2 Antennas, 1 tree

[KTCS]

Hi,

I currently have a discone and a jpole antenna on tpo of 2 30 ft poles mounted at opposite ends of the house using LMR400
Jpole feeds a BCT15X while the discone feeds a BCD996XT

I want to mount them on a tower or large pine tree
50ft tower or 80ft pine tree top! much difference there?

I am in MN, trying to pickup ARMER and VHF 150-175, near IA border


My questions are this

1)How far apart do they antennas need to be from each other as i've read alot about not placing them close together,,does this still hold true if they are separate feed lines into different scanners

2)for 800 is a discone good enough or should I consider getting something like Antenex FG8246
2)Should I use a separate feed line for each or combine them using a diplexer or combiner
3)For burying cable, should I place it in conduit or just directly bury it, I am going to use LMR400
4) I want to use a mast amp to pull in weak signals,l what wold be a good kind and how much gain would be useful?

Thankyou for any suggestions you can offer

 

[KI4VBR]

#3

You can buy LMR-400 direct burial cable which will allow you to skip the conduit. Life expectancy varies with the quality of cable and soil environment you have at your QTH. I elected to run PVC pipe (sprinkler pipe) for my cables as it is very reasonably priced and not much harder to put in than the 400. You can even buy pre-made 400 lengths with ends on it and still fit inside the PVC piping.

If I am going to invest a lot of money in cable, I sure am going to spend a little more and protect my investment. It may not stop a backhoe from digging up my cable runs, but it will stop a rodent or other accident from happening.

Vince

 

[KTCS]

Vince thankyou very much! as the ground freezes here I wonder what that will do to the cable

 

[kb0nly]

Vince thankyou very much! as the ground freezes here I wonder what that will do to the cable

Not much depending on your depth. Look at CableTV and phone line, around here in MN they don't bury it very deep. My lines here are only a couple feet down at most, the gas line is only down about a foot believe it or not. The coax is flexible enough to deal with any movement, but PVC pipe is cheap. I put all my runs to my two towers into conduit thats just below the surface, didn't need it any deeper than that.

 

[KC4RAF]

+1 with kb0nly.

PVC works great for such a job. At the open ends, if you plug the openings with plumber's putty, you'll keep moisture and insects out too.

 

[jack103]

Nothing keeps moisture out of under ground conduit this is due to condensation!

 

[KTCS]

Does anyone know the distance to mount the 2 antennas apart from each other or does this not apply here

 

[7designs]

Does anyone know the distance to mount the 2 antennas apart from each other or does this not apply here

Usually 1/4 wavelength apart. At 150 mhz that would be 1.64 feet.