Question on Radio Shack 800Mhz Antenna.

[C19D72S]

Hi to all,

I was planning on buying this antenna Friday after seeing it online and wonder if it's worth having? I have a base Radio Shack Pro-2050 Trunk Tracker scanner that is about 12yrs old. I live in Princeton,Indiana and ever since Vincennes police went to the 800 freqs i can't get them and I am on the west side and a hop,skip and jump from highway 41. I am also partly getting Evansville's police 800 freqs too,sometimes I can get them and sometimes I can't. i was wondering if anyone who lives in the Gibson County (Princeton) area that has the RS 800Mhz antenna can give me their review on it. Thanks to any helpful replies.

 

[W9NES]

What is the model number of the antenna? is it a Base Antenna or is it a antenna that plugs into the back of the scanner? You did not give us very much infomation.

 

[C19D72S]

Model # 20-283
Catalog # 20-283 The antenna is 7 inches long and cost $19.99 as what I saw on the Radio Shack website.

 

[SCPD]

i believe he is talking about the one you plug into the back of the scanner i dont think radio shack makes a 800mhz mobile antenna

 

[W9NES]

Radio Shack makes a Base antenna.They also make a antenna that plugs into the back of the scanner.C19D72S did not give us any Radio Shack part numbers for a Base Antenna or the antenna that plugs into the back of the scanner.

 

[C19D72S]

This is what I am refering to:

800MHz Scanner Antenna - RadioShack.com

It plugs in the back of the base scanner or on top of a mobile one. It has a male BNC connector .

 

[KR4BD]

RS DOES sell a portable 800 mHz rubber duckie antenna for handheld scanners. It offers a vast improvement in reception on 800 mHz over the stock "one size fits all" antenna that comes with the RS portable scanners. I have two of them I use on my Pro-92 and Pro-97. It works OK on 450 mHz as well, but does attenuate signals in the 30-50 and 150-170 mHz ranges. I bought mine several years ago when they were $15 each. I think they now sell for $20-ish. They will fit scanners with BNC fittings.

If you live in Princeton, IN, due to distance, I would think that both the 800 mHz systems in Evansville and Vincennes would require an outdoor antenna up 30 feet (or more) to receive them reliably. If you live on an unobstructed hilltop, maybe an attached RS 800 mHz rubber duck would do the job for you.

My experience on this:

Here in Lexington, KY, our local 800 mHz EDACS system is "marginal" near the outer edges of the city, but the RS 800 mHz antenna mostly overcomes that issue for me. A high profile 800 mHz system just 20 miles away in Richmond, KY is marginal to me unless I go to an outdoor, high antenna.

 

[n5ims]

I have a couple of the Radio Shack 800 MHz antennas and they work out well for me. Please note that this antenna is the same as the GRE 800 MHz antenna GRE 800 MHz Rubber Antenna (GRE makes it for Radio Shack) so you can shop around and pick either one of those and get the same antenna (assuming you don't care what name is printed on it).

 

[W9NES]

Any Base scanner antenna that will cover all bands from 30-1.2Ghz will do the trick as long as it is up high.The higher the better and if it is fed with low loss LMR-400 coax cable will let you scanner pick up more signals.Ask Viper 43 about that as he can hear all over the State of Indiana with his antenna being fed by low loss LMR-400 on VHF analog.The Handheld antenna that C19D72S posted is a great antenna for Handheld use.I use the same antenna on my Uniden 396T and also my Uniden 396XT and I can hear anything I need to hear as I carry my scanner with me all the time when I away from home.

 

[C19D72S]

Thanks for the help guys. Here is the same scanner I plan to use the antenna on http://forums.radioreference.com/at...9597-radioshack-pro-2050-scanner-img_0361.jpg
On mine the panel light is burnt out and the screw in radio like antenna that came with it was accidently broken off and I straightened out a wire clothes hanger and stuck in the hole that that antenna went,plus I do have an antenna from radio shack that is the silver metal kind that extends like the am/fm radio ones do. it does ok, I just feel I need something stronger-if possible.

 

[Viper43]

The little portable antenna won't help much, you really need to get some height as you have all kinds of interefering things between you and the signals you want to hear. And as the trees get leaves on them it will get worse. Add rain and you could lose it all together as it acts like a barrier on the leaves. As mentioned getting an antenna up to 30 feet or more will really help, but so does the cable your using to run between the antenna and scanner. Coax cable has a loss factor and the cheaper the cable the more loss it has. And don't use TV coax cable either, it's junk for scanner use! First off it isn't even 50 ohm cable, it's 75, and adds more attenuation so weak signals won't get through.
As W9NES said I hear things all over the state, but I use LMR400 coax cable (Times Micro) and a discone antenna (not the RS antenna, it's not very good). The one I use was either $99 or $140 through R&L or Universal Radio in Ohio. The antenna is between 65 and 70 feet to the top of it. the coax run is 150' to the house, it's then fed into a DLI 16 Channel Multicoupler and then to 16 different scanners and recievers. With this setup it works out very well, and I'm able to hear all over the state 24/7. Kinda funny when, like last night I hear a former classmate pull over a friend a 130+ miles away, call the guy up and give him a hard time, and then tell him to hand the phone to the officer who can't believe I can hear him at home. They both had a good laugh over that, and both could have sworn I was in town last night, but nope, I'm stuck at home with a neck problem, can't even drive right now