Budget splitter setups

[iceman977th]

Looking to see what everyone is running for a budget splitter/preamp setup. I have two public safety feeds, planning on adding a third, as well as an air band feed, all running on a Tram 1410 antenna. One feed is VHF, the other is VHF conventional & 700/800 trunked, and the new one will be VHF conventional & UHF trunked. Right now I'm trying to do a basic BNC split but I feel like there's a lot of loss with the adapters tied together. I'm not wanting to put $1000 into this setup, but I would like to improve performance a little.

Also would not mind a little bit of advice on filters, I tried to move this setup to the radio tower our repeater is at, but it sits under a 100kw FM transmitter, and I feel like that it was wiping reception out entirely without a preselector of some sort.

Mike

 

[737mech]

Try the electroline 8 port it’s a good budget option. There are two versions one has +4db per port to make up for the loss. The other has 0 per port. You’ll need f type or adaptors to bnc. I have used two of these for many years very happy with them.

 

[fasteddy64]

I use this:

Ultra Mini 4

The Ultra Mini 4 distribution amplifier (CM 3414) boosts TV signals, increasing the overall signal strength for distribution throughout the home. Learn more about the Channel Master Ultra Mini 4 distribution amplifier and buy direct from the manufacturer.

www.channelmaster.com

Antenna is a Larsen NMO scanner antenna on a ground plane mount
It feeds my Yaesu FRG-9600, AOR-3000, Uniden 125AT and Uniden SDS-100.
I run RG-6 with type F connectors and adapters.
Works well for my needs

 

[Ubbe]

... but it sits under a 100kw FM transmitter...

I believe that FCC regulation says that the "stray" RF from transmitters has to be at a certain dB below the output power. At 100KW it could still be a huge amount of RF in all sorts of frequency bands that will knock out any scanner that are in close range.

Take a look at the RR thread where we have done tests and compare between different FM trapfilters and select the one that attenuates the broadcast band the most.

You can use a CATV splitter but they are passive and in most cases needs a preamplifier to compensate, if you do not hear all signals really strong and can handle a 10dB attenuation without any problem. For normal conditions a CATV splitter are around $10 and a low noise strong signal handling preamp maybe $25. But having a preamp in a tower with transmitters could need a super strong signal handling preamp, that isn't low noise and costs more than $150.

/Ubbe

 

[scanmanmi]

I really like my tv amp Outdoor HDTV VHF/UHF Antenna Amplifier/Booster-Channel Master CM 7777HD (CM7777HD) . Haven't tried it on a scanner though.

 

[cmjonesinc]

I use this:

Ultra Mini 4

The Ultra Mini 4 distribution amplifier (CM 3414) boosts TV signals, increasing the overall signal strength for distribution throughout the home. Learn more about the Channel Master Ultra Mini 4 distribution amplifier and buy direct from the manufacturer.

www.channelmaster.com

Antenna is a Larsen NMO scanner antenna on a ground plane mount
It feeds my Yaesu FRG-9600, AOR-3000, Uniden 125AT and Uniden SDS-100.
I run RG-6 with type F connectors and adapters.
Works well for my needs

I'm running the exact same splitter and coax but with a Terrawave omni and 2 sdrs and 2 P25RX's. I know it's for tv and 75 ohms, but for just scanning it works great for me. I could probably spend 4 times as much and not get noticeably better coverage.

 

[iceman977th]

I'm running the exact same splitter and coax but with a Terrawave omni and 2 sdrs and 2 P25RX's. I know it's for tv and 75 ohms, but for just scanning it works great for me. I could probably spend 4 times as much and not get noticeably better coverage.

That's not a bad price at all. Wonder if putting 50ohm to 75ohm and vice versa transformers on each line would help at all, or hurt it more. Be interesting to try out.

Mike

 

[prcguy]

I find the matching transformers add more loss. There will be losses mixing 50 and 75 ohm components together and the losses will vary with cable lengths vs frequencies used. Some equipment like police scanners are tolerant of the mismatch and you will just have some loss and other equipment that is sensitive to impedance may be better off with a matching transformer.

That's not a bad price at all. Wonder if putting 50ohm to 75ohm and vice versa transformers on each line would help at all, or hurt it more. Be interesting to try out.

Mike

 

[Ubbe]

That's not a bad price at all. Wonder if putting 50ohm to 75ohm and vice versa transformers on each line would help at all, or hurt it more. Be interesting to try out.

Theoreticly it's a 0,2dB loss at a 50/75 ohm mismatch and a transformer will have more loss than that. MiniCircuits has some 50/75 transformers and the best ones seems to have a 0,4dB loss at $80.

/Ubbe

 

[popnokick]

The Channel Master and Electroline distribution amplifiers mentioned in this thread are NOT passive, unlike a standard non-powered simple cable TV splitter block.

 

[JimD56]

I run 2 Electrolines with good results. This one - Electroline EDA LL 2200 is a 2 Port for my Broadcastify Feed with +11db at each port and this one Electroline EDA 2800 is an 8 Port +4db per port is in my rack. Both were less than $25 each on eBay. They also make a 1 Port which is +15db I have seen those for $10 on eBay.

 

[JimD56]

Additionally, my setup is both VHF/UHF and 700-800mhz trunked as well. In the attic, I have 1 Tram Discone for VHF/UHF and 1 Yagi for 700-800mhz pointed at my closest tower. Both run into my Comet Duplexer with a single 20-foot RG-6 drop into the house into the Electroline 8 port. The last antenna is in the opposite end of the attic is just a UHF 450mhz mobile with a ground plane adapter straight run RG-6 20 foot into the 2 Port Electroline for the Broadcastify feed which sits in the closest on an old Windows 7 PC.

 

[dave3825]

I use a cheap lna and cable tv splitter that feeds 1 scanner and 5 sdr dongles. For my needs it works very good.