Indoor scanner antenna

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adacats

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Im looking to spend around 40-50 dollars potentially on a scanner antenna. I see a lot of outdoor antennas in that range, and I am considering buying a small outdoor antenna, but I want to use it indoors sitting on the floor by my computer. My question is, will I see a huge difference in reception between my 800mhz rubber antenna and an outdoor antenna in that price range, even indoors, and what recommendations for antennas do you have? I need to pick up both conventional and 800-900MHz digital spectrum.
 
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teufler

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I use an 800 mhz larsen antenna for monitoring. Its a stacked design. http://www.theantennafarm.com/catal...ular-range-198/high-gain-800mhz-antennas-223/
now gain, I have attached the rubber duck, on the 396xt, 1-2 bars. A Austin Condor antenna, 2-3 bars. The stacked 1/4 over a 5/8th wave, 4 to full scale, on towers that are 15 miles from the house. I have a dualk band ham antenna, vhf/uhf mounted maybe 20 ft above the ground, on 800, the 800 specific antenna is far better. I have alittle non trunking left at my residence, the antenna works pretty good .
 

adacats

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Would a Yagi or Discone antenna do any better, as that was my original intention, though I dont know the first thing about antennas, so what are the advantages/disadvantages of the different antenna types.
 

Tech792

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Just about any antenna over the supplied rubber duckie is usually an improvement. Even indoors. Just be careful putting antennas too close to your computer and router equipment. They're famous for generating unwanted noise that might make its way into your scanner's receiver.
 

adacats

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From an article I just read, it sounds like a discone antenna would be best. Anyone recommend a good one for around $50?
 

teufler

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well you said an inside antena, and a discone, or the ones I have worked with are pretty tall. Now if you are mounting outside, thats opens up alot more antenna designs. Go to WWW.amazon.com, type in discone antenna, you get antennas from $63.00 to $134.00. A few of a shorter designb but most have a tall center section that with the antenna touching your floor, you could get it in the house. Also if 800 mhz is a greater interest, type in 800 mhz beam, there are multi element for $25.00 or less.
 

popnokick

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I need to pick up both conventional and 800-900MHz digital spectrum.

If it's correct to assume that what you mean by "conventional" are frequencies OTHER THAN 800 mHz (e.g. UHF, VHF Hi and Lo band).... a yagi or beam built for 800 is not going to do that well at all. It will be great for 800 but your other frequencies will suffer. A discone is going to cover a wide range of frequencies, but not provide any gain or outstanding performance in any particular range. You have to figure out what you want to hear the most, and whether or not what you want to hear is fairly strong in your location... or very weak to unreadable. Then get an antenna that has the most advantage for what is weak / unreadable, and is a compromise for everything else. Conversely, if your 800 mHz desired listening is close to you and / or very strong, a discone will probably work very well for the broad range of frequencies you (apparently) wrote that you want to hear.
 

adacats

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I pick up the 800mhz digital channels fine, it's the 400mhz analog channels from a city a few miles away that's coming in weak. I am currently using a flat leaf antenna for hdtvs, so I assume almost any smaller outdoor antenna would be better.
 

teufler

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if the 400 mhz signal isonly a few miules away, what is between you and the signal? Terrain maybe. You could be experienceing geographic masking. Meaning a more exotic antenna structure may have to be used.
 

popnokick

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I think what you meant is that you are using an HDTV flat "leaf" antenna for your scanner (?). If that's correct then a couple of questions come to mind, i. e. -
- Is the flat leaf HDTV antenna in a window facing the city from which you are trying to pick up UHF?
- How big is the flat leaf HDTV antenna? If it's too small it may not really be doing that well with UHF.
You wrote that 800 mHz is fine and that you are having trouble with UHF being weak. What may be an improvement for you is simply a larger indoor TV antenna that has better gain for UHF than the leaf antenna. Something like any of the following -
Winegard 8-Bay UHF Prostar 1000 High Definition TV Antenna (HD-8800) from Solid Signal

Or if most of what you want to listen to is in a single general direction, get this and turn it vertical -
Terk HD-TVA Indoor HDTV Amplified UHF/VHF TV Antenna (HD-TVA) from Solid Signal)

As you discovered with 800 mHz, TV antennas do pretty well with scanners. You just need to find one with more gain on UHF and get it into a good location (away from your computer). Here's why TV antennas work with scanners (scroll down to the Channel Chart and look at the frequencies) -
North American television frequencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

AtlasFBG2

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I used a Antenna Craft st3 mounted on a 6ft 2x4 in the living room for awhile. The antenna is only about 20" tall so it almost touched the ceiling. Worked pretty good and was about $35 shipped.

Later i moved it into the attic and reception improved as expected.

