So I am new to the hobby, having just invested in a beautiful 996P2, I have it programmed with all the available frequencies and have been getting okay results. Local police (NYPD) comes in clear as a bell, as do the MTA bus operators and a few other services. Other than that, it's been pretty hit-or-miss, with the FDNY/EMS being a noticeable blind spot that comes in rather fuzzy or as pure static. Pretty suspiciously absent, given the current COVID-19 crisis gripping the city. So far I have just been using the stock antenna that came with the scanner, indoors at my desk.
I should add that I am probably in the worst possible spot for reception, my apartment is on the ground floor, right in Manhattan, surrounded by rather tall buildings, and the walls here are made of thick sheetrock. I do have access to a backyard area, which is still surrounded by buildings, but I can at least mount an antenna perhaps 14 feet up, on top of the garden wall; surely this is better than the indoor stock setup.
I went ahead and bought a starter discone antenna and a 100 ft RG-8X cable, along with the requisite UHF-BNF connector for the back of the scanner. I am sure there will be some attenuation on a 100 ft line, so maybe I will switch to a 75 or 50 foot, if that proves long enough.
I recently came of with the idea of going to the roof of my building (its a 5 floor walkup) and mounting the antenna up there (there's even a nice tall pole already there, likely from some long-gone TV antenna), then simply running the cable over the edge of the roof and down the back of the building and into my apartment, where it can connect to my scanner. It won't stand out too much as there are a lot of internet/tv cables running along the back of the building. In order to pull this off, however, I would probably need at least 200 ft of cable. I could accomplish this by connecting two 100ft cables together using a female-female UHF connector. I could also invest in a single 200 foot higher quality cable, but this would cost as much as the scanner itself, and I'm hoping to avoid that for now.
My question is this: would this insane cable caper even be worth it, given the levels of attenuation? I have been browsing the forums and I see some comments that signal loss is rather negligible for hobby scanning purposes, while other doomsayers say that attenuation on long-distance cable runs can render rooftop antennas worse than using a stock indoor antenna. Would I be better off sticking to the more conservative plan of putting the antenna in the backyard, slightly elevated but still surrounded by buildings; or should I mount it on my roof, where it would have a pretty clear view on three of four sides? As a hobbyist, what would I be missing out on at those very high frequency ranges? I am interested in listening to anything and everything, but so far NYC is suspiciously quiet.
Thank you for any suggestions, I promise to post pictures if I do go with the roof setup (assuming my building super doesn't confiscate it!)
I should add that I am probably in the worst possible spot for reception, my apartment is on the ground floor, right in Manhattan, surrounded by rather tall buildings, and the walls here are made of thick sheetrock. I do have access to a backyard area, which is still surrounded by buildings, but I can at least mount an antenna perhaps 14 feet up, on top of the garden wall; surely this is better than the indoor stock setup.
I went ahead and bought a starter discone antenna and a 100 ft RG-8X cable, along with the requisite UHF-BNF connector for the back of the scanner. I am sure there will be some attenuation on a 100 ft line, so maybe I will switch to a 75 or 50 foot, if that proves long enough.
I recently came of with the idea of going to the roof of my building (its a 5 floor walkup) and mounting the antenna up there (there's even a nice tall pole already there, likely from some long-gone TV antenna), then simply running the cable over the edge of the roof and down the back of the building and into my apartment, where it can connect to my scanner. It won't stand out too much as there are a lot of internet/tv cables running along the back of the building. In order to pull this off, however, I would probably need at least 200 ft of cable. I could accomplish this by connecting two 100ft cables together using a female-female UHF connector. I could also invest in a single 200 foot higher quality cable, but this would cost as much as the scanner itself, and I'm hoping to avoid that for now.
My question is this: would this insane cable caper even be worth it, given the levels of attenuation? I have been browsing the forums and I see some comments that signal loss is rather negligible for hobby scanning purposes, while other doomsayers say that attenuation on long-distance cable runs can render rooftop antennas worse than using a stock indoor antenna. Would I be better off sticking to the more conservative plan of putting the antenna in the backyard, slightly elevated but still surrounded by buildings; or should I mount it on my roof, where it would have a pretty clear view on three of four sides? As a hobbyist, what would I be missing out on at those very high frequency ranges? I am interested in listening to anything and everything, but so far NYC is suspiciously quiet.
Thank you for any suggestions, I promise to post pictures if I do go with the roof setup (assuming my building super doesn't confiscate it!)
