Best attic antenna for VHF/UHF

[dmg1969]

I scan primarily VHF low, VHF high and UHF...nothing in the 800 MHz range. Particularly, I want good performance in the VHF low range because that is what my county police and fire are on. So, i guess I am looking at something that will run the gamut from 25-1300 MHz.

I would prefer to mount it in my attic, but am limited on room. It is a ranch house and the only thing up there are the roof trusses. I have not measured, but can't imagine that there is much more than 4' of vertical room at the peak. I was thinking about an unbalanced dipole, but that has the be mounted vertically if I'm not mistaken and it would not fit.

My main reason for wanting to attic mount is that I would be concerned about grounding issues and lightning if mounting outside. IF I would mount outside, I would just go with piece of mast attached to our deck. In that event, I guess I could go with either a discone or a Scantenna. How does one ground an antenna installed outside? I have seen coax that appears to have a grounding wire attached. Is that what I need and just run that to a length of rebar pounded into the ground?

Dave

 

[quarterwave]

Try USDIPOLE.COM

 

[dmg1969]

Now, I have a few amateur-ish questions. But I am not an amateur radio operator and not that well versed on antennas. Years ago I had a Radio Shack ground plane that was excellent in reception for my needs. Alas, they do not make it anymore and it could not work for me anyway because I lack the room. '

OK, I have been reading a lot online and it seems that the overwhelming majority of people like the Scantenna (ST2). I would assume that the orientation of the antenna is important meaning that I could not mount it horizontally in my attic? If not, would mounting it vertically in my basement still provide much better reception than the back of set antenna? The basement is about half below grade on one end and slopes to a cut-out on the driveway side.

As a last resort, my thought is to mount it to a section of mast attached to the deck. This is an old photo of the house after we moved in. The deck is still there but is being replaced in the spring anyway. In that event, I have to decide whether to ground it or simply disconnect the coax when a storm threatens.I would probably do so anyway...even if it was grounded and just use my portable during a storm.

Dave

 

[quarterwave]

I can't say IF the one you mention would be better than a dipole or discone or etc...

Your attic looks rather short, that will be a problem. In the basement...well, I would just keep the back of set rather than put it there.

You could either put a 20 ft mast up that deck corner and get it above the roof line or put a bracket on the gable peak and put a 5 ft or so mast there. Either way...get it up in the air.

Horizontal = No.

 

[russellmaher]

A suggestion...

for you to consider. How about installing the Austin "Ferret" base antenna (it covers the 25 - 1300 range) on a short mast and mount it to the roofline as indicated in the photo of the house. The antenna itself is 8 ft. high, so it should work just fine up there.

Russell

 

[reconrider8]

Or just do like the last pic shows and grab 2 sections of top rail and mount them together im total that would be 21' but drop it a foot for mounting purposes. Then ground everything out

 

[w2csx]

This is the one I uses and for it works really good. I am not the seller just a user.

Scanner Antenna | eBay

 

[popnokick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A523 Safari/8536.25)

Dave- Don't put an antenna in your basement. Why do you think they say a basement is a good fallout shelter? Well, same thing applies to RF.
This antenna costs next to nothing to try in your attic (2nd version in RR Antenna Wiki article).
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Homebrewed_Off-Center_Fed_Dipole
Lots of people here on RR have made one and usually report great results. Search on "OCFD" or "off-center" here on RR. It's meant to hang vertically and is ony 5 1/2 feet long... But you could bend the bottom wire into an L with minimal bad effect.
I have one in my attic and use the old CATV coax in the house to feed two scanners... One upstairs, one down. I'm in NE PA but can easily hear NY and NJ agencies with only this wire in my attic.

 

[kma371]

take a look at the ventennas they are great. awesome gain on VHF and UHF.

 

[Rt169Radio]

I would go with a Antennacraft ST2 mounted outdoors.

 

[quarterwave]

take a look at the ventennas they are great. awesome gain on VHF and UHF.

Looks cool...well looks like a vent pipe.

I considered mounting a small antenna on one of my vent pipes, but I don't want to violate the integrity of the pipe or roof to run the coax.

On another note, taxing authorities often count the number of vent pipes to determine the number of bathrooms in the house, and health departments will also check for this, as they determine septic (rural) requirements based on number of baths, not number of bedrooms.

I wonder if anyone ever ran into that issue when adding one of these pipes just for the antenna.

 

[dmg1969]

I am heavily leaving toward the ST2 and mounting it to the deck rather than the house. I doctored the photo to show where I would imagine putting it.

I am also thinking about ways to make the mount such that I could remove it if we were expecting a storm with very strong winds or lots of lightning. My thought is to put a mast mounting bracket on both the top and middle horizontal rails. In that, I would use a piece of PVC several feet long and of a diameter just large enough to allow the metal mast pole to fit inside. I would then drill two or three holes through the PVC and mast pole and use something like a cotter pin and cotter key.

I would still debate whether to ground it or not using this method. If I did, would just grounding the mast be enough. What type of wire would I use to ground it to earth and what should I pound into the ground (copper pipe, rebar, etc.)?

Dave

 

[kma371]

Looks cool...well looks like a vent pipe.

I considered mounting a small antenna on one of my vent pipes, but I don't want to violate the integrity of the pipe or roof to run the coax.

On another note, taxing authorities often count the number of vent pipes to determine the number of bathrooms in the house, and health departments will also check for this, as they determine septic (rural) requirements based on number of baths, not number of bedrooms.

I wonder if anyone ever ran into that issue when adding one of these pipes just for the antenna.

it slides over an existing vent so I doesn't add to amount of vents on your roof.

 

[quarterwave]

Cool.

 

[Paulsan]

Check out the DPD Productions Omni-X. It may work for you. DPD Productions - Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist

 

[dmg1969]

I actually contacted that guy a while back when I was considering one of his tuned mobile antennas. The only problem with the Omni-X is that I need it to do low-band which is a must for me. It does not appear to be tuned for that. Nice looking antenna though.

Dave

Check out the DPD Productions Omni-X. It may work for you. DPD Productions - Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist

 

[russellmaher]

Dave, the antenna mounted on the deck rail would be the easiest and fastest method to get an external antenna setup, but you said in post #3 that the deck is supposed to be removed in the spring, so this setup will only be temporary, right?


Russell

 

[reconrider8]

My only thing about a deck mount like that is you need it higher to get above the roof line to give the antenna a good line to scan

 

[dmg1969]

Russell: the deck is being replaced in the spring. So, it will be reinstalled on the new deck.

reconrider8: Yes, I would raise it high enough to get it about the roof line. That was only a rough visualization. I would make sure that the bottom of the antenna clears the roof.

Dave

 

[dmg1969]

A better representation of my plan.

Dave