Best Antenna
- Thread starter uno
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N_Jay
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uno said:
Antenna choice and location is a topic of much superstition.
I would recommend a good Discone, but others here have other recommendations.
As for height, much depends on what you want to hear, and what you can hear without the external antenna.
IN GENERAL (I know, general rules suck), you want to be above any local obstructions. What defines an obstruction depends on the above questions.
I would get high enough to clear your house and any local buildings.
Trying to clear the trees is probably not worth the expense.
As (or more) important than the antenna is the cable. You want the shortest length of the best cable you can afford.
There is no good way to make up for bad cable.
Pre-amps help, but only if placed before the loss (at the antenna) and they have other issues.
Physical mounting is the same as putting up a TV antenna, so any good hardware store will have most of what you need.
K5MAR
Member
N_Jay's advice is very good, let me just add this. If you are in the middle of the stations you want to receive, and/or all the stations are relatively close, then the discone is a good choice. If the stations are at a distance, you might have to use a directional antenna.
Mark S.
Mark S.
I've got a discone I'm thinking about replacing because the weather is finally starting to get to it....because of a long cable run, it's all but deaf above 400 MHz, so I'm thinking it's pointless to replace it with another discone...any recommendations on an omnidirectional?
N
N_Jay
Guest
Spleen said:
Put the money into better cable.
Thought about it, but after doing the math, the extra decibel (maybe) I get if I replace 75 feet of LMR-400 with something better isn't going to justify the expenditure...
K5MAR
Member
If the coax has been outside for several years, it might be time to replace it anyway. But I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to beat the LMR-400. Most people don't use that good a grade of coax.
Mark S.
Mark S.
N
N_Jay
Guest
How much of that run is vertical? How wel is it supported?Spleen said:
Check for cable streaching in any vertical run over 5 feet between supports.
Check any bends to see if thye are too tight or have been over flexed by movement (wind, etc.)
Get a new connector for the outside end.
Cut the old connector off and check for signs of water getting into the line.
Cut the cable back at least 6 inches, past the old end, and any signes of ANY moisture.
Have fun.
N-Jay's suggestions are good. There's no reason a discone with properly functioning LMR-400 should be deaf above 400. My discone has about a 60 foot run with just RG-6U and does an outstanding job at 400-800. It's actually more deaf at around 150. Sounds like the coax may be the problem more than the discone unless your antenna is falling to pieces.
If you really want to try another antenna, the Scantenna seems to get good reviews for broad coverage. Just make sure you get the newer model that has stonger elements as some of the older models were pretty flimsy.
If you really want to try another antenna, the Scantenna seems to get good reviews for broad coverage. Just make sure you get the newer model that has stonger elements as some of the older models were pretty flimsy.
Spleen said:
I tend to disagree with you. I replaced a 30 foot run of regular RG-8 stuff feeding a discone with LMR-400. The difference was night and day. It's as if I raised it another 20 feet. It was absolutely deaf at 800 when stations were more than 20 miles out. Now I'm picking up stuff from 50 or more miles.
mancow
K5MAR
Member
mancow said:
Read that again. He's already using LMR-400. He's talking about replacing the LMR-400 with something slightly better. Probably a negligable gain.
Mark S.
That's pretty much what I did a couple of years ago, albeit a longer run. I thought maybe it would improve UHF reception, but it didn't have much of an effect. Worked wonders for VHF, though....I'm sitting in downtown Baltimore and I can get ACARS transmissions from flights leaving Newark and JFK...
Reception starts to peter out above 400 MHz, I have to resort to indoor antennas much above that....
mancow said:
Ahhh.... I should learn not to reply to posts in the middle of the night.
I could have sworn he was contemplating upgrading to LMR-400.
Oh well.
mancow
Mine is a Radio Shack.
antenna
the others have given you good advice a discone has no real gain its to bad channel master quit making the 5094a that was a good antenna.
if you do buy another discone try a diamond it will cost a little more but are better built than some of the other brands at 800mhz you need all you can get if it is a discone make sure it has an n connecter and not a so239 i have tried some of the cheaper discones and end up running over the elements with the mower. last but not least are you sure your 2050
is up to par ?
thanks
the others have given you good advice a discone has no real gain its to bad channel master quit making the 5094a that was a good antenna.
if you do buy another discone try a diamond it will cost a little more but are better built than some of the other brands at 800mhz you need all you can get if it is a discone make sure it has an n connecter and not a so239 i have tried some of the cheaper discones and end up running over the elements with the mower. last but not least are you sure your 2050
is up to par ?
thanks
Mine is the regular radioshack model. It has actually held up well, real well. It made it two years and survived a hail storm that the roof didn't.
It really isn't worth a darn for 800 even with the better coax.
mancow
It really isn't worth a darn for 800 even with the better coax.
mancow
Yes, for 800 I run a 7 element beam pointed toward Kansas City. I'm about 50 miles away so KC doesn't come in during the day at all but does on most nights. The beam is in my attic with the rest, about 15 feet above the ground or so. The beam does ok as an 800 antenna for other agencies in the area too that have higher signal levels.
The discone works for the Highway Patrol repeaters in the area but I still only get about 1/2 signal strength on the main repeater in the next county over. I rarely ever get any trunked systems on the discone unless the ducting is really high.
mancow
The discone works for the Highway Patrol repeaters in the area but I still only get about 1/2 signal strength on the main repeater in the next county over. I rarely ever get any trunked systems on the discone unless the ducting is really high.
mancow
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