For mostly VHF High, I have been considering a REMTRONICS or a DIAMOND replacement antenna. Any thoughts, on which one of these might perform the best? Thanks! REM-842S SMA REMTRONIX PORTABLE TRIBAND ANTENNA RH77CA - Diamond Antenna
SDS150: Antenna for SDS150.
- Thread starter crippledchicken
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I have had good luck with my Remtronix
I have both of those. The 842S would be better (on Vhf) than one of the antennas focused on 700/800MHz systems, such as the 820S, though you'd degrade 700/800MHz reception somewhat. But the RH77CA would be the better choice if you need better Vhf, and also Uhf. I use the RH77CA on one of my 436HPs. While not as good as the 700/800MHz specific antennas on those bands, I can still receive the systems of interest. The RH771 is essentially the "Japanese" version of the RH77CA. I have one of those as well. There's a slight difference in length. I don't see a noticeable difference in performance between the two versions. As virtually all cities in this area have switched to 700/800MHz trunked systems, I only use the 842S when visiting a friend in a rural county about 100 miles west. Just about agency in that area use Vhf. There is one 700KHz system in range of where I am down there, close enough that I have no problem hearing it.
My City Police are all of the 800-900mhz NXDN I listen too. I have to use an outside high gain Yagi since I live in a valley. Everything else, is between 154-174mhz. It comes in pretty well even on the 800-900mhz Yagi. That was quite a surprise after erecting the antenna.
I'm also looking to get a better antenna for my SDS100. Diamond's website has the SRH77CA which looks like same antenna but with an SMA male connector.
Does anyone know if this will fit "snug" on the SDS100 ?
I suspect that while it says its “SMA”, it probably will not be slim enough at the bottom to seat correctly on either the SDS150 or SDS100. The picture on Diamond’s page looks like the bottom is too thick to seat correctly and maintain the ‘water resistance’ of those two models. It likely would work fine on the 436HP and the older DMA scanners that use SMA antennas, such as the 396T& 396XT.
On another older thread, a guy said the center pin wouldn't quite reach the socket. One guy said he took a dremel to the shoulder of the SMA fitting. Said shoulder was stopping the center pin from reaching. I'll go with the BNC connector. Using a dremel, not me! 😆
LOL, I ordered a new Diamond SRH77CA and it came yesterday, and about 2 hours before it showed up, I found my old one, bought a couple of years ago, in a box of stuff. I'm going to keep the new one as a spare, but both of them are getting modded, as they don't do anything on an SDS100 or SDS150 without getting ground down a little. If I would have found my old BNC version, I probably would never have bought the SMA one as it would have worked OK with the adaptor. About a 16th of an inch aught to do it. I don't remember what radio it was, but I had to grind on the bottom of the BNC on a couple of antennas to even come close to getting them on. There's tight, and there is crazy tight.
Crazy tight can be most desirable depending, on what you are doing LOL!
The 842S is an improvement over stock but my VHF results have been mixed, although admittedly I'm asking it to do a lot of fringe listening.
Anything, IMO, is an improvement over the stock antenna.
The SRH77CA was ground down so it would fit. On 700-800MHZ, it is inferior to the Remtronix 920S, and about the same as the stock antenna, about 5-7 down compared to the 920S. Of course it is much better on VHF and AIR then the stock antenna or the 920S. The 920S is the clear winner for my general use, balancing size versus performance. I have a bunch of BNC rubber ducks going back to the old Bearcat 200/205 XLT days, once I find them, and I'm sure there will be some really bad 800MHZ performers in that bunch. I have one of those "tape measure" folding antennas someplace that seemed to work well on 7-900 MHZ. I need to find it and see what kind of numbers I get with it. I wonder what that little 800MHZ ground plane antenna I have someplace will do?
i700plus
Member
I tried maybe 3-4 antennas on my SDS150 and the best performer for me personally out of all is the Comet SMA-W100RX2 (or SMA-W100RX) . I consistently get 10 DBm better signal with less noise than my Remtronix 820s and the stock antenna on 770mhz P25 it also pulls 2m/40cm ham bands when fully collapsed better than my RH77CA!
I was shocked as on my SDS100 the best performer was my 820s but the comet a clear winner on my SDS150 for general scanning with mostly P25 700mhz.
I was shocked as on my SDS100 the best performer was my 820s but the comet a clear winner on my SDS150 for general scanning with mostly P25 700mhz.
Thanks for posting that info. Of the various antennas I have, the best performer is the 920S for 800 MHz trunking. I’ve also got a 1.5” antenna which is more convenient for portable use, however the performance off a bit on that. I’ll check out the Comet.
I have the 842S and feel that the stock antenna is better.
I also have the RH77CA. For VHF Hi, if you don't mind the length, my money is on the Diamond antenna. It also doesn't seem to make the radio top heavy.
Similar results for me. I have the 920S and barely notice any difference over the stock antenna. On some systems I actually get better results with the stock antenna.
I tried the 920S but found that on 700/800MHz systems I get higher RSSI values with the stock antenna.
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Personally, I use a Comet HT-224, while it's not as good as a Diamond RH77CA, I prefer it because it's shorter (11.25" vs 15"+ the length of SMA/BNC adapter) and it's slim enough to fit in the SDS150 socket.
