANT7.html
2) My ceiling is only 8' tall. If the total height of the Scantenna ends up being about 8-1/2' tall, is it ok to mount it a little off center (vertically)? I'm thinking I could fit it inside while keeping it about 80 degrees vertical.
Or would it be better to mount it horizontal? (
Don_Burke
Member
My math shows it would be more like 20 degrees off vertical and I would go for as close to vertical as possible.JHaislet said:
kny2xb
Member
I use the VHF whips / rabbit-ears that came off a TV. It uses two feet of 300 ohm twin-lead to connect. Just extend the whips and stand it up. I stood my first one in the corner behind our dresser (to keep my now ex-wife happy). The local stuff came in fine on the stock 2-foot telescopic whip, but the mil-air that I wanted, forget it. After I converted the rabbit-ears to a scanner antenna, the local comms were nearly on overload, and I started receiving the mil-air I wanted. In fact at the time (1990-1992), there was a good sunspot cycle, so the skip was running. I lived in Western New York State, and I was picking up CHP comms on 42 MHz with this setup on my PRO-2004.
So I use:
(1) set of VHF whip rabbit-ears
(1) 300 ohm twin screws-to-75 ohm male adapter
(1) F female-to-BNC male adapter
It sits right in the corner between my desk and the wall since I usually use one of my hand-held scanners while I'm at my PC.
If you need to extend the reach of the antenna, add:
(1) double F-female at the 300 ohm twin screws-to-75 ohm male adapter
(1) whatever length of 75-ohm coax you need to reach from the antenna to your scanner
It helps my reception, until I have a place where I can have external antennas (preferably on a nice tall tower)
73
Greg
Clearwater / Dunedin, FL
So I use:
(1) set of VHF whip rabbit-ears
(1) 300 ohm twin screws-to-75 ohm male adapter
(1) F female-to-BNC male adapter
It sits right in the corner between my desk and the wall since I usually use one of my hand-held scanners while I'm at my PC.
If you need to extend the reach of the antenna, add:
(1) double F-female at the 300 ohm twin screws-to-75 ohm male adapter
(1) whatever length of 75-ohm coax you need to reach from the antenna to your scanner
It helps my reception, until I have a place where I can have external antennas (preferably on a nice tall tower)
73
Greg
Clearwater / Dunedin, FL
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
JHaislet said:
You might do better with the off center fed dipole- we have a diagram with the dimensions in our Wiki, and it's been discussed here several times. It should fit easily in a 8 foot ceiling. Grove sells it, but if you're handy with copper piping, it looks to be an easy antenna to build. And since you're putting it indoors, no worries about weatherproofing. Easier to hide it , too 73s Mike
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zguy1243
Member
Do you have attic access? I lived in a apartment once and put my stuff in the attic. Worked great.
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