Its more for the 150 and 450 mhz range but my 800mhz is strong enough reception didnt suffer. .
 

sparklehorse

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I'm not an antenna expert, but I've read a number of posts here that suggest the center element on most discones is there primarily to give it coverage into the VHF-Lo band. And if you remove it, the discone will still function very well from VHF-Hi thru 900 MHz. Once that center spike is removed we're talking about an antenna that's maybe three feet tall and three feet in diameter, and can fit in a corner of a room pretty easily, or better yet be placed in an attic. It's true that discones don't offer any real gain, but I can tell you from experience they do work well across a broad range of frequencies. Another good performer is the DPL Omni-X, but that's a little outside the price range the OP quoted.

.
 

rwier

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Im looking to spend around 40-50 dollars potentially on a scanner antenna. I see a lot of outdoor antennas in that range, and I am considering buying a small outdoor antenna, but I want to use it indoors sitting on the floor by my computer. My question is, will I see a huge difference in reception between my 800mhz rubber antenna and an outdoor antenna in that price range, even indoors, and what recommendations for antennas do you have? I need to pick up both conventional and 800-900MHz digital spectrum.

On top of my vehicle: SpectrumForce SFA-201B

ProComm JBC290M JBC290MM JBC290WC Mobile Scanner Antenna

In my vehicle, between the antenna feed and the scanners: pct ma2 4p (4 Port option)

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Ampli...p/B001EKCGT8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

On top of my house: SpectrumForce SFA-201B
(see above for seller)

In my house, near my desktop, between the antenna feed and the scanners: pct ma2 4p (4 Port option)
(see above for seller)

In my bedroom, on the top shelf of the closet, on a steel draftsman's straight edge: SpectrumForce SFA-201B
(see above for seller)

On this single (bedroom) scanner, I direct connect to the antenna, with no booster.
 

Swipesy

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I set up a friend of mine who lives in a high rise apartment in Painesville with a Larsen TriBand antenna mounted on a metal cookie sheet and connected to his Pro-106. He gets great reception on it. I also use the same antenna mounted on a steel plate inside the back of my SUV and it works great on my PSR-800. The antenna is about $25.00 + you need to buy a N Mag mount. Total would be around $50. Now you have the best of both worlds - use for base and take it mobile.
 

adacats

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So I have moved to a higher apartment in the same building, and now i get conventional (50Mhz) channels fine, but have choppy digital signals in the 800MHZ range. I am considering a larsen tri band, such as this,
http://www.amazon.com/Larsen-800-86...438883591&sr=8-1&keywords=larsen++antenna+800

What are your recommendations for 800MHZ antennas. I was considering a diractional antenna, but wasn't sure how much is would lose reception on some analog frequencies not in that direction. Again, it must be able to fit on the floor near my desk.
 

adacats

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The current antenna I am still using is a 1 foot by 1 foot (roughly) flat tv antenna. I tried an old 2 piece telescopic antenna i had from a tv and got slightly better reception (but still terrible). Looking for a better antenna to resolve the issue.
 

DickH

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I bought a good quality tuned 800mhz mag mount antenna, which I have on a cookie sheet. It hasn't improved reception. I am considering buying this directional antenna. Laird PC806N Yagi Base Antenna

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

When you are in a building you need to get the antenna as close to a window as possible. Glass will not impede the signal, but walls, etc. can.
 

AC9BX

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Lockport, IL
Indoor versus outdoor doesn't really matter for what the antenna is. It's just metal. However, some may be more susceptible to performance changes than others when in proximity to other objects. Plus materials in the structure are always problematic. This is why outdoor antennas work so much better, generally. Foil-backed vapor barrier wall sheathing can block tremendous amount of signal. I could argue for a range of frequencies a piece of scrap wire sticking up outside is better than any commercial antenna used indoors.

TV antennas are made for TV frequencies. They often do a good job for 700, 800, and even 900 MHz just by the nature of their design. A "bow tie" antenna which is a version of the biconical generally exhibits increasing sensitivity as frequency increases, up to a limit. So it was built for 470 through 700 (the current full U.S. UHF TV band) but works well above that. It performs poorly below 470 typically. Sadly, the manufacturer will typically skimp on materials and size, making the antenna too small, so performance down at 470 is worse than it should be (that's TV channel 14) and better at the top than it needs to be.

The discone is a remarkable antenna. Most do not perform as wide as the manufacturer claims but they do cover a very wide range very well. Although they don't look like it they are vertically polarized. They're best at high altitude and good for scanners because the radiation elevation pattern is shaped such that gain is lower for signals near and *under* it and high at the horizon. That doesn't mean it wont work well nearer the ground.

The difficult part is VHF and lower UHF. One reason is for Hertzian antennas (which most are) as the diameter of the conductor is fatter with respect to the length the bandwidth increases. This is easy to achieve at higher frequencies. A simple length of heavy wire is amazingly wide band above 700MHz.

As mentioned, you'll want to keep whatever it is away from things inside like the computer, TV, battery chargers, etc. Even HDMI cables can and do radiate RF energy. (depending on the exact setup and resolution chosen HDMI can radiate a great deal of RF)
 
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