Best Base Antenna

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mikesatter

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I am looking for recommendations for the best antenna for railfanning for a base unit. I live approximately 1 miles from the main line of Norfolk Southern and 20 miles from the district office in Greenville, SC and would like to hear more trains than with the standard antenna. Thanks in advance for all advice!

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Eng3ineer

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I use and have had good results using a slim jim made for railband. I got mine here 2 Meter Slim Jim Antenna | KB9VBR J-Pole Antennas

Also to help pick up further out your gonna need to get some height. I got mine rouglhy 30-35 feet in air. With this i'm picking up detectors 18-20 miles out and sometimes up to 30 miles out.

On edit. Three of my online radio feeds are for local Railroads.
 

mikesatter

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I use and have had good results using a slim jim made for railband. I got mine here 2 Meter Slim Jim Antenna | KB9VBR J-Pole Antennas

Also to help pick up further out your gonna need to get some height. I got mine rouglhy 30-35 feet in air. With this i'm picking up detectors 18-20 miles out and sometimes up to 30 miles out.

On edit. Three of my online radio feeds are for local Railroads.

The J-Pole Antenna looks like something I might try. I appreciate all the advice I am receiving, the members here at Radio Reference are the greatest!
 

mikesatter

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Most of the base station antennas I see in use on the Class Is are something similar to this...

Omnidirectional Base Station Antennas | Sti-Co

...but this antenna costs about $700 and is nearly 13' in length. A much more reasonable omni is the TrainTenna by DPD Productions. A good number of the rail streams on Broadcastify, etc. use this antenna.

DPD Productions - TrainTenna Railroad Voice Band and ATCS Antennas for Commercial & Hobbyist Applications

I think I may try the TrainTenna has anyone else used it?
 

n3ouc

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I do not have the TraintTenna, but I do have two other DPD products, the Omni X and the 700mhz antennas and they are excellent, quality products. Very well built and work well. I am sure you wont be disappointed in the TrainTenna if you decide to go that Route.

Mike
 

prcguy

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The OP asked about the "best base antenna", so if the 13ft high Sti-Co is rated at 3dBD gain, how much gain does a 57" high Traintenna have?
prcguy

Most of the base station antennas I see in use on the Class Is are something similar to this...

Omnidirectional Base Station Antennas | Sti-Co

...but this antenna costs about $700 and is nearly 13' in length. A much more reasonable omni is the TrainTenna by DPD Productions. A good number of the rail streams on Broadcastify, etc. use this antenna.

DPD Productions - TrainTenna Railroad Voice Band and ATCS Antennas for Commercial & Hobbyist Applications
 

Eng3ineer

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I think I may try the TrainTenna has anyone else used it?

I had and used one for roughly year or more and it worked very good. Had a storm with high winds come and it blew large branch out of tree and took down my setup. The antenna outside pvc pipe casing was busted up and inside found that it was made with ladder line that was cut making it a slim jim. So before spending the extra money I gave the slim jim in my above post a try and it has worked very well.

It a great antenna and works very well and it's clean looking antenna and i've had great service and use/used other DPD products and they top notch.
 

N1SQB

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Don't leave out 2 meter antennas!

In the past, I was REALLY heavy into railroad monitoring. I still listen but to a wider range of other things. Anywho, I always had really good signal strength and audio from using a good Diamond brand 2 meter antenna. Forget what model it was but it worked and worked well.I'm not advocating for diamond brand, just stating what I used! Like everything else, good height, good clearance, short as possible length of low loss cable, should do the trick!


Manny
 
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wwhitby

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I bought a Workman BS-150 a couple of months ago, but I haven't put it up yet. It will tune from 136-174 Mhz with 5Mhz bandwidth and eham.net gives it 4.8 out of 5 stars.

I'm planning on putting it up in a couple of weeks. If anyone is interested, I can let you know how it works out.
 

dsalomon

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Have you tried a good Discone? Depending on what you're willing to spend and what you want to get from it, you can get a cheap discone, like this one (Vertical antenna, 10m-23cm discone, UHF) and it will do a decent enough job. Some of the higher end discones will produce better results, but will cost more. Take a lok at the wideband antenna section on ScannerMaster's site (Rooftop Wide-Band Antennas for Police Scanner Radios | ScannerMaster.com). They have a good selection (but they're usually not the cheapest - find what you like then shop around, you'll probably find it cheaper elsewhere). The DIamond D130NJ has been a favorite for many scanner users because of it's wide frequency coverage and pretty solid construction. I've had this particular model for many years. It wasn't until recently that I upgraded to a discone with better frequency coverage since I had a SDR with higher frequency coverage. I now use this one: DA3200 Wideband Discone Base Antenna. It's more expensive ($229.95 at ScannerMaster), but it's worth it. It actually DOES receive well up into those higher ranges.

One point to consider before making a purchasing decision. While you might be looking for an antenna today with a very narrow range for a specific application (i.e.
railfanning), you'll spend less in the long run if you're the kind of guy whose scanning habits change over time (and, thus, your frequency coverage needs). Buying an antenna that covers a very narrow range, like those from StiCo (posted by Eng3ineer) might be fantastic for railfanning, but ONLY for that frequency range.

