I have a Uniden BC246T Trunk Tracker handheld scanner that I want to purchase an outdoor rooftop antenna for. I monitor only an 800mhz trunked system. I am looking for the most durable in wind and also one that would give me the best reception. I am not concerned about the price. Could somebody give me a recommendation?
Best Outdoor Rooftop Antenna For 800mhz Trunk System
- Thread starter ginky4
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N_Jay
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How many systems?
How welll do you receive it (them) with the stock antenna?
Are you realy sure you only want 800 MHz?
How welll do you receive it (them) with the stock antenna?
Are you realy sure you only want 800 MHz?
RayK
Member
Try lookong for cellular outdoor antennas,here's a good place to start.
:http://canyonriver.com/directory_antenna.html
:http://canyonriver.com/directory_antenna.html
I do Police Towing for Baltimore County Maryland which uses an 800mhz trunked system. I want a rooftop antenna for my shop to so that I can get better reception. This scanner helps me get a jump on towing calls before the police actually call me to respond to clear an accident.
I want an antenna that won't get destroyed in the wind. The BC246T stock antenna does a decent job but inside my building with flourescent lighting and lots of other interference I get some scratchy reception.
I want an antenna that won't get destroyed in the wind. The BC246T stock antenna does a decent job but inside my building with flourescent lighting and lots of other interference I get some scratchy reception.
I too am looking at an 800mhz only system
I heard Antenex F8060 Series (FG8246) is good. I have a Pro-96 so I would need LMR-400 Coax Cable, 25', PL-259 & BNC male connectors. together it is about $230 without the mounting hardware. I see them both on scannermaster even tho I did see the F8060 about $50 cheaper on other sites. This is a 6db gain and is small. Or you can look at the Discone Antenna which is cheaper than the F8060 but I do not see it say anything about a DB gain and it is an all around not just 800mhz. The Discone is a larger antenna.
If anyone has tried both of these antennas to let us know if either has better performance for only 800mhz that would be great.
I heard Antenex F8060 Series (FG8246) is good. I have a Pro-96 so I would need LMR-400 Coax Cable, 25', PL-259 & BNC male connectors. together it is about $230 without the mounting hardware. I see them both on scannermaster even tho I did see the F8060 about $50 cheaper on other sites. This is a 6db gain and is small. Or you can look at the Discone Antenna which is cheaper than the F8060 but I do not see it say anything about a DB gain and it is an all around not just 800mhz. The Discone is a larger antenna.
If anyone has tried both of these antennas to let us know if either has better performance for only 800mhz that would be great.
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N_Jay
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ginky4 said:
If you have a decent signal inside, all you probably need is to get outside at roof level.
Almost anything will work.
A marine cell antenna is best for inexpensive durability.
Hi all,
I agree on the cell phone antenna BUT not all include the 800MHz band so shop carefully. This topic has been talked to death but I'll make one more mention of the old 800MHZ trunk lip mount antenna I attached to a 4" square electrical box cover, soldered 4 3" copper wire radials to and mounted outdoors on an angle bracket. I got the dinosaur for free so you may consider visiting some shops and poking around in dusty corners.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of good quality coax at this frequency! There's no point having a good signal pickup by the antenna just to dump it on the way to the receiver. Go with Belden 9913 air dielectric, best bang for the buck, but be careful since there are several similar types but only ONE is hollow. Failing that nothing less than Times Microwave LMR600 will do, LMR800 is preferable and well worth the price.
Skud, 400 is on a par with RG-8U polyfoam which is fine for VHF short runs but above 300MHz it starts to get quite lossy. 25' of it may work fine for you but still you could improve things a bit and Ginky just may have farther to go. Then he's only interested in one band so a discone isn't for him, an antenna strictly for the purpose is smaller, lighter, more durable and has decent gain while a discone has none. You've got the right idea being helpful and all but sorry, you missed the point.
Now there you go Ginky, to sum it all up what you need is not the average cell phone antenna nor scanner antenna, rather a high gain 800MHz antenna all by itself strictly for the purpose. That's why I'm using an older cell antenna ONLY for 800, not one of the new tri-band ones. I got it for nothing but if unavailable I still would have paid for an antenna strictly for the band, this is an area where no compromise is acceptable. Being 800MHz can be problematical, when it comes to antennas and coax go for the gold, you'll be glad you did. Hey, buy it at dealer net and write it off as a business expense, it pays to have a tax number.
I agree on the cell phone antenna BUT not all include the 800MHz band so shop carefully. This topic has been talked to death but I'll make one more mention of the old 800MHZ trunk lip mount antenna I attached to a 4" square electrical box cover, soldered 4 3" copper wire radials to and mounted outdoors on an angle bracket. I got the dinosaur for free so you may consider visiting some shops and poking around in dusty corners.
I cannot overemphasize the importance of good quality coax at this frequency! There's no point having a good signal pickup by the antenna just to dump it on the way to the receiver. Go with Belden 9913 air dielectric, best bang for the buck, but be careful since there are several similar types but only ONE is hollow. Failing that nothing less than Times Microwave LMR600 will do, LMR800 is preferable and well worth the price.
Skud, 400 is on a par with RG-8U polyfoam which is fine for VHF short runs but above 300MHz it starts to get quite lossy. 25' of it may work fine for you but still you could improve things a bit and Ginky just may have farther to go. Then he's only interested in one band so a discone isn't for him, an antenna strictly for the purpose is smaller, lighter, more durable and has decent gain while a discone has none. You've got the right idea being helpful and all but sorry, you missed the point.
Now there you go Ginky, to sum it all up what you need is not the average cell phone antenna nor scanner antenna, rather a high gain 800MHz antenna all by itself strictly for the purpose. That's why I'm using an older cell antenna ONLY for 800, not one of the new tri-band ones. I got it for nothing but if unavailable I still would have paid for an antenna strictly for the band, this is an area where no compromise is acceptable. Being 800MHz can be problematical, when it comes to antennas and coax go for the gold, you'll be glad you did. Hey, buy it at dealer net and write it off as a business expense, it pays to have a tax number.
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