Antennas Compared:
I now have several scanner antennas in the attic:
At first glance I did not notice any improvement with the Omni-X over my previous antennas (ST-2's with the original baluns connected to 50-foot RG6QS coax), in fact it might have been slightly worse.
Using a couple always-on data, NOAA, ATIS and AWOS stations and a couple regional trunking system control channels as beacons I compared each for indicated signal strength and apparent quality with an R8500. With what I have it is a pretty decent comparison of the antennas with each other.
My results show that the ST-2 and the SkyBand performed the best overall of the batch, with the D130NJ and the Omni-X performing worse. The SkyBand and ST-2 perform better than I was getting with my old antenna setup, the D130NJ and Omni-X slightly worse.
A good chunk of this can be attributed to location within the attic I think. There are quite a bit of AC ducting there as well as the airhandler/furnace itself. The ST-2 is in the same location as it was, just to the side of the airhandler and at about a 45 degree angle due to the slope of the roof. The D130 and SkyBand discones are in the clear to the side of the airhandler and the Omni-X is along the outside wall at the far end of the attic, in what I thought should be the best place.
I want to give them all a fair shake however so after a week or so of trial I will go up and reposition the antennas and swap some coaxes around to see if that changes things. I wonder too if the potential directionality of the Moni-X has anything to do with it, I might first just go up and try repositioning it so it faces a different direction.
As for the other antennas I have a couple ham dual banders and a UHF GMRS antenna. For grins and giggles I plan on trying them out when I get around to a more detailed analysis of the group. I suspect they would work pretty well on UHF and VHF stuff but poorly on 800.
I now have several scanner antennas in the attic:
- Omni-X
- ST-2 with new Channel Master Balun
- New Diamond D130NJ
- SkyBand Discone
At first glance I did not notice any improvement with the Omni-X over my previous antennas (ST-2's with the original baluns connected to 50-foot RG6QS coax), in fact it might have been slightly worse.
Using a couple always-on data, NOAA, ATIS and AWOS stations and a couple regional trunking system control channels as beacons I compared each for indicated signal strength and apparent quality with an R8500. With what I have it is a pretty decent comparison of the antennas with each other.
My results show that the ST-2 and the SkyBand performed the best overall of the batch, with the D130NJ and the Omni-X performing worse. The SkyBand and ST-2 perform better than I was getting with my old antenna setup, the D130NJ and Omni-X slightly worse.
A good chunk of this can be attributed to location within the attic I think. There are quite a bit of AC ducting there as well as the airhandler/furnace itself. The ST-2 is in the same location as it was, just to the side of the airhandler and at about a 45 degree angle due to the slope of the roof. The D130 and SkyBand discones are in the clear to the side of the airhandler and the Omni-X is along the outside wall at the far end of the attic, in what I thought should be the best place.
I want to give them all a fair shake however so after a week or so of trial I will go up and reposition the antennas and swap some coaxes around to see if that changes things. I wonder too if the potential directionality of the Moni-X has anything to do with it, I might first just go up and try repositioning it so it faces a different direction.
As for the other antennas I have a couple ham dual banders and a UHF GMRS antenna. For grins and giggles I plan on trying them out when I get around to a more detailed analysis of the group. I suspect they would work pretty well on UHF and VHF stuff but poorly on 800.