RS 20-176 outdoor antenna

[StoliRaz]

Anyone using one of these? They have rave reviews on RS's website. I have one and have not installed it yet...

 

[trooperdude]

Hundreds of historical posts here on that antenna

Try a search on the model number or "sputnik" it's nickname.

 

[Bentley]

I have one installed on a 20' extention painters pole. The difference is amazing, I highly recomend the 20-176 if you dont have a bunch of money to spend on an antenna (like me) . Some people on here will say to get the scantenna for just a few bucks more, BUT with shipping it turns out to be about double the price of the RS one.

Just my 2 cents

 

[StoliRaz]

Hundreds of historical posts here on that antenna

Try a search on the model number or "sputnik" it's nickname.

I "manually" searched the front 4 pages of this forum and only saw it once. Didn't even think to do a search. D'oh!

Just wondering what the reception is like with one of these. I'm about 10-15 miles outside of a major city, I already get many signals from the city, so I'm hoping this antenna will help get some suburban stuff too.

 

[Bentley]

10-15 miles should be no problem at all, depending of course on how high you install your antenna. I pick up towns as far as 30-40 miles away. Some people have reported more. But I think it all depends on how strong the signal is you are trying to receive.

 

[fuzzymoto]

I've had two 20-176 for over a year...one outside and one in the attic for lightning storm nights. Mine have both performed really well, although I don't use much 800Mhz (The 20-176 is supposed to be weaker in the 800Mhz bands). I also have a Scantenna/ST2 on the same mast. I'll say the ST-2 works better MOST of the time, but not all. For the price you can't beat the 20-176 for all around coverage. I paid $25 for one of my 20-176 and $10 for the other, and I paid $35 fo rthe ST-2....all good deals in my mind.

Mine all do well, but I do sit up pretty high on a hill.

PS I gave it the name Sputnik!

 

[policefreak]

How is this antenna on the 500 Mhz band? I'm smack-dab between about 5 or 6 500 Mhz systems (some conventional, some trunked, some P-25) where I am just on the cusp of reception, and my own county's conventional PD system is 500. I can get the Burlington systems marginally okay, Gloucester county channels 5-9 come in decent and anything else in that county is weak or nothing. I would Love to pick up Delaware county. I can pick it up a bit near the downstairs kitchen window. Oddly enough, the upstairs window facing the same direction I get nadda. Very frustrating! I would also love to get Bucks county. I receive the control channel, but the P25 voice channels come in broken up to the point of being unintelligible. There are times when I hear voice channels from the Salem county system or the Ocean county system, but not a peep from a control channel anywhere in the house. So you see my need to improve on the UHF 500. Is the 20-176 the antenna for me?

 

[br0adband]

There are over 300 threads that mention the performance of this one antenna here at RR, just use search and punch in 20-176 as the search term, you'll find them all easily and get a treasure trove of past history and information from a lot of various posts.

 

[fredg]

How is this antenna on the 500 Mhz band? I'm smack-dab between about 5 or 6 500 Mhz systems (some conventional, some trunked, some P-25) where I am just on the cusp of reception, and my own county's conventional PD system is 500. I can get the Burlington systems marginally okay, Gloucester county channels 5-9 come in decent and anything else in that county is weak or nothing. I would Love to pick up Delaware county. I can pick it up a bit near the downstairs kitchen window. Oddly enough, the upstairs window facing the same direction I get nadda. Very frustrating! I would also love to get Bucks county. I receive the control channel, but the P25 voice channels come in broken up to the point of being unintelligible. There are times when I hear voice channels from the Salem county system or the Ocean county system, but not a peep from a control channel anywhere in the house. So you see my need to improve on the UHF 500. Is the 20-176 the antenna for me?

Sounds like you are picking this stuff up with a hand held rubber duck. If that is the case the 20-176 should pull them in. That said, in my case it seems best at VHF high while UHF is OK. This is a good "first" outdoor antenna, easy to put up and not to obtrusive and you get a good bang for your buck.

Remember to not skimp on the cable. Avoid the RG58 stuff Radio Shack sells, LMR400 is best but high dollar. The Phillips Quad Shield RG6U that Wal-mart sells is supposed to be pretty good and is only $20 for 50', I used this with my 20-176 and had good results. Radio Shack sells an adapter to mate the RG6U with the F connector to the SO259 connector on the 20-176.

 

[scannersnstuff]

i too have used several of these.i am very happy with it as a quick up antenna.i used to have it in my attic.don't expect too much in the way of 800 or vhf-lo.it's mainly a solid performer on vhf-hi/uhf.i switched to the bigger,more expensive radio shack antenna.the 20-176 has now been relegated to a sort of home rigged room height antenna.it was connected to my pro-2055 <went dead> doing signal stalker.it did a good job there too.
one thing about radio shack antennas.if you are a clutz,you have to be very carefull assembling them.they are not made out of any type of strong metal.

 

[fuzzymoto]

No 500Mhz stuff in my area to test....but Br0adband is right....there have been tons of threads on the 20-176

 

[blueangel-eric]

i too have used several of these.i am very happy with it as a quick up antenna.i used to have it in my attic.don't expect too much in the way of 800 or vhf-lo.it's mainly a solid performer on vhf-hi/uhf.i switched to the bigger,more expensive radio shack antenna.the 20-176 has now been relegated to a sort of home rigged room height antenna.it was connected to my pro-2055 <went dead> doing signal stalker.it did a good job there too.
one thing about radio shack antennas.if you are a clutz,you have to be very carefull assembling them.they are not made out of any type of strong metal.

mine rusted at the nuts and threaded part after 6 months so i got rid of it. it's chrome plated steel.

Eric Burris