Ext. Antenna Weather radio ?

[Haley]

I have been digging out all of my older weather radios, and had a quick ext. antenna question. I have an older Midland WR-30 radio with an RCA type plug on the back. Can anyone suggest a good inside antenna that might get me a little more range? I mostly DX weather stations (I know get a REAL hobby)!

This wouldnt be my main radio, I use a Oregon Scientific WR-602 that I love. Also have several scanners, ICOM IC-R2 ,Pro-51, Pro-92B (2 of them), Pro-96, BC246T, and a BC346XT, and several older scanners. Any suggestions? Thanks Mike

 

[kb2vxa]

The best indoor antenna I can think of in this case being the receiver is frequency specific is either the whip that came with it or if it has none a simple 1/4 wave plugged into the RCA jack. You can make one easily enough using an RCA "pin plug" and an 18" piece of solid copper wire soldered into the center pin and bent vertical. You don't need anything fancy since even indoor scanner antennas are made to cover a wide range of frequencies and you only need to cover one. You don't have to worry about signal level either since you'll be listening to a local transmitter, all in all a little bit of wire is "good enough for government work".

 

[Haley]

kb2vxa, Thank you for the reply! I kind of wondered if a simple solution like your suggestion might work. The only indoor antenna I found was basically a VHF/UHF tv antenna with a RCA connector on it (marketed as a weather radio antenna). I will try as you suggested, thanks again, Mike

 

[kb2vxa]

Oh you're quite welcome, I'm the KISS guy. No, I don't paint my face and jump around on stage, I Keep It Simple Stupid. (;->) Keep me posted so if for some reason it doesn't work as well as expected I can tell you how to make a simple dipole antenna that will give you some gain over the whip. BTW, if I don't respond in timely fashion a PM will get my attention thanks to e-mail notification.

 

[k9rzz]

Couple years ago I built a 5 / 5 stack for the weather band (two 5 element beams stacked together). I simply took a 2 meter design and scaled it down for 162mhz. Although I only had it up 20 feet it was KILLER. Super directional as would be expected.

 

[Haley]

kb2vxa, your suggestion is working out quite nice. Getting more signal strength than before on all seven freq. ! Thanks.


k9rzz, I may give your idea a try next. Sounds pretty interesting! Is that a Subaru in your signature?

Thanks again to the both of you for the help, Mike

 

[k9rzz]

Subaru, yup. Whip is on the roof now. I had photos of the antenna stack, if I find 'em I'll post.

 

[Haley]

Thought so, I have had an Outback in the past and loved it. My dad has had 2 now----great cars! Trying to talk my wife in to letting me modify one of our Hondas (an Element, and a CR-V). Mike