COMBINING ANTENNAS

[doctordave]

Folks,

I have two scanners (for monitoring use in low band through VHF Hi), as well as a dedicated low-band antenna and a dedicated high-band antenna. If I use a 4-way TV splitter (generic Radio Shack version) - can I connect the two antennas & 2 scanners together without much concern for loss of range on those freqs or concern for the radios interfering w/ one another?

Thanks much.


Dave

 

[N_Jay]

Folks,

I have two scanners (for monitoring use in low band through VHF Hi), as well as a dedicated low-band antenna and a dedicated high-band antenna. If I use a 4-way TV splitter (generic Radio Shack version) - can I connect the two antennas & 2 scanners together without much concern for loss of range on those freqs or concern for the radios interfering w/ one another?

Thanks much.


Dave

Glad you are not concerned as you are loosing at least 6 dB, and probably much more.

 

[scannerfreak]

Folks,

I have two scanners (for monitoring use in low band through VHF Hi), as well as a dedicated low-band antenna and a dedicated high-band antenna. If I use a 4-way TV splitter (generic Radio Shack version) - can I connect the two antennas & 2 scanners together without much concern for loss of range on those freqs or concern for the radios interfering w/ one another?

Thanks much.


Dave

Glad you are not concerned as you are loosing at least 6 dB, and probably much more.

Lossage on a cable TV 4-way splitter is 7 dB on all 4 legs. Not including your cable loss. Tell me how much cable and what type and I'll give you the lossage.

Keep in mind that a 3dB loss represents 1/2 the original signal strength (50% transmission) while a 6dB loss represents 1/4 the original signal (25% transmission).

 

[loumaag]

Lossage on a cable TV 4-way splitter is 7 dB on all 4 legs. ...

Not to mention that some Cable splitters are designed to attunuate the lower frequecncies so that it may just cut your low band vhf off completely.

 

[N_Jay]

Lossage on a cable TV 4-way splitter is 7 dB on all 4 legs. ...

Not to mention that some Cable splitters are designed to attunuate the lower frequecncies so that it may just cut your low band vhf off completely.

They are also not always even from port to port.

From one output port to another output can be twice the specification loss.

 

[scannerfreak]

Lossage on a cable TV 4-way splitter is 7 dB on all 4 legs. ...

Not to mention that some Cable splitters are designed to attunuate the lower frequecncies so that it may just cut your low band vhf off completely.

They are also not always even from port to port.

From one output port to another output can be twice the specification loss.

most common cable tv splitters:

2-way- 3.5 down each leg

3-way- 1- 3.5 down (low loss leg) other 2 legs 7 down

4-way- 7 down on every leg

8-way- 11 down on every leg

16-way- 15 down on every leg

I have seen some 5-ways, but not to sure on their loss as we don't use them and I haven't seen to many cable companies that do.

Some splitters do have high passed legs which is used to block the reverse path and prevent noise from returning into the cable system. This is usually 30-50 MHz.

 

[doctordave]

As I suspected...think I'll play it safe and stick w/ "clean & straight" paths from scanner to antenna.

Thanks for all the responses!


Dave