TV Antenna any good for picking up 150-170 railroad frequencies?

[NWP-SWP]

Hi all I'm new to the world of scanners but anyways, I live about 30-35 miles north of Baton Rouge, I'd like to listen in on the UP on the West Bank, KCS in BR, and CN in BR, I have an old TV antenna in good shape and was wondering if i could use it to pick up the RR frequencies, they're around 160-170.
I have two masts for the antenna I was going to connect together to get more elevation, I figure I can get around 35 ft of mast, I did a google search and pulled up very little, thanks in advance!

 

[KB4MSZ]

Those are mid-band VHF frequencies and a TV antenna should have fairly good coverage of that range. I would assume that most (if not all) of the rail road communications is vertical polarization, so the antenna should be mounted in a vertical orientation, not the traditional horizontal orientation used in TV and FM broadcast. Cross-polarization would greatly reduce the effectiveness of the antenna, especially at those frequencies.

Most TV antennas are of LogP design, and the elements are swept back at an angle. This may require offsetting the antenna a bit from the mast, assuming the mast is conductive, in order for the elements to not make contact with the mast.

Hope this helps

 

[NWP-SWP]

I believe that the antenna looks like this, I'm going to go check in a bit but it's pretty close.

 

[NWP-SWP]

So would I mount it with the cross bars horizontal or vertical?
So like this
_I_I_I_I_
I I I I
Or
__I__
__I__
__I__
__I__
I

 

[KB4MSZ]

Good, the elements are not swept back.
Just rotate it 90 degrees along it's boom so that the elements (I count 18 of them) are vertical, they are horizontal in the picture. The front of the antenna is the end with the smaller elements, point this at the desired signal source. If the sources you mentioned are far enough apart you may have to re-aim the antenna to receive them the best.

 

[NWP-SWP]

Ok I got the mast together, made some guy wires, connected the antenna and I couldn't get it upright, couldn't do it. I'm going to try again tomorrow evening.

 

[N4ANJ]

You will need to drill two new holes on the other side of your square antenna boom, close to where they were on the boom before you started. Same distance apart as they were before. Just flip around the clamps and U bolt. I assume you have round 75 ohm coax preferably RG6. I assume you have a round balun at the antenna before the coax to balance the 300 ohm antenna to 75 ohm coax. The 75 ohm cable is close enough to the 50 ohm input of the scanner to work well. You will probably need a "F"to"bnc" adapter at the scanner or a "bnc" connector on the scanner end of your coax. The front end of your antenna (corner reflector) works great on 450-470 mhz . The parts (elements) from the corner reflector back work 30-50 mhz (low band) and high band 151-174 mhz. The old Bob Grove Scanner Beam was basically a converted tv antenna.

 

[KB4MSZ]

Has this project come along any further? I'm curious how this antenna performs in this situation.

 

[NWP-SWP]

Yeah I haven't gotten any further, the mast is too flexible so I can't get the antenna upright, I'm going to have to change masts or something.

 

[wtp]

just hook it up and see what happens.
there are no rules if you are only receiving, it is what works for you.

 

[krokus]

Yeah I haven't gotten any further, the mast is too flexible so I can't get the antenna upright, I'm going to have to change masts or something.

Is the mast bending when the antenna is attached?

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[KB4MSZ]

Try it with just one or two sections at first. See how it does.

 

[KB4MSZ]

Well?