Much to my surprise, when I went on the roof my 10+ year old RS discone antenna was missing 3 1/2 radials, and probably has been for years...since I recently upgraded my scanner from a pro2006 to a bcd996xt I thought I'd also upgrade my antenna and cable as well.
I have 75' of LMR400 (to replace 50' of RG8 extended with 25' of rg58) and a new Diamond Discone on the way.
But the thing that puzzles me is that even with a clearly broken antenna, and substandard cable, I seem to pick up loads of signals from pretty far away - sometimes 40-50 miles on some frequencies. Including pretty decent 800Mhz coverage.
Of course, I have nothing to compare it to, but is there any possibility that a discone antenna, broken in the 'right' way, would inadvertently be improving the efficiency of receiving certain frequencies?
I have 75' of LMR400 (to replace 50' of RG8 extended with 25' of rg58) and a new Diamond Discone on the way.
But the thing that puzzles me is that even with a clearly broken antenna, and substandard cable, I seem to pick up loads of signals from pretty far away - sometimes 40-50 miles on some frequencies. Including pretty decent 800Mhz coverage.
Of course, I have nothing to compare it to, but is there any possibility that a discone antenna, broken in the 'right' way, would inadvertently be improving the efficiency of receiving certain frequencies?