Antenna Placement in ok spot?

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skatertj

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So i have my antenna going through my roof. It is not in the center of the roof, but more towards the rear. Center back of roof would be more like it. I also have a sirius radio mag mount about 5 inchs from the antenna. Im looking to get better reception on 150mhz and am curious if the spot it is at is a bad location...

Any help?
 

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skatertj

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What do you mean by "directionality to the front"? More signals coming from in front of me? Also, im thinking of switching to a larsen triband, would it be ok in that same spot?
 

K9WG

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Yes, it will receive a little better from the front however you would notice it only on weak signals. If you are moving down the road chances you won't notice at all. you really will not gain that much by relocating it.
 

lafd55

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Why no trunk mount? a simple lip mount would have been good. Roof just looks too high and it really wouldn't matter.
 

lafd55

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The car i have is a ex cop car(crown victoria) and it had the hole already on the roof so i just decided to use it.

Is that an earlier '00s car? I still say put in a plug and use a lip mount for the trunk, I just think tall antennas on crown vic roofs are tacky, or if ya just worried about VHF get a lowpro antenna
 

skatertj

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Yep, is a '01 and i love it! Had it for about 3 years now. I wouldnt mind a l bracket trunk mount on the side but i would need a cheap plug and i am abit worried about VHF because around me, some agencies are still using frequencies around 150 mhz...
 

lafd55

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You have paint problems on your car? Earlier years have had paint issues. Whatever you do is fine, just saying my opinion, a nice trunk lip mount or a lowpro vhf. I would go lowpro for my car except I went for NYSP look, lol.
 

skatertj

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Well I love the look of a L bracket in between the trunk and fender but I need to find a cheap plug for the roof hole and what low profile antenna would be any good on vhf? Or maybe a taller multiband maybe i could switch too? I still wouldnt mind the triband oh and my current antenna is a Larsen NMOQB 1/4 "field tunable"
 

lafd55

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either a larsen or a maxrad scanner antenna, I had a Maxrad scanner antenna and it was great. until driving under caution tape ripped it out of my roof, lol. Just start goggling antennas. Pctel, larsen, maxrad, antenna specialists, etc. Oh, by the way I have a Antenna Specialist ASPR7495 for State Police(150Mhz), and a simple quarterwave UHF antenna. Here is a site to get ideas...

http://www.antenna.com/apg_product_lines.cgi?id_num=12
 

skatertj

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I know of some antennas but im really just trying to get more range on VHF. I have a city about 15-20 miles from here and with the current antenna i have, it comes in fuzzy unless i hit my attenuation button then it lessens abit but in certain areas of my town, itll be fuzzy no matter what. My current scanner is a Pro-2055 i bought off of some guy for 30 bucks and said he barely used it. It look brand new and he had everything with it when i bought it and no scratches anywhere. It is also my 3rd scanner but my first running off a nice antenna, even though this antenna doesnt seem very nice. It does well with some frequencies, others it sucks. Inside my house, the stock telescopic gets better reception. So i have been on the hunt to figure out my issue with my scanner in the car. I have it hard wired, coax is ran nicely in the car, paint was sanded down on the inside to get a good contact on the mount, next thing is relocation or antenna....

How well do you receive on your antenna specialist? Did the maxrad get good reception?
 

lafd55

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Scanner antenna worked awsome. My VHF antenna also has never had a problem, I got that antenna because that's the exact antenna the SP uses.
 

lafd55

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yes. Mine was an older model, but same antenna...

0327001258b.jpg
 

skatertj

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Might look into getting this one! I know there is a big argument in the larsen triband versus this, but i think the maxscan looks abit better.
 

kruser

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I know of some antennas but im really just trying to get more range on VHF. I have a city about 15-20 miles from here and with the current antenna i have, it comes in fuzzy unless i hit my attenuation button then it lessens abit but in certain areas of my town, itll be fuzzy no matter what.

If turning the Attenuator ON makes the signal sound clearer, you are most likely experiencing front end overload or desense.
This is a vey common problem with scanners. Some are better at rejecting out of band signals and some suck. I'm not familiar with the 2055 so I can't say how well it rejects out of band signals.
Going from your comment of turning the attenuator on though does indicate an overload or desense problem.
The most common causes are FM radio stations and paging transmitters.
Paging transmitters do turn on and off so you should hear the signal clear up on its own if the paging carrier happens to drop while you are also hearing the distant VHF signal that is weak.
RadioShack sells a cheap FM Trap or FM Filter. It will help a bunch if your problem is from FM radio stations.
You will not hear the radio station but the scanner does. Its front end cannot handle the strong signal from the radio stations so it ends up worsening your VHF reception.
The radio shack FM trap only comes with F connectors so you will need adapters and a short length of coax.
I'd try that as it may very well fix your problems.
I don't know any specific threads here at RR but this has been discussed many times. Try searching for FM Trap or FM Filter and you should find a bunch of info here. Most likely the threads will be in the RadiShack or GRE forums as the GRE made radios are the most prone to this problem.
RadioShack FM Trap : Adapters, splitters and amplifiers | RadioShack.com is the link to the trap at radioshack. If that link does not work, it is stock number 15-024.
If you try this and it works, you may want a much higher quality trap. Par Electronics makes one that has the proper BNC connectors and is much higher quality over the radioshack trap. Par also sells traps for the common paging bands also but you would need to determine if paging is the cause and then what band is the culprit. Around here I must filter both the 152 and 158 paging bands but I do not need an FM trap.
If you are in a fairly large city, it could be fm radio or paging or both. More rural areas I'd think would be from fm radio stations.
162 MHz NOAA WX broadcasts are also a common cause of problems with scanners but the tower would need to be located near you usually for it to be a problem.
Here is the link to PAR, they also have a page there somewhere that explains overload or desense that may help ypou determine if this is your problem. PAR Electronics | Filters for the commercial 2 way market, MATV, FM broadcast, laboratory, marine industry, amateur radio, scanner and short wave listening enthusiasts

A strong FM radio station signal or paging transmitter can completely wipe out the signals you are trying to hear. Sometimes the intended signals sound muddy (same sound as your "fuzzy" term) but still come through and other times you may not hear them at all. Even strong local VHF signals can be totally lost if you are experiencing bad desense.
I guess "desense" would also be a good search word here at RR.

Good Luck!
 
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