Best - David
 

ButchGone

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I'll second the discone, works very well for VHF stuff.
Also, the $25 ground plane available at radio shack is great for 160-162 MHz frequencies. It's a 1/4 wave ground plane perfect for monitoring VHF and UHF.
BG..
 

dsalomon

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P.S. - one area I forgot to comment on - consider your coax choices as carefully as you do your antenna choice. At higher frequencies, coax has higher loss. As you move to higher ranges, you'll definitely want better coax and better connectors for lower loss. I use LMR-400 for my connection to my DA3200 discone. I also use "N" connectors at each end and a converter to BNC right at the entrance to the shack (I have one of those window panels where all my coax comes into the house). A great antenna with crappy coax will provide crappy results. You can lose a LOT of your signal in the coax run, particularly if you have a long coax run like I do (150', because my discone is hanging in a very high tree). Here's a great page with cable loss charts: http://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html. Look at the 2nd chart, specifically at the 150MHz and 220MHz lines and compare RG-58/U to LMR-400. That's a LOT of signal to lose between the antenna and your scanner. When I can afford it, I plan to upgrade from LMR-400 to LMR-600 for my discone for even less loss (at 150', it matters). Be careful of what connectors you choose for your coax run. Again, it depends on what the highest frequency is that you plan to monitor. UHF connectors (PL-259) are very poor above 300MHz (look at this chart: Frequency Range Chart for RF Connectors | Amphenol RF). BNC and N connectors are both good choices. If you go for higher end coax (e.g. LMR-400), you'll want N connectors on each end with a N to BNC converter at the radio (I am assuming your radio has a BNC connector).

Best (again) - David
 

cbehr91

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P.S. - one area I forgot to comment on - consider your coax choices as carefully as you do your antenna choice. At higher frequencies, coax has higher loss. As you move to higher ranges, you'll definitely want better coax and better connectors for lower loss. I use LMR-400 for my connection to my DA3200 discone. I also use "N" connectors at each end and a converter to BNC right at the entrance to the shack (I have one of those window panels where all my coax comes into the house). A great antenna with crappy coax will provide crappy results. You can lose a LOT of your signal in the coax run, particularly if you have a long coax run like I do (150', because my discone is hanging in a very high tree). Here's a great page with cable loss charts: http://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html. Look at the 2nd chart, specifically at the 150MHz and 220MHz lines and compare RG-58/U to LMR-400. That's a LOT of signal to lose between the antenna and your scanner. When I can afford it, I plan to upgrade from LMR-400 to LMR-600 for my discone for even less loss (at 150', it matters). Be careful of what connectors you choose for your coax run. Again, it depends on what the highest frequency is that you plan to monitor. UHF connectors (PL-259) are very poor above 300MHz (look at this chart: Frequency Range Chart for RF Connectors | Amphenol RF). BNC and N connectors are both good choices. If you go for higher end coax (e.g. LMR-400), you'll want N connectors on each end with a N to BNC converter at the radio (I am assuming your radio has a BNC connector).

Best (again) - David

A lot of that information is erroneous for this scenario (but certainly not band advice for more broadband applications). Railroad voice communication is solely in the 160-161 mHz range. Locomotive antenna farms typically use LMR-400UF. The crossing and defect detector feedlines I've seen are LMR-200. Unless your run is really long (hundreds of feet) anything more than LMR-400 would be complete overkill for railroad monitoring.

You could also consider this ready-made railroad J-pole. http://www.jpole-antenna.com/shop/railroad-band-noaa-weather-160-162-mhz-j-pole-antenna/
 
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dsalomon

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cbehr91 -

None of the information is erroneous. In the original post, Mikesatter asked for information on how to "hear more trains". Unless he can move himself closer to the source, then getting more signal comes down to either a better antenna, a better antenna location (e.g. higher), better coax, or better coax connectors, all 3 of which are areas in ANY application where improvements are possible until the end user has the best solutions available. He didn't say what kind of coax he is using, nor what type of antenna, nor what type of coax or coax connectors. Therefore, I gave him advice that would be applicable to any situation where an end user is looking for improvement. Note also that he did not indicate if he used his monitoring station for other types of listening. Better, higher antennas using less lossy coax runs (i.e. lower loss coax and.or lower loss coax connectors) usually results in better results You want the most signal possible reaching your receiver. You can always filter out crap once it reaches your receiver. There's nothing you can do with a signal that doesn't make it into your radio. :).

73 - David, AG4F
 

P25Radio

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Shakespeare 476 21 ft VHF Antenna with 1/2 super flex heliax. I have one at the house 40ft up in the air works great I hear trains in Cajon Pass 100 miles away. I also use one for my repeater at home it kicks *** with 10db. Or a super station master they are great too.
 

prcguy

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I found the big Shakespeare antennas to be fairly narrow band, OK up through the RR freqs but not so good on 2m amateur if that's where your repeater is. They are also a little more than 5dB gain for the 21ft version, not 10dB as Shakespeare claims.
prcguy


Shakespeare 476 21 ft VHF Antenna with 1/2 super flex heliax. I have one at the house 40ft up in the air works great I hear trains in Cajon Pass 100 miles away. I also use one for my repeater at home it kicks *** with 10db. Or a super station master they are great too.
 
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