antenna and coax question

[durango5550]

Well guys im gettin back into the hobby , When uncle Sam gives me my money back im gonna get a 996t i have 200 feet of the RG-8 grey coax from my CB and Ham days tested and still good. Now here is my question is the RG-8 good to use or will there be to much loss? What kind of antenna should I use Mostly 800 digital stuff around here. Im also on top of state route 250 in bridgeport ohio about 1200 feet above sea level with all the cell towers and such around me im kinda worried about interference. Any suggestions would help.

Thanks guys / girls

Dan

 

[ka3jjz]

Re the coax...if we examine

http://hamradio.arc.nasa.gov/coaxcableloss.html

you will see that 8U cable has roughly 6db of loss at 700 mhz, probably a tad higher at 800. Not bad, but you can do better - a good 9913 cable has around 3.5db of loss, which is barely noticeable except on very weak sigs (remember, a 3db loss is the smallest change your ear can detect).

We have numerous scanner antennas listed here...

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Scanner_Antennas

Your elevation is going to work for you here; but the cell towers....well, living in an urban environ, it is possible you will have interference issues - all scanners have it, to one degree or another - but it's much more likely you will probably have some desense problems.
You might be able to alleviate it somewhat if you used a Yagi pointed at one group of towers; otherwise I'd stick with the low-gain - or no gain - designs such as a discone. An amplifier would, of course, only increase the possibility of problems.

73s Mike

 

[durango5550]

thanks for the info greatly appritiated!

73's
Dan