Discone Antenna Help

[kellyrj]

Hey Gang I need some help. I have a pro-97 scanner - the area i live in is in a low area. i heard about the discone antenna and i am curious to see how it will work. i noticed that RS has one model and its $73. Ebay has some listed for less but a variety of models. does it matter what model antenna? i live in tarrant county texas, monitor 800 trunking and a variety of 250 - 450 (air). i just want to see if anyone new the difference in the models of antenna, some say for ham and vhf and amature......i didnt know if that matters for scanners or not.

second question is if and when i get a discone.....obviously it will mounted outside and my intention is to run the cable through my attic. does it matter how long the cable is.... at least 100' or 150' will be needed to reach inside the house where i want the connection to be...is that too long? will it have to be tuned? whatever that means....(heard the term somewhere)

any help will do...thanks guys

 

[hoser147]

I Run the Radio Shack discone and it does a decent job on VHF but leaves some desire on 800. Thats a long run of coax so you had better use something with as less loss as possible. Hoser

 

[kellyrj]

by that you mean thicker cable.......less impeadance/resistance kind of thing or an amp or booster componanent?

 

[hoser147]

Check out the antenna forum there are alot of posts there in reference to coax, Just remember it is a very important component of your antenna system. Also check the WIKI link at the top of RR for more info. You may want to run some kind of booster at that length of coax run........Hoser

 

[trooperdude]

Hey Gang I need some help. I have a pro-97 scanner - the area i live in is in a low area. i heard about the discone antenna and i am curious to see how it will work. i noticed that RS has one model and its $73. Ebay has some listed for less but a variety of models. does it matter what model antenna? i live in tarrant county texas, monitor 800 trunking and a variety of 250 - 450 (air). i just want to see if anyone new the difference in the models of antenna, some say for ham and vhf and amature......i didnt know if that matters for scanners or not.

second question is if and when i get a discone.....obviously it will mounted outside and my intention is to run the cable through my attic. does it matter how long the cable is.... at least 100' or 150' will be needed to reach inside the house where i want the connection to be...is that too long? will it have to be tuned? whatever that means....(heard the term somewhere)

any help will do...thanks guys

Radio shack discones are the bottom of the pile in terms of quality and performance.

Discones in general are a VERY POOR choice for 800mhz imho, well anything above about 300mhz actually.

With 150ft of coax at 800mhz, and a discone which exhibits no gain, you will have a net LOSS of signal at the receiver with this setup.

Spend a few hours reading the antenna wiki here.

My advice is always band-specific antennas, a good diplexer or triplexer to combine them, and QUALITY cable for runs that long.

What can you do to shorten the antenna cable distance ?

Your antenna setup could easily cost more than the Pro97.

None of the above components for a decent antenna system can you get at Radio Shack.

 

[key2_altfire]

If you can shorten that coax run, you'll get way better reception from your antenna. Cable losses can be enormous. Rigid coax (the larger the better) is great for low-loss over longer runs, but heavy and difficult to support the weight of this long flexy thing.