3 Antenna's to 1 or 2 Scanners

[LukeB]

Is this possible? If yes, what is the best way to accommodate a set up like this? I may possibly get a few single band antenna's and hook them up to a scanner or two. I am trying to determine if this type of setup would be better then a single band antenna to a single band radio. Any advice?

 

[btritch]

Stickys Are There For A Reason..

Please check out the two stickies at the top of the page regarding this type of situation..This is the first thing that someone would recommend..

 

[LukeB]

I completely overlooked the stickies, my bad.

After reading, it does describe how to do something like this but it doesnt answer the question of using multiple single band antenna's connected to a scanner or two vs using 3 single band antenna's with 3 single band radios and which would yield better results. So any advice?

 

[btritch]

That's ok.. It happens to most of us a time or two.. I just wanted to direct your attention to it before this tread went too far and ended up getting bashed by a bunch of people.. Didn't mean to sound smart..

 

[btritch]

Probably the three single band radios with three single band antenna's.. If you go the other route it's probably not going to work to well.. I don't know how much help you'll get but if you'll do a search on this topic you might find something..But I would think you'd get better results with three single antenna's then one split three ways if it's a single band etc. Now multiple band is a different story, If you go that route then it will still work but probably not near as good as the other way.... Hope this helps.

 

[LukeB]

No you didnt sound smart and I didnt take your comment in a negative way. I appreciate you pointing that out b/c I prob would have still not looked at it...lol I just overlooked it.

I am thinking that the 3 single band antennas > 3 single band radio's would be best but I've heard of a few applications that run several antenna's into 1 or 2 scanners. I was curious to hear some feedback on how it worked. I can use multiband antenna's into 1 or 2 scanners if that works better but I was trying to think of the best case and work my way down.

Thanks for pointing out my oversight and saving me the bashing. Those threads were helpful.

 

[btritch]

anytime.

 

[TheW900Man]

Newbie question

I do have a question along the same lines as this.....If you had say 3 antennas and one scanner couldn't it be possible to use an antenna selector to control which antenna you wanted to receive from? The reason i ask is because i like listing to different freqs but where i live at is kinda in a low area with mountains all around me and i would like to build a outdoor setup to get better reception. I was just wondering if this could work or should i just buy a good discone and let it go at that. Thanks all.

 

[btritch]

well let's see..

Oh lord, First off, The hijack police will be all over this one, I want to prepare you for that..

Second, I don't have any experience with this type of set up as far as that goes, I have however used one antenna and a three way 1000 W selector switch with my CB Antenna and used multiple CB's and it worked fine that way on transmit and recieve so I would assume it would work the same with scanners.. Maybe someone else will chime in here with more experience but if you wanted to use say a scantenna for 150 MHZ range, A yagi for the 800 MHZ range and a low band antenna for the low 40 MHZ range.. Put up all three antennas, hook them into the selector knob switch, Them select the proper antenna for the proper band, I don't know why it wouldn't work that way... I'd go ahead and do it.. It's just recieve only so SWR wouldn't matter and however manyu watts the switch is wouldn't matter, I'd think it should work fine but like I said, This is just my opinion since I have no experience with this type of setup..Hope this helps..

 

[KC0QNB]

Luke if you can afford it and you have three radios use three antennas. I have seen three or more antennas to one radio, or three radios into one antenna, but a three to two might be a bit more complicated. Or just get a good discone antenna and split it into two radios.

 

[LukeB]

Im thinking I am going to go with the 3 radios to 3 antenna's. I have a diamond discone as well as a scantenna and I am still not getting great results. I happen to be in a small valley and what I have currently does okay at best. I went out and purchased good coax as well and I am still not satisfied.

I have yet to try one of those electroline splitters which I may experiment with before going to the above setup but Im thinking a dedicated radio per band to dedicated antenna's may give me the best shot of receiving a decent signal. I don't have the ability to go very high but even if I did, I still don't think that I would get a great signal due to the hills.

Thanks for all of the feedback and no worries about hijacking the thread ;-)

 

[TheW900Man]

Sorry about the hijacking thing....I'm new to this and didn't know about all that. Didn't mean to step on anyones toes....Thanks for letting me know Btritch

 

[zz0468]

I happen to be in a small valley and what I have currently does okay at best. I went out and purchased good coax as well and I am still not satisfied.

You just now stated what the problem really is. If you're in a valley, the surrounding high terrain is going to pretty effectively block RF from getting to you. There's not much you can do to fix that, but if you have a good low noise preamp on a single good antenna, you can make the most out of what little RF is getting to you. But don't expect any miracles. There's a reason radios sites are generally built on mountains, and not in valleys.

I have yet to try one of those electroline splitters which I may experiment with before going to the above setup...

Read the stickys. It won't work. And you'll never have a clue how bad your pattern is based on the signals you don't hear.

... but Im thinking a dedicated radio per band to dedicated antenna's may give me the best shot of receiving a decent signal. I don't have the ability to go very high but even if I did, I still don't think that I would get a great signal due to the hills.

Are you hearing any thing from the systems you want to listen to? It might make even more sense to dedicate a radio and antenna to a system, not a band. For example, if there's an 800 MHz trunked system you are particularly interested in, try a yagi and low noise preamp on a dedicated radio - and that system is ALL that radio listens to.

Being in a valley, you'll probably never get good all around scanner coverage. Sometimes you just have to be content with whatever signals happen to find your antenna.

 

[blueangel-eric]

In ham radio there are diplexers and triplexers for connecting 2 antennas or 3 antennas to a dual band or triband radio. but those are for the ham bands and won't work well outside of those bands from what i understand. surely someone can manufacture a scanner version.

Eric Burris

 

[thewenk]

In ham radio there are diplexers and triplexers for connecting 2 antennas or 3 antennas to a dual band or triband radio. but those are for the ham bands and won't work well outside of those bands from what i understand. surely someone can manufacture a scanner version.

Eric Burris

Custom diplexers/triplexers can be purchased from Tin Lee Electronics at
http://www.tinlee.com/index.php

Their diplexers are use by several members of this forum and there are numerous discussions that can be found with a search.

Dave

 

[blueangel-eric]

Custom diplexers/triplexers can be purchased from Tin Lee Electronics at
http://www.tinlee.com/index.php

Their diplexers are use by several members of this forum and there are numerous discussions that can be found with a search.

Dave

I don't see what their prices are. they must be expensive.

Eric Burris

 

[thewenk]

I don't see what their prices are. they must be expensive.

Eric Burris

I paid about $100 + shipping for mine over a year ago. It is best to call them and talk to them about what you want and their prices. They will send you a specific quote for what you want. Since they are in Canada, the exchange rate can affect the price.

Dave