I'm trying to listen to this system from across the mountain in Augusta County. The signal was marginal so I purchased an 800MHz directional antenna which has greatly improved reception, but it still drops out on occasion. I think the signal is strong enough now, so I'm wondering if there are any settings I can change in the 996T to help. The 996T is new and I'm not familiar with many of it's settings. RadioReference lists the system as a Motorola Type II Smartnet Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface. Thanks for any help.
Charlottesville/Albemarle on a BCD996T
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gcgrotz
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Find Buck's Elbow Mtn on a map, north of Afton along the Parkway in NW Albemarle and point your yagi at that. Where in Augusta are you? I can hear it very well around Waynesboro in the vehicle.
tglendye
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
gcgrotz,
What type of antenna do you have? I've been thinking about the Austin Spectra. I can p/u Charlottesville pretty well with an 800 antenna on my psr500 from my house, outside of Bridgewater. I have almost nil on this side of the mountain in a vehicle. I don't have a real good antenna for 800, but I haven't been to Waynesboro recently and tried it.
What type of antenna do you have? I've been thinking about the Austin Spectra. I can p/u Charlottesville pretty well with an 800 antenna on my psr500 from my house, outside of Bridgewater. I have almost nil on this side of the mountain in a vehicle. I don't have a real good antenna for 800, but I haven't been to Waynesboro recently and tried it.
gcgrotz
Member
Hey Glen:
Well, I mostly use a magmount Ham 144/432 antenna, I think it is a Comet, it looks like a cellular antenna. I've tried to cut back my vehicle antennas and use only the 2 magmounts, one stays connected all the time to the FT-100 ham rig, the other floats between scanners and Ham HT duties. Never saw much difference at 800 in most antennas since it is such a defined line-of-sight band. Either you get it or you don't.
If I was going for the ultimate 800 mobile antenna, I'd go with a commercial roof mount antenna from antennex or some other well known name. Most of them will do a fair job at VHF too.
I seldom go beyond Waynesboro, which has a direct look at Buck's Elbow, so I don't know about the rest of the valley. Might be over there some this weekend for work, I'll give it a try with my newly updated '396. The jury is still out on that!
Well, I mostly use a magmount Ham 144/432 antenna, I think it is a Comet, it looks like a cellular antenna. I've tried to cut back my vehicle antennas and use only the 2 magmounts, one stays connected all the time to the FT-100 ham rig, the other floats between scanners and Ham HT duties. Never saw much difference at 800 in most antennas since it is such a defined line-of-sight band. Either you get it or you don't.
If I was going for the ultimate 800 mobile antenna, I'd go with a commercial roof mount antenna from antennex or some other well known name. Most of them will do a fair job at VHF too.
I seldom go beyond Waynesboro, which has a direct look at Buck's Elbow, so I don't know about the rest of the valley. Might be over there some this weekend for work, I'll give it a try with my newly updated '396. The jury is still out on that!
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