I am not entirely sure if this question should go here, the Michigan forums or the Antenna forums. If this is the wrong place feel free to move it where it belongs.
Ok, so as most of you know by now I am trying to pick up the next closest trunking tower to me. I can get the local one, but I am trying to pick up a different one a bit farther away. I would say it is about 25 miles from me.
I live in Adrian MI and I am trying to pick up the Michigan Public Safety Communications System. Like I said, I can get the local tower in Adrian easily, but I want to try to pick up another one, like Monroe Simulcast in Monroe County.
I constructed a high gain 850mhz yagi antenna using the calculator from K7MEM's website. 40 inches long, 11 elements and says 12db gain. Basically I took apart an old TV UHF antenna and re purposed the parts. Trimming and placing the elements where the program told me to. It seems to work fine, but I have no testing equipment to really know. But aiming it around at stuff it seems to pick up fine. It has a folded dipole feed element that is supposed to be 300 ohms. I have a 300-75 ohm adapter on it with 25 feet of RG6 cable. The antenna is on a fiberglass pole 15 feet in the air.
I am using the Uniden 325p2 and programmed in the tower sight and associated groups. I am using the built in spectrum analyzer on the 325p2. If I hold on the control channel and aim the antenna the analyzer shows me getting a signal, and fairly strong one. However when I switch it back to scan mode (just scanning that site) I get nothing. If press hold and toggle through the groups and ID's the little antenna bar at the top shows a signal but the screen says "searching for control channel".
I am confused at this point, anyone have any ideas? My guess is that even though I think I am getting a signal my antenna still isn't strong enough to actually "lock on" to anything. But that is just a wild freakin' guess lol. I am beginning to think this is something that will never happen regardless of what I try. Am I correct?
Ok, so as most of you know by now I am trying to pick up the next closest trunking tower to me. I can get the local one, but I am trying to pick up a different one a bit farther away. I would say it is about 25 miles from me.
I live in Adrian MI and I am trying to pick up the Michigan Public Safety Communications System. Like I said, I can get the local tower in Adrian easily, but I want to try to pick up another one, like Monroe Simulcast in Monroe County.
I constructed a high gain 850mhz yagi antenna using the calculator from K7MEM's website. 40 inches long, 11 elements and says 12db gain. Basically I took apart an old TV UHF antenna and re purposed the parts. Trimming and placing the elements where the program told me to. It seems to work fine, but I have no testing equipment to really know. But aiming it around at stuff it seems to pick up fine. It has a folded dipole feed element that is supposed to be 300 ohms. I have a 300-75 ohm adapter on it with 25 feet of RG6 cable. The antenna is on a fiberglass pole 15 feet in the air.
I am using the Uniden 325p2 and programmed in the tower sight and associated groups. I am using the built in spectrum analyzer on the 325p2. If I hold on the control channel and aim the antenna the analyzer shows me getting a signal, and fairly strong one. However when I switch it back to scan mode (just scanning that site) I get nothing. If press hold and toggle through the groups and ID's the little antenna bar at the top shows a signal but the screen says "searching for control channel".
I am confused at this point, anyone have any ideas? My guess is that even though I think I am getting a signal my antenna still isn't strong enough to actually "lock on" to anything. But that is just a wild freakin' guess lol. I am beginning to think this is something that will never happen regardless of what I try. Am I correct?