Grove scanner beam

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GrayWolfSA58

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Just got the grove scanner beam today , last time I put this up I had a adjustable preamp that really work great, I can't find it any where. Does anyone know what kind this would be, it was alittle black box with a knob to turn it on and adjust the gain also had a red light on it????thanks for any help.
 

kb2unk

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GRE Scanner PreAmps

Hi there!

I think I have one of those amps that you are talking about. I got mine about 10 years ago and I still love it and it works great! It was meant to be a portable model that went in between the portable scanner and the antenna. It has BNC connectors on both ends and a 9 volt battery slot, or a power supply wall wart plug for 9v. It also has adjustable gain and 3 different amplification ranges and it does have a single red LED on the face of it. It is made by GRE and they are still in business and you can probably purchase this unit or one close to it still. Here is the company website page for perhaps what you are looking for: http://www.greamerica.com/scanner.html I hope this helps you! P.S., I also have had a Grove Scanner Beam for over 10 years too and that thing works fantastic with a rotor!

Best regards,
Jim - KBUNK
 

kb2vxa

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Hi R and all,

There are lots of little black boxes with knobs and red lights on them but what makes you think you need an amp in the first place? If you have a good antenna (and you do) you don't need one. Then too there's no point in trying to make up for a deficient antenna with an amp, that's asking for trouble.

Oh Jim;
"I also have had a Grove Scanner Beam for over 10 years too and that thing works fantastic with a rotor!"
Thanks for the chuckle, read it closely and you'll get the joke too. "Here's your sign." (;->)
 

kb2unk

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Grove Scanner Beam & GRE PreAmp

Hi Warren & RLash,

Here's another link to the "PreAmp" that you may be thinking of: http://www.grove-ent.com/PREAMPLIFIERS.html And yes Warren, I do agree with you on not needing one if you have a good antenna with good antenna height and nice low loss coax cable. I'm glad to hear that there are others in the area that are still using the Grove Scanner Beam Antenna! I see Warren that you are in Pt. Pleas, Beach. Cool! I'm in Forked River, NJ. I'm in the process of totally getting ready to design a new roof-top antenna tower, etc... and I'm glad to see that there are lots of local scanner hobbyists out here and I'm sure in the near future, I'll need some technical help and advice! Thanks to all!

Best Regards,
Jim - KB2UNK
 

GrayWolfSA58

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kb2vxa said:
Hi R and all,

There are lots of little black boxes with knobs and red lights on them but what makes you think you need an amp in the first place? If you have a good antenna (and you do) you don't need one. Then too there's no point in trying to make up for a deficient antenna with an amp, that's asking for trouble.

Oh Jim;
"I also have had a Grove Scanner Beam for over 10 years too and that thing works fantastic with a rotor!"
Thanks for the chuckle, read it closely and you'll get the joke too. "Here's your sign." (;->)
Well I went thru all this 20 yrs ago when I put groves scanner beam up and the preamp we hooked it up at the antenna it worked great.. now the repeater towers are about 70 miles away it's hard to hit them good with out a preamp. I just wanted to get some web sight to see if I could find the one I had it's not GER,,,if you didn't need the preamp you could turn it off and the beam still worked good. I live in a low area on my 250 acre farm sounds good but bad area for recieveing signal. This was all before repeater towers like now adays ......I guess the Grove beam 2 is just alittle tighter just got it today and wanted to put the amp up with the beam, but can't find the preamp ... search doesnt find it. thanks for any info or help...
 

GrayWolfSA58

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I had to move a bunch of ammo but found it in a closet it is a GROVE PRE-4 preamp. have contacted grove to see if they would make me another one. thanks for the replies.
 

MB

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kb2vxa said:
Hi R and all,

There are lots of little black boxes with knobs and red lights on them but what makes you think you need an amp in the first place? If you have a good antenna (and you do) you don't need one. Then too there's no point in trying to make up for a deficient antenna with an amp, that's asking for trouble.

I have to disagree with this! I went out and bought a good antenna and high quality coax and I still gained a lot by adding a good preamp. Night and day difference with the preamp.

Not everyones environment is the same, but if you are after distant weak signals a good quality preamp does wonders.
 

MB

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RLash said:
who makes a good preamp??

I have had really good luck with Advanced Receiver preamps. I have two of them: the Broadband VHF/UHF Preamplifier (11dB gain) and the P150VDG, 150-160 MHz GaAsFET 24dB preamp.

They are on the expensive side, but well worth the money in my opinion. Both amps make a world of difference if you are looking to receive those distant signals. However, you should make sure that your antenna and coax are top quality before you invest in a preamp. Depending on your listening environment you may have to use some PAR intermod filters.



http://www.advancedreceiver.com/
 

kb2unk

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I Agree With MB!

I agree with you MB! I've had many years of fantastic long distance "VHF Low/High and UHF Low/High" scanner listening mostly using Realistic and Uniden scanners, also using Belden 9913 Coax (the finest flexible cable at the time of the install), (2) Diamond Discones, Dual Band VHF/UHF Ham Yagi and a Grove Scanner Beam Antenna, which are all 60 feet in the air from the ground, all spun by a Yaesu G-450 Rotor. But I too always used some sort of high-end wide frequency Pre-Amp to enhance those really weak signals and I always make sure that the Pre-Amps use an Attenuator, not to overload the radios. I can say that I was pulling in Safety Dept. base repeater signals from at least 50 miles away and more here in Ocean County, NJ! Just some friendly thoughts of mine and maybe even some advice here too for RLash!
 
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GrayWolfSA58

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Well good news my son went out to the barn ,that we use to store old roadrunners and engines and he got the old scanner beam and it has the preamp module. on the module it says it's good for 10mhz-1000mhz so we have the controler and module so were going to put it up tonight. I went with the heavy duty channel master rotor with remote controler. The Grove pre-4 preamp looks like new because it's always been inside, thanks for the replies and suggestions
 

Twister234

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Well... Let's hear the results

I too like trying the old stuff I forgot I had. Tell us how your pre-amp and beam work.
 

GrayWolfSA58

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well the preamp had a loud buzzing in it so we had to take it out, dam dissapointing, now I have to try to find a preamp all over again, any suggestions?????????????????? why is it so hard to get a good preamp 20 yrs ago they were everywhere.
 

GrayWolfSA58

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OH yeah,, my standbye antenna gets a better signal hit than the beam, when listening to flint,20 miles away, oakland county 35 miles away the beam gets a better hit than the standbye but just barely, and I check to make sure the conections were not wrong, you know mixed up...
 